The 2006 film about a Mexican American teenager is Quinceañera.
Written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, the film follows Magdalena, a teenager in Los Angeles whose planned quinceañera becomes entangled with family conflict, pregnancy, and questions of identity. Emily Rios plays Magdalena.
Quinceañera premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the Dramatic Competition. Those awards helped bring the independent film wider attention.
The film uses the celebration as more than a colorful backdrop. Its quinceañera preparations reveal expectations about family, sexuality, religion, respectability, and belonging in a Mexican American community. The movie should not be confused with the general name of the birthday tradition; its title is also the title of the film.