“Lingua Franca” scored the top prize at this year’s Bentonville Film Festival (BFF). Isabel Sandoval’s portrait of an undocumented Filipina trans woman (Sandoval) working as a caregiver for an elderly Russian woman (Lynn Cohen) in Brooklyn received the jury award for Best Narrative Feature, a press release confirmed. Sandoval’s third feature made history as the first film directed by and starring a trans woman of color to screen in competition at Venice Film Festival.
When we asked Sandoval what drew her to the story, she said, “I’ve always been drawn to marginalized women in fraught socio-political milieus, and this premise strikes me as particularly resonant in these times.”
Dedicated to championing underrepresented voices in film, entertainment, and media, this year’s edition of BFF “was their most diverse festival to-date with over 70 films where over 80 percent were directed by women, 65 percent BIPOC, and 45 percent LGBTQA+,” the release details
Alice Gu’s “The Donut King” took home the award for Best Documentary. The doc centers on Ted Ngov, who arrived in the U.S. in 1975 after escaping genocide and the Khmer Rouge. Within three years, he was a millionaire with a donut empire.
With “The Donut King,” Gu told us she hopes to “help challenge any preconceived notions of what a refugee is, or looks like, and … put a human face on refugees and their potential, if given the chance.”
Check out all of BFF’s winners below. Geena Davis co-founded the fest.
Jury Award Winners:
Narrative Film Award: LINGUA FRANCA, Director: Isobel Sandoval
Documentary Film Award: THE DONUT KING, Director: Alice Gu
Short Film Narrative Award: BROKEN BIRD, Director: Rachel Harrison Gordon
Short Film Documentary Award: AVA & BIANCA, Director: Rachel Fleit
Episodic Narrative Award: LADY LIBERTY, Director: Taylor Lee Nagel
Episodic Documentary Award: IMMIGRANT VOICES OF AMERICA, Director: Miguel Angel Duran
Special Recognition Awards:
Best First Feature, Narrative: FAREWELL, Director: Chris Chalk
Best Performance, Narrative: TAKE OUT GIRL, Director: Hissoni Johnson, Actor: Hedy Wong
Best Editing, Documentary: MY DARLING, VIVIAN, Director: Matt Riddlehoover
