Believe it or not, Little Miss Sunshine premiered 20 years ago. To celebrate the occasion, cast members Toni Collete, Paul Dano, Greg Kinnear and Abigail Breslin, as well as directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, made a surprise appearance at an anniversary screening at the Eccles Theater on Jan. 28, 2026. Members of the production team were also in attendance. Following the 90-minute screening, the audience gave a standing ovation. Then, Sundance Film Festival Director Eugene Hernandez welcomed the cast and crew to the stage.
From the left corner of the theater, two women yelled “We love you, Paul!” Dano mouthed a small “thank you” before sitting down for a panel, during which Dayton said, “to have [the cast] together after all this time is a miracle.” He then thanked the audience, saying anniversary screenings like this don’t “normally happen.” Then, he noted that much of the audience were first-time viewers.
When actress Toni Collete, who played mom Sheryl Hoover, asked “Whatdya think?”, she was answered by thunderous applause.
As she spoke about her viewing experience, Colette said, “Everything was just more,” adding, “It was just more moving, more joyous. I noticed things I didn’t notice 20 years ago.” She said the 20 years since the film’s debut have allowed time for her to develop a “completely different perspective.”
Little Miss Sunshine Cast, Crew Reflect on Behind-the-Scenes Experience
Upon finalizing the script, Faris said, they had a weeklong rehearsal, a rare occurrence in the film industry. “I just remember working with all of them and thinking ‘oh my god, everybody knows their character so well…We did a table reading, and I remember us saying ‘Okay, it’s gonna work.”
Screenwriter Michael Arndt said he was unemployed at the beginning of the writing process. “I didn’t have a manager. I didn’t have an agent, I didn’t have a producer. Nobody cared that I was writing the script…nobody could have cared less.” Every studio he’d pitched it to passed up the film. He called writing the script a “leap of faith.”
“It’s rare that everything comes together kind of perfectly,” producer David T. Friendly said. “Tonight is just kind of unbelievably great,” he later added.
Cast and Crew Remember Standout Moments
Some of Little Miss Sunshine’s most iconic scenes are those in which the entire ensemble pushes the dysfunctional yellow Volkswagen bus, responsible for getting the Hoover family to California from Albuquerque in the film. Colette and Kinnear said two of the scenes featuring the bus were among their favorites to film.
Friendly said he was unsure of the audience’s reaction prior to the film’s first premiere. “There was a long time that there was no laughter before they pushed the bus,” he said. “And then [the reaction] was kind of magic.” He expressed gratitude for audiences’ reaction to the film two decades later. “We didn’t know that 20 years later, there’d be a replica of the Little Miss Sunshine bus [at Sundance], and people would be lined up to have their picture taken in front of it.”
Dano also expressed gratitude for his first-ever feature film. “I feel so grateful for the first film I ever did. I was 16, and it came to Sundance. The doors for me really opened here.”
Bell had the last word at the surprise talk, recalling the time an agent told him Little Miss Sunshine “would never get made.” “Don’t give up,” he said. “Authenticity goes a long way. So, listen to yourself.”
More from Georgia Metcalf: Music Was Creative Fuel for Two Sundance Films This Year
Read more of our Sundance festival stories and enjoy all of our Arts and Culture coverage. And while you’re here, subscribe to our print magazine and get 6 copies of Salt Lake magazine each year.
This story is jointly published by Salt Lake magazine and non-profit Amplify Utah to elevate perspectives in local media through student and emerging journalism.
