Real Women Have Curves (2002)

Directed by

Patricia Cardoso

Genre

drama film, comedy film, coming-of-age film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 26m

Rated

PG-13

Rating

6.1 of 10 from 103 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Mexican American teenager in Los Angeles navigates the clash between her family's traditional expectations and her own ambitions. She works in her sister's dress factory while dreaming of going to college and becoming a writer.

upliftingheartfeltwarmgrittyempoweringearthyauthenticgentle

What happens

Real Women Have Curves is a 2002 American comedy-drama film directed by Patricia Cardoso, based on the play of the same name by Josefina López, who co-authored the screenplay for the film with George LaVoo. The film stars America Ferrera (in her feature film debut) as protagonist Ana García. It gained fame after winning the Audience Award for best dramatic film, and the Special Jury Prize for acting in the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. The film went on to receive the Youth Jury Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, the Humanitas Prize, the Imagen Award, and Special Recognition by the National Board of Review. Real Women Have Curves broke many conventions of traditional Hollywood filmmaking and became a landmark in American independent film. According to Entertainment Weekly, it is one of the most influential movies of the 2000s and cast a wide shadow over the new generation of filmmakers to come. The movie is cited for showing the impact a movie could have in the culture and it is acclaimed for its nuanced portrayal of Los Angeles. In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is the first Latina-directed film to be inducted into the Registry. In 2021, Forbes reported that a musical adaptation was being developed. It opened on Broadway at the James Earl Jones Theater in April 2025. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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