EXCLUSIVE: The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas – the longest-running nonfiction cinema festival in North America – has wrapped it
EXCLUSIVE: The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas – the longest-running nonfiction cinema festival in North America – has wrapped its 34th edition with the announcement of awards.
Ask E. Jean, the documentary about the woman who won an $83 million civil judgment against Pres. Trump after accusing him of sexually assaulting her in a New York City department store, earned the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film directed by Ivy Meeropol explores E. Jean Carroll’s work as a popular advice columnist and TV host and how trauma from the alleged sexual assault – for which Trump was found liable – scarred her life.
E. Jean Carroll (center) leaves the courthouse on September 6, 2024 in New York City.
Alex Kent/Getty Images
The jury, comprised of Sarah Childress (director of Strategy & Operations, Nashville PBS), Kris Higgins (Board Chair, Emeritus, Docs in Progress), and Ouida Washington (producer, Wk Media) saluted Ask E. Jean for being “as complex as its protagonist. It raises productive questions by juxtaposing E. Jean Carroll’s public role as an advocate for female self-empowerment with the aftermath of her sexual assault. We realize that even those who champion strength can be vulnerable and see how courtrooms can become existential battlefields. We wish to recognize the film and the important conversations it inspires.”
Rep. Barbara Jordan (D-TX), protagonist of ‘The Inquisitor’
Southern Fried Filmworks
The jury awarded a special mention to The Inquisitor, Angela Lynn Tucker’s documentary “which reflects on the life of charismatic congresswoman and educator Barbara Jordan, a woman of many firsts and a commanding voice during the Watergate investigation. Through her own words, the film illustrates how Jordan’s principles of integrity, equality, and moral courage remain relevant decades later.”
Holding Liat, directed by Brandon Kramer and produced by Lance Kramer, won the HSDFF Critics Prize. The documentary (recently featured on Deadline’s For the Love of Docs series) follows the family of Liat Beinin Atzili, an American Israeli woman who was kidnapped by Hamas On October 7, 2023. Her father Yehuda traveled to Washington DC after she was seized, trying to work the levers of power within the Biden administration to secure the release of Liat and her husband Aviv, who was also kidnapped.
Yehuda Beinin in ‘Holding Liat’
Meridian Hill Pictures
The critics jury, comprised of Michael Cook, critic at KLRT-TV (NBC) and KARK-TV (FOX), and Lauren Wissot, contributing editor, Filmmaker and Documentary magazines, chose Holding Liat for its “extraordinary ability to transform an intensely personal story into a universal exploration of grief and resilience. Through its intimate and deeply nuanced storytelling, the film captures the humanity of its subjects and prompts viewers to consider compassion, understanding, and the enduring strength of the human spirit.”
A scene from ‘Natchez,’ directed by Suzannah Herbert
Courtesy of Oscilloscope/Noah Collier
The critics jury gave a special mention to Natchez, directed by Suzannah Herbert and produced by Darcy McKinnon, a film set in the titular Mississippi town lined with more regal pre-Civil War mansions than any other place in the country. (Natchez’s Herbert and McKinnon appear on Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast that will be released later today).
“Much in the spirit of Robert Altman’s Nashville, Herbert’s film is a multilayered, character-driven look at the titular town in Mississippi, a Gone with the Wind-cinematic city wholly dependent on its antebellum tourism industry. Natchez is a beautifully-crafted and sensitive portrait of Black and white residents alike, all reckoning with the high price paid to live inside a fictional Confederate dream.”
Independent Lens/Cuomo-Cole Productions
‘The Librarians‘
Kim A. Snyder’s The Librarians won the Hot Springs Matt DeCample Audience Choice Award for Best Feature. The documentary executive produced by Sarah Jessica Parker examines how librarians at public schools and public libraries – at a time of growing book censorship — have been thrust into the role of “first responders in the fight for democracy and our First Amendment Rights.”
Scroll for more of the HSDFF winners.
In a statement, HSDFF Executive Director Ken Jacobson said, “Throughout the 34th Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, I was thoroughly amazed at how deeply engaged our audiences were with the nine days of film screenings, filmmaker conversations and nonfiction storytelling events. From Rex Nelson’s riveting talk on Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, who transformed the state of Arkansas during his time in office, to the exuberance of The Cowboy and our highly emotional ‘True Stories’ live storytelling event, HSDFF’s audiences embraced the provocative, the profound and the unexpected. Our 3rd annual Filmmaker Forum, which confronted the massive challenges facing the nonfiction film community and the public media sector, was the most impactful, timely and compelling Forum yet. As we look ahead to 2026, HSDFF continues to thrive as a bastion of documentary film here in Central Arkansas.”
Best Short Documentary Film went to Charlotte Cooley’s Last Days on Lake Trinity. Situated within the broader story of the American affordable housing crisis story, “the film probes the lives of three women, all senior citizens, who are being displaced from their trailer park community in Florida.”
The jury comprised of Caryn Capotosto (founder, Museum & Crane Documentary Films), Clint Jukkala (executive director, Southern Documentary Fund), and filmmaker Bernardo Ruiz (2024 Documentary Film Fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy), wrote, “Told with grace and admirable restraint, the film allows the dignity of the participants to quietly rise to the surface, providing for subtlety and nuance without neglecting the urgent realities facing them. This thoroughly crafted film, which operates at the intersection of reporting on economic hardship and character study, offers something unique in the process.”
A special jury mention went to Brennan Robideaux’s Sallie’s Ashes. “In a time when activism is urgent,” the jury wrote, “the film shows the power of people standing up for their communities and what they believe in. With a character-driven and playful approach, the film paints an endearing portrait of Sallie, and fellow retirees Diane and Savan, as they take on the serious work of organizing against toxic coal ash.”
The Hot Springs Matt DeCample Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film went to Craig Renaud’s Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud. 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. Renaud’s documentary tells the story of his brother Brent, a filmmaker and photojournalist who was killed by Russian gunfire early in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Craig Renaud and Juan Arredondo – who produced the film and was injured in the attack that killed Brent – appeared on a recent episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast.
The 2025 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Award Winners:
FEATURE FILMS
HSDFF Critics Prize
HOLDING LIAT
Director: Brandon Kramer
Special Mention
NATCHEZ
Director: Suzannah Herbert
Best Documentary Feature Film
ASK E. JEAN
Director: Ivy Meeropol
Special Mention
THE INQUISITOR
Director: Angela Lynn Tucker
SHORT FILMS
Best Short Documentary Film
LAST DAYS ON LAKE TRINITY
Director: Charlotte Cooley
Special Jury Mention
SALLIE’S ASHES
Director: Brennan Robideaux
MATT DECAMPLE AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS
Audience Choice Award for Best Feature
THE LIBRARIANS
Director: Kim A. Snyder
Audience Choice Award for Best Short
ARMED ONLY WITH A CAMERA: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BRENT RENAUD
Director: Craig Renaud
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