“A lot of people wonder what it’s like to try to get a movie made; they think it’s easy. It’s very, very hard to get any movie made,” says Friendly. “It was particularly hard to get this movie made. Pretty much every studio and every specialty division of the first go-around passed. I have all the letters to prove that. What was great about this is every person up here believed in this material in their hearts, in their guts,” he says, gesturing to everyone onstage. “And that’s what it takes to get something made. And to get it made well, you need a team like we have here. And it’s a great team, and a family was formed here. The fact that we’re all still speaking to each other 20 years later is very unusual for the movie business.”

It’s hard to imagine now, but according to the producing team onstage, this film was full of red flags for distributors back in the early 2000s. It was an R-rated comedy, an ensemble without a big lead actor, and the final act took place in a setting nowhere but the U.S. would understand — a children’s beauty pageant. The only way to make this film would be to do so independently.

Clearly, it was worth the risk. “The truth is this place lit up the first time the bus got pushed. It was insanity in here, and it was an incredible thing to behold,” recalls Brody. “The movie touches every base. People love it, critics love it, it got awards, it made money, and the people who made it, as everybody has said here, have stuck together. There was a family, there was a love that made the entire experience truly, truly fantastic, and it shows up on the screen every time you see it.”

Family is a through line here: the family on screen, the family onstage, and the family in the audience, too. “I think it’s important that you know that you’re all part of this family,” notes Dayton in his introduction to the film. “Your enthusiasm when you watch a movie means so much to the filmmakers and the actors, but it also helps sell a movie. It helps show that there’s potential out there, so you’re a big part of what has made this such a great place with people to see movies.”

There are many lessons the audience could take with them from this 20th anniversary screening, but one of the biggest may be to lean on family, whatever that looks like to you. And if you’re searching for a creative family, find one that believes in your story as much as you do.

“To all the filmmakers out there, stick with it,” says Dayton at the close of the discussion. “Our agent’s assistant was getting promoted; he was telling the new assistant about all the projects that his agent was working on for different clients. He said his whole pitch, and he ended with, ‘And just remember, Little Miss Sunshine will never get made.’ That was his note to his successor. So don’t give up. It can happen.”