Photo By Steve Ramos

Quinceañera filmmakers Richard Glatzer (left) and Wash Westmorcland bask in the glow of a successful Awards Night.

PARK CITY, UTAH -- Constant snow, the type that covers cars and people quickly, comes down on the Sundance Film Festival's final evening. Festival films are still showing around town, but filmmakers, actors and their publicists make their way to the Park City Racquet Club, a large gymnasium tucked far behind the high school and its adjoining Eccles Theatre, the fest's largest venue. It's Awards Night, where all the long hours, nervous anticipation and gossipy stories come to a head.

The handing out of festival awards is not the end of the Sundance experience but rather an important chapter on a filmmaker's journey. This is where happy endings are made, sad-sack stories are cemented and optimism about getting one's film in front of theater audiences across the United States and around the world is either boosted or squashed.

Quinceañera is the most likable Sundance film audiences will have a chance to watch in theaters later this year. It's also part of festival history, achieving the rare feat of earning both the Audience Award and Jury Prize for Dramatic Feature.

A quinceañera is a Latino celebration of a girl's 15th birthday, and co-directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer set their huggable drama around the changing streets of Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood and the Mexican families who call it home. Magdelena (Emily Rios) adds unexpected tension to her family's quinceañera plans when she becomes pregnant. Her strict father is furious, but her great-granduncle Thomas (Chalo Gonzalez) and rough cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia) take her into their home. Quinceañera, as uplifting, bouncy and cheerful as any Sundance film in recent memory, is a diverse soup of a movie offering a gay subplot, family themes and a story about a longstanding ethnic neighborhood experiencing gentrification.

"It's been 12 years since I was with a film at Sundance, and it sure is nice to be back," says Quinceañera co-director Glatzer, who takes to the stage with his partner and co-director, Wash Westmoreland, to accept the first of Quinceañera's two festival prizes.

Filmmaker Maria Maggenti's Puccini for Beginners, a chatty urban comedy about sex, city living and girl-meets-girl romance is just as likable as Quinceañera, although not as lucky in the awards category. Elizabeth Reaser is pretty and appropriately manic as Allegra, a young woman and opera buff with commitment problems. Maggenti's knack for screwball comedy comes through in Allegra's crisscrossing affairs. Puccini's young heroine falls for a handsome Columbia University professor (Justin Kirk) and his ex-girlfriend (Gretchen Mol). Portraying a fantasy Manhattan life of repertory movie theaters and sidewalk cafes, Puccini for Beginners is pure fizz, a gay comedy without an ounce of angst.

One of the most challenging Sundance films, and clearly its most artful, is filmmaker Hilary Brougher's hidden pregnancy tale, Stephanie Daley. Set in upstate New York, Brougher creates dreamlike images of winding back roads and small-town life that's breathtakingly beautiful. Stephanie Daley might tell a story that's ripped from newspaper headlines, but Brougher keeps the melodrama subtle, quiet and poetic. Amber Tamblyn, best known for the recent TV drama Joan of Arcadia, is appropriately complex as the teenager who killed her baby.

A touch less artful but every bit as fulfilling is Half Nelson, the urban drama from first-time feature filmmaker Ryan Fleck, a story inspired by his short film Gowanus, Brooklyn. Actor Ryan Gosling gives the best performance of the festival as Dan Dunne, a history teacher at an inner-city junior high school fighting alcoholism and drug addiction. Young Shareeka Epps matches Gosling's performance as Drey, a young girl at a crossroads in life.

Half Nelson was purchased for distribution by THINK Films just hours before Awards Night, but Stephanie Daley, the critics' favorite, remains in need of distribution. Luck, just as much as quality, plays a factor at Sundance. A filmmaker can make the best film possible, but there's no controlling one's show times or venues, whether one's party is up against a more popular event (pity the filmmaker whose bash was the same time as the Beastie Boys concert) or whether press will attend their screening.

Films worth seeing outside Sundance include A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, writer-turned-filmmaker Dito Montiel's autobiographical drama about his teenage years in mid-'80s Astoria, Queens.

First-time director Brian Jun captures rich mood and stark atmosphere in the Midwest steel town locale of his father/son drama Steel City. It's the rare blue-collar drama that rings authentic.

Chris Gorak, a production designer on Hollywood movies, directs a clever terrorist thriller with Right at Your Door. He creates claustrophobic tensions out of a sunny Los Angeles morning when Rory Cochrane and his wife (Mary McCormack) face dirty bombs and the toxic ash that covers Los Angeles.

Audrey (Agnes Bruckner) is the 18-year-old heroine of Jason Matzner's polished Dreamland, a smart coming-of-age drama set in a trailer park in New Mexico. A best friend with Multiple Sclerosis and a father with agoraphobia test the credibility factor, but Matzner pulls audiences back with beautiful imagery and a rich performance by Bruckner.

The happiest Sundance endings involve the dramatic and documentary entries winning both Dramatic Grand Jury Prizes and Audience Awards. The heartfelt Quinceañera and Christopher Quinn's God Grew Tired of Us, about three Sudanese refugees making new lives in America, won over the hearts of both the Sundance jury and audiences.

Other standouts include the documentaries Iraq in Fragments, director James Longley's powerful portrait of the lives of ordinary Baghdad citizens, and TV Junkie, co-directors Michael Cain and Matt Radecki's story about TV reporter Rick Kirkham's struggle with drug addiction.

The snow keeps falling on the festival's final night. Some filmmakers linger at the adjacent party. Others head to a private concert by the Rock band Counting Crows. Many filmmakers congregate at a popular steak joint at the base of Main Street. The Half Nelson crew is there, despondent over its lack of awards but happy with the fact that they will make it into theaters. Goran Dukic, director of the quirky after-life satire Wristcutters: A Love Story, and his crew put a positive spin on the week despite zero awards and no deal. Montiel pops into the room, giving a thumbs-up in recognition of the Awards Night success of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.

Some will trudge happily through the early morning snow. Others will remain festival sad sacks. What's important is that Awards Night, while significant, is just one step along the Sundance journey. Tomorrow is another chance at success. ©