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The 2024 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Presented by Oaklawn announces Filmmaker Awards

    • Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault’s ZURAWSKI V TEXAS doubles up with both the Jury Prize and the Audience Award for Best Southern Feature or Episodic.

    Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, and Hamdan Ballal’s NO OTHER LAND wins the Critics Prize.

    Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev’s PORCELAIN WAR takes the Audience Award for Best Feature.

    The 2024 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Presented by Oaklawn announced the award-winning films and filmmakers at the conclusion of this year’s 33rd edition of the festival. Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault’s ZURAWSKI V TEXAS was a two-time winner, taking both the jury prize and the Matt DeCample Audience Choice Award for Best Southern Feature or Episodic. Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, and Hamdan Ballal’s NO OTHER LAND won the Critics Prize. Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev’s PORCELAIN WAR won the Hot Springs Matt DeCample Audience Choice Award for Best Feature.

    PORCELAIN WAR
    The 33rd Edition continued HSDFF’s growth through several innovative new programs and initiatives that came to the forefront last year, including the second edition of the heavily attended HSDFF Filmmaker Forum sponsored by the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, PBS, and Reel South, a brand new salute to the art of the mockumentary, launched with a screening of the 70’s classic THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK, the presentation of new works in progress by filmmakers Sam Green (spotlighted in a special two-day event “Sam Green in Process: From 32 SOUNDS to TREES”) and Nathan Willis, Politics on Film Day, which spotlighted four documentaries about presidential elections and their repercussions, and included a retrospective screening of the classic Drew Associates documentary CRISIS: BEHIND A PRESIDENTIAL COMMITMENT and featured a post-screening panel discussion co-presented with the Clinton Presidential Center. HSDFF also celebrated the 15th anniversary of ESPN’s 30 for 30 with a special panel featuring ESPN producers and filmmakers. The film festival also rolled out a new festival partnership with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the National Park Service, bringing CB’s Mobile Art Lab to Hot Springs, and a free HSDFF presentation by researcher Hollis Duncan on “The Arlington Hotel: Birth and Rebirth, 1864 – 1924,” presented with the Garland County Historical Society and Garland County Library. HSDFF also highlighted its partnership with Low Key Arts, a Hot Springs-based arts organization, on its highly successful Inception to Projection (I2P) program, a hands-on filmmaking program, hosting the world premieres of six new films recently completed as part of I2P’s 8-week summer documentary filmmaking workshop.

    Acclaimed filmmaker Steve James was honored with the HSDFF Brent Renaud Career Achievement Award, and Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault received this year’s Impact Award.

    “In addition to featuring an extraordinary array of the best documentary films from around the world, the 33rd Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival also marked an exuberant celebration of the art, craft, and practice of non-fiction storytelling,” said Executive Director Ken Jacobson. From the locally produced short films in our Documentary Workshop Showcase to works in progress presentations by filmmakers Sam Green and Nathan Willis, and the Showcase of New Works by Southern Filmmakers presented at our 2nd Filmmaker Forum, this year’s festival highlighted the dynamic creative process unique to documentary filmmaking. The electrifying World Premiere screenings of AMERICAN COUP: WILMINGTON 1898 and LOUDER THAN GUNS underlined the power of documentary film to shine a light on historical events and critical contemporary issues in ways that profoundly reached our audiences. In all respects, the festival was a genuine coming together of filmmakers, special guests and audiences to engage in meaningful conversations and to share a common love of documentary film. My deepest thanks to our audiences, supporters, filmmakers, staff, volunteers, and board of directors for making this such a special year.”

    Regarding their selection of Crow and Perrault’s ZURAWSKI V TEXAS for the Best Feature, the jury said, “This urgent film sheds light on the inhumane and devastating consequences of Texas’s restrictive abortion laws. By following the legal battles and intimate personal stories of several women denied essential healthcare, it powerfully and movingly highlights the vital importance of protecting women’s autonomy, reproductive rights, and bodily integrity.” The Jury also presented a special mention to Mati Diop’s DAHOMEY, saying, “This filmmaker has crafted a singular, poetic work exploring enduring questions of identity, displacement and belonging in a world shaped and scarred by colonialism. By giving voice to a variety of perspectives, including those of inanimate objects, they ask us to consider the weight the past still bears on the present, and, inevitably, on the future.”

