Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival has announced its juries for four film competitions this year: best narrative, best documentary, best short and best episodic.
The eighth edition of Bentonville will see former Sundance programmer and film and TV producer Bird Runningwater, director and producer Shrihari Sathe and Stranger Inside actress Yolonda Ross judge contenders in the narrative film competition. On the documentary front, the jury will consist of indie producer Karin Chien, CUSP filmmaker Isabel Bethencourt and Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo.
“We are excited to welcome this year’s outstanding array of jurors to the BFF community. We look forward to sharing our diverse programming with them as they dedicate their time to thoughtfully award a standout project in each category.” Geena Davis, Bentonville Film Foundation chair, said in a statement.
Elsewhere, the episodic TV competition will have a jury made up by indie producer Effie Brown, director Kitao Sakurai and filmmaker Liz Cardenas. And the shorts competition will be judged by Violet director Justine Bateman, Inspire Justice co-founder JLove Calderon and film producer Alex Schmider.
The hybrid Bentonville fest will take place in person this year from June 22-26 in Bentonville, Arkansas and virtually from June 22 to July 3.
“When we choose our collaborators, it is just as important as when we choose our programming that we accurately represent our core mission and values. We are so proud that this year’s distinguished group of jurors mirror the world we live in and they all do their part to make our screens do the same,” Wendy Guerrero, president of Bentonville Film Festival, said in her own statement.
Source: HollyWood
