Coming out of the Eccles Theater on January 20, 2006, there was a buzz of jubilant euphoria and palpable excitement as Little Miss Sunshine made its big-screen debut. Despite the wintry cold weather and thin air of Park City, the film brought the house down with its infectious mixture of bittersweet emotion and uproarious comedy about an unhappy family embarking on a hilarious road trip to a child’s beauty pageant. All 1,200 occupants shared the cathartic realization that they had seen not just the best film of the festival, but one that could be the indie breakout hit into the mainstream.
Yet no one could’ve anticipated the enduring legacy this gem of a film would have 20 years later, as festival-goers could now line up to take their picture inside a replica of the rinky-dink yellow Volkswagen. “We didn’t know that 20 years later, there’d be a replica of the ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ bus,” producer David T. Friendly expressed at the anniversary screening.
Yet it wasn’t just audiences who were ecstatic. Indie distributors and labels, such as Searchlight (then Fox Searchlight), were frothing at the mouth in hopes of acquiring what could be the kind of smart, funny indie drama that could be a mainstream hit. Sundance has never been a stranger to splashy acquisition deals; the recent news of A24’s deal for Olivia Wilde’s The Invite beckons to the days of Miramax spending $10 million on Happy, Texas (1999) or Paramount Classics shelling out $9 million for Hustle & Flow (2005).
After an intense bidding war, Searchlight won with a record-setting $10.5 million, plus a provision for the producers to take as much as 10% of the film’s gross. For debut filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, not only would this premiere change the course of their lives, but the lives of everyone in their cast and crew.
20 years later, Little Miss Sunshine would gross over a hundred million dollars, and become a major awards juggernaut, nabbing wins at SAG for Best Ensemble, PGA for Best Theatrical Picture, and receiving four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Abigail Breslin would become one of the youngest child actor nominees at 10 for Best Supporting Actress, and beloved character actor Alan Arkin would win for Best Supporting Actor. There’s no doubt it was the runner-up to winning Best Picture, losing to Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. Talk about an incredible journey for a film that at one point was left in production limbo in the making.
First-time screenwriter Michael Arndt, who started as an assistant to Matthew Broderick, could not have imagined the unbridled success his efforts would produce after years of setbacks, creative disagreements, and pre-production hell that left the script in limbo at Focus Features. (Arndt would go on to win the Oscar for Original Screenplay.) It was producer Marc Turtletaub, who initially purchased it in 2001, rescuing it from Focus who delayed the project for two years. He then self-financed the film.
Little Miss Sunshine feels like the intersection of mainstream success and independent sensibilities, coupled with the new wave of generational talent of the 2000s that would go on to dominate Hollywood for decades. Arndt has gone on to be a script doctor for some of Hollywood’s biggest films; his script for Toy Story 3 (2010) would earn him a second Oscar nomination. Breslin was already a working actress before Little Miss Sunshine, having a supporting role in M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs (2002), yet the success she experienced catapulted her to new heights of stardom, as Breslin stated, “It opened so many doors for me and gave me so many opportunities and is the reason why I’m where I’m at today.”
For the character of Frank, a suicidal gay Proust scholar, Focus pursued Bill Murray for the role, yet failed to secure him. At the time of production in June 2005, Steve Carell was known for his supporting performance in Anchorman (2004) and the U.S. remake of The Office (2005-2013), as the first season premiered in March of that year. By the time Carell attended the Sundance premiere, he was a national star due to the popular success of The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). Sunshine revealed a new dimension of the comedic star: a depressive outsider to the family dynamics, often serving as the measured voice of reason. Carell has enjoyed immense fame as a global, in-demand actor.
Paul Dano, who was 16 at the time, gained tremendous success as the cynical, non-verbal brother, Dwayne. Dano would continue his momentum in the following year by acting opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood (2007), working with directors such as Steven Spielberg, Steve McQueen, and Denis Villeneuve, and starring as The Riddler in The Batman (2022). Recently, Dano has earned support and love amid Quentin Tarantino’s denigrating comments toward the actor’s performances, as celebrities rallied behind him. Even audiences during the 20th Anniversary screening at Sundance couldn’t contain their love. “We love you, Paul,” fans shouted from the audience. Co-star Toni Collette told Variety, “ Fuck that guy [Tarantino]. Who does that?” The sky is still the limit for Dano; his performances have solidified him as one of our best working actors.
Even Arkin couldn’t have foreseen the impact of winning an Oscar at his stage in life, at the age of 72. With his prior nomination 35 years before for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968), there was perhaps an acceptance that would be his last chance. Despite being originally rejected for the role of the unfiltered, foul-mouthed Grandpa for being too “virile.” Arkin got the role and enjoyed a new career bump, appearing in mainstream films and earning his fourth Oscar nomination for Argo (2012). Arkin died on June 29, 2023, at the age of 89.
It’s hard to quantify the general impact Little Miss Sunshine has had on culture. It’s the indie darling that broke out at a time when studios were slowly becoming risk-averse and demonstrated audiences’ hunger for authentic storytelling. It was the first film to use Sufjan Stevens’ famous song, “Chicago.” It charted Searchlight’s path as the gold standard of arthouse awards fare, with the film’s success serving as the template for the next 20 years of awards contenders, which have netted numerous Oscar statues.
Perhaps the best outcome is that the film is an emotionally powerful narrative that cuts through the binary lens through which success and fame are viewed. Its characters are imperfect and flawed — It uses the conventions of road trip and dysfunctional family films to convey an authentic, heartbreaking, hilarious narrative. Even today, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t shed a tear at Dwayne’s breakdown to his realization he’s color blind.
It’s a reminder that despite Arndt, Dayton, Faris, and Turtletaub encountering obstacles and hurdles that would stop any film in its tracks during the pre-production process, sometimes the quality of a film is undeniable. It’s part of the ethos of the Sundance Institute, where films made outside the studio system connect with an audience, making it hard not to share with the world.
The premieres, expensive acquisitions, reactions, and enthusiasm validate the essence of the Sundance Film Festival and its elevation of independent filmmaking. It’s the same determined, vigorous spirit its founder, Robert Redford, championed. “I’ve always believed in [independence]. That’s what led me eventually to want to create a category that supported independent artists who weren’t given a chance to be heard.”
Article Courtesy of Amritpal Rai
Feature Image Credit to Searchlight Pictures