    The Critics Jury Prize went to Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, and Hamdan Ballal’s NO OTHER LAND, “a film that offers a compelling ground-level view of everyday existence in the occupied West Bank, expertly underlining how grave injustices have persisted there for years. But now, in this politically urgent moment, this powerful documentary about friendship and a community’s mass expulsion has the potential to open eyes and change minds.” A special mention was awarded to Elizabeth Lo’s MISTRESS DISPELLER, described as “a provocative, empathetically crafted documentary – a Rashōmon-inspired, complex examination of love in the 21st century. Lo’s strikingly intimate access gives audiences a rare glimpse into Chinese bourgeois society.”

    Best Short Documentary Film went to Ben Proudfoot’s THE FINAL COPY OF ILON SPECHT. The jury said the film was an “intimate portrait of a trailblazing woman whose four-word tag line ‘Because I’m worth it’ became a feminist manifesto and changed advertising forever. Even from her deathbed, Specht’s unvarnished candor and fiery spirit illuminate a remarkable life, revealing not just the story behind an iconic slogan, but the enduring power of believing in one’s own worth.”
    A special jury mention went to Haley Watson’s MOTORCYCLE MARY. The Hot Springs Matt DeCample Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film went to Emily Sheskin’s LIVESTREAMS WITH GRANDMAPUZZLES. The award is named after the former festival Communications Director, who was one of the film festival’s most passionate supporters until he passed in 2020.

    The 2024 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Award Winners:

    FEATURE FILMS

    Best Documentary Feature Film
    ZURAWSKI V TEXAS
    Directors: Maisie Crow, Abbie Perrault

    Special Mention
    DAHOMEY
    Director: Mati Diop

    HSDFF Critics Prize
    NO OTHER LAND
    Directors: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

    Special Mention
    MISTRESS DISPELLER
    Director: Elizabeth Lo

    SHORT FILMS

    Best Short Documentary Film
    THE FINALCOPY OF ILON SPECHT
    Director: Ben Proudfoot

    Special Jury Mention
    MOTORCYCLE MARY
    Director: Haley Watson

    MATT DECAMPLE AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS

    Audience Choice Award for Best Feature
    PORCELAIN WAR
    Directors: Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev

    Audience Choice Award for Best Short
    LIVESTREAMS WITH GRANDMAPUZZLES
    Director: Emily Sheskin

    Audience Choice Award for Best Southern Feature or Episodic
    ZURAWSKI V TEXAS
    Directors: Maisie Crow, Abbie Perrault

    Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2024 Jury Members

    FEATURES
    Penelope Bartlett, Film Programmer
    Darius Clark Monroe, Filmmaker, DALLAS, 2019
    Jamie Shor, President PR Collaborative, Co-Founder, DC/DOX

    SHORTS
    Lisa Cole, Filmmaker, BIENVENIDOS A LOS ANGELES
    Maggie Li, Filmmaker, MISTRESS DISPELLER
    Michael Lumpkin, Documentary Film Consultant

    CRITICS JURY
    Matthew Carey, Documentary Editor, Deadline
    Addie Morfoot, Freelance Writer, Variety

    ABOUT HOT SPRINGS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
    Each year, with the help of a small staff and over 100 dedicated volunteers, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival attracts thousands of visitors to the 9-day multicultural and intergenerational event. Now in its 33rd year as the oldest all-documentary festival in North America and one of the longest running non-fiction festivals in the world, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival remains a prominent champion and protector of the documentary film genre.

    PRESS CONTACT
    John Wildman
    Wildworks PR
    FilmsGoneWild.com
    jswildman@hotmail.com
    323.600.3165

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    Annalee Drain

    FESTIVAL PRODUCER

    Annalee Drain is the Festival Producer of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, stepping into the role this year after three years with the festival in other departments.

    She holds a BFA in Digital Filmmaking from the University of Central Arkansas. Annalee also serves as Programming Manager for the Persistence of Vision Film Festival, a role she has held for three years.

