Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American comedy-drama directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The film follows the dysfunctional Hoover family as they pile into a yellow Volkswagen van and drive from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach, California so seven-year-old Olive, played by Abigail Breslin, can compete in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. The family includes Greg Kinnear as a failing motivational speaker obsessed with winning, Toni Collette as the overworked mother, Steve Carell as a suicidal Proust scholar, Paul Dano as a teenager who has taken a vow of silence, and Alan Arkin as a heroin-snorting, foul-mouthed grandfather who coaches Olive's pageant routine.

Little Miss Sunshine was a breakout hit of the American independent film scene, earning $100 million worldwide on a $8 million budget after premiering at Sundance. Alan Arkin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Abigail Breslin received a nomination at just 10 years old. The film's climactic scene, in which Olive's pageant routine — a raunchy striptease taught by her grandfather — horrifies the audience but causes her family to rush the stage and dance with her in a moment of defiant solidarity, was one of the most joyously cathartic finales in modern comedy.