Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

This is a noteworthy movie. Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear) is trying desperately to find someone who will promote his motivational success program. His wife Sheryl (Toni Collette) is a poor cook who encourages frank conversations without regard to the suitability of the topic. Their 7-year-old daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) has been accepted into a beauty competition and the family takes a road trip from New Mexico to California so she can participate.

The character Dwayne is Sheryl's son from a previous marriage. This was the directorial film debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt. Filming took place in Arizona and southern California. During filming Abigail was not able to hear the excessive swearing because she was wearing headphones. All the girls, except Abigail Breslin, were veterans of real beauty pageants.