The full title of the 2006 independent film commonly called Quinceañera is Quinceañera.
The film uses the Spanish name of the coming-of-age celebration as its title. It follows Magdalena as her family prepares for her fifteenth-birthday event, while the story also develops related conflicts involving faith, sexuality, pregnancy, and family acceptance.
Quinceañera was written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the Dramatic Audience Award. Those honors helped the film attract attention beyond its culturally specific subject.
The title can cause confusion because quinceañera may refer either to the celebration or, in common usage, to the girl being honored. In the film’s title, it identifies the cultural event that frames the story rather than naming a character.