The Mexican-American coming-of-age film Quinceañera won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
Directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, the film follows Magdalena, a teenager in Los Angeles whose family and community respond to her pregnancy shortly before her planned quinceañera. The story uses the celebration as a setting for questions about family, sexuality, religion, and belonging.
The film premiered at Sundance in 2006 and received two major festival honors there. It is separate from the real-life quinceañera tradition, although its title refers to that tradition. The film’s subject matter is more dramatic and socially focused than the entertainment-centered description often associated with a party.