    Based in Northwest Arkansas, she works full time as a freelance Camera Assistant on feature films and television, and recently made her debut as Director of Photography on the documentary feature Dirty Girl (Post-Production).

    Deb Fuller

    OFFICE MANAGER / MARKETING ASSISTANT / FILMMAKER FORUM CO-PRODUCER

    Deb Fuller is a native Houstonian who has called Arkansas home for more than seven years. She has immersed herself in the Inception to Projection filmmaking program in Hot Springs over the past five years.

    She has written and directed two short narratives, two documentary shorts, and participated in the production of numerous other projects. Her filmmaking centers on meaningful storytelling, often highlighting people, histories, and issues that deserve greater visibility.

    This creative work deepens her connection to the community and amplifies voices that might otherwise go unheard.

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    Erin Williams-Weir

    SENIOR PROGRAMMER

    Erin Williams-Weir is a festival programmer, producer, and award-winning filmmaker from Canada. She programs documentary features for the Chilliwack Independent Film Festival and has worked across international sales, acquisitions, and documentary production.

    Her debut documentary, NEVER GET BUSTED!, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to receive multiple awards on the festival circuit, including the PBS Human Spirit Award.

    Sean Volk

    SENIOR PROGRAMMER

    Sean Volk is a film programmer and arts advocate based in Fargo, ND. He is a Senior Programmer at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

    Additionally, Sean serves as a Lead Programmer at Mountainfilm and he is the Narrative Feature Programmer at the Woods Hole Film Festival. He has previously programmed for the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and the Nashville Film Festival.

    Sean received his MA in Film Studies from Western University in London, Ontario in 2015; his scholarship explored representations of monstrosity in the films of Guillermo del Toro.

    Colleen Thurston

    SENIOR PROGRAMMER

    Colleen Thurston is a documentary filmmaker and curator from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

    With two decades experience in the festival world, Colleen has worked for festivals nationwide and specializes in non-fiction and Indigenous storytelling.

    In addition to her work with HSDFF, she is the Project Producer for Native Lens, and a programmer for MountainFilm and the Tacoma Film Festival. Her first feature documentary Drowned Land screened at Hot Springs 2025, and is broadcasting on PBS in 2026.

    Kyle Therral Wilson

    COMMUNICATIONS, MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

    Kyle Therral Wilson is an Arkansas-native, Los Angeles-based consultant specializing in copywriting, digital marketing, publicity, and creative writing.

    He has extensive experience in the publishing industry, most notably at Disney Publishing Worldwide, where he built email marketing campaigns and wrote interactive scripts for classic Disney characters.

    Kyle also writes and produces for stage and screen; his short film SFH was an official selection at the 2024 Cinema Diverse Film Festival in Palm Springs, California.

    Annie Gerber

    PROGRAMMING MANAGER

    Oversees daily operations and logistics including venue management, sponsor communications, transportation and housing.

    Annie Gerber is a native Arkansan who has a Bachelor of Fine arts in music from Ouachita Baptist University but later switched her main focus to film and photography. Annie spent several years working as a Teaching Assistant at the prestigious photography program at the School of Cinematic and Performing Arts in both New York and Los Angeles. For the past 5 years she has maintained her position as the Director of Operations for the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

    Ken Jacobson

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

    Ken oversees all aspects of the festival including fundraising and sponsor relations, program development, management of staff and volunteers, budgeting, and producing the festival each fall.

    Ken Jacobson was most recently Senior Programmer, Documentary Films at the Sonoma International Film Festival. He has served as Documentary Film Programmer at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival (since 2017) and at the DocLands Documentary Film Festival (since 2019). He is also co-creator/co-host (with Michael Merrill) of the podcast “Top-Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers” with presenting sponsor Netflix.

    Previously, Jacobson was a senior member of the programming team at the American Film Institute (2018-2021) and Director of Educational Programs and Strategic Partnerships at the International Documentary Association (2013 – 2016). From 2008- 2013, he was Documentary Programmer and Programming/Education Outreach Coordinator at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. He has served on numerous festival juries and as a grant reviewer for the NEA, NEH, Sundance Institute, and IDA Enterprise Fund.