Celebrating Diversity in Film: Highlights from the 12th Bentonville Film Festival
The Bentonville Film Foundation, in partnership with Walmart and Coca-Cola, revealed the winners of the 12th Bentonville Film Festival during an awards gala. The best narrative award went to Walter Thompson-Hernández’s “If I Go Will They Miss Me,” while Judd Ehrlich’s “Jane Elliott Against the World” won best documentary.
Geena Davis, the chair of the Bentonville Film Festival, praised the filmmakers for their dedication to storytelling that broadens perspectives and engages audiences. The festival featured the thriller “Family Movie” starring Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick as its opening film and closed with a special screening of the first episode of “Little House on the Prairie,” with showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine receiving the Rising to the Challenge Award.
Other winners included Gisella Bonilla for directorial vision in “The Musical,” Kate Cobb for lead performances in “BRB,” and Ayden Mayeri for the documentary “Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story.” The festival also recognized “Baby/Girls” as the Best Homegrown film and honored “Too Romantic” as the Best Episodic entry.
The Bentonville Film Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the voices of underrepresented storytellers, including women, non-binary individuals, LGBTQIA+ communities, BIPOC, API, and persons with disabilities. Together with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, the foundation works to educate about the impact of stereotypes, bias, and representation imbalance in media, fostering positive associations and equality-based learning models.