LADY FILMMAKERS WINNER HEADS TO GEENA DAVIS FEST

"Lies I Told My Little Sister," a top-winning woman-centric drama-comedy film starring Ellen Foley and featuring soap opera star Alicia Minshew, will screen May 7th in competition for top prizes at the inaugural Bentonville Film Festival, founded by Geena Davis and sponsored by Walmart and Lifetime to champion women & diversity in film.

Bentonville, AK - "Lies I Told My Little Sister," a woman-centric full-length drama-comedy film starring Ellen Foley and featuring soap opera star Alicia Minshew, will screen on May 7th in competition for top prizes at the inaugural Bentonville Film Festival, founded by Geena Davis and sponsored by Walmart and Lifetime to champion women in film.

"Lies" has been an Official Selection of 21 film festivals in the US, Canada and England, and winner of 11 festival awards, including four honors as Best of the Festival, most recently on Rodeo Drive at Lady Filmmakers Film Festival in Beverly Hills. Other wins include Grand Prize: NJ International Film Festival; Best Family Drama: Manhattan Film Festival; three Best Acting wins, and Audience Award for Best Feature. It also won Best Screenplay for its 61-year-old female screenwriter, judywhite, who will be at the 8pm screening for Q&A.

Loosely inspired by the screenwriter's own family and co-written with her nephew, "Lies I Told My Little Sister" is about a globe-trotting photographer who is guilted onto a family trip to Cape Cod with the younger sister she used to torment. Amid grief, recriminations, revelations, a very strange shopkeeper and an old romance, they square off against the patterns of childhood. Though it deals with a death in the family, "there's still comedy," says judywhite, "because life is still funny, even after a terrible loss, if you can just let it."

Starring in an Best Actress award-winning turn as the family's mother is veteran rocker/Broadway/film actress Ellen Foley, who was Meat Loaf’s iconic duet partner on "Bat Out of Hell," the fifth best-selling album of all time. (A reunion album will be released this fall.) The drama-comedy's lead actress is Lucy Walters, who caused a stir with her breakout role in Steve McQueen's "Shame" opposite Oscar-nominee Michael Fassbender, and now stars as "Holly" in 50 Cent's hit STARZ drama series, "Power." In a featured role is 3-time Emmy nominee and soap opera star Alicia Minshew of "All My Children," and, in his first adult lead, Donovan Patton of "Blue's Clues" has earned a festival Best Actor win.

Reviewers call the film, "Essential festival viewing… the acting is great, the characters complex, and Lucy Walters is magnetic …a film thought to be about lies, yet full of life truths, sprinkled lightly with comedy that carries a ton of life …a genuine portrayal of two sisters …a beautiful blend of comedy and drama …an uplifting tale of perseverance and self-affirmation, entertaining throughout."

"Lies" is the first feature directed by William J. Stribling, who stepped onto the set the day after graduation from NYU, taking on a female-dominated film because "a character is a character, and made sense to me on an emotional and intellectual level regardless of gender." This attitude is precisely what Geena Davis is hoping to champion at Bentonville.

The Arkansas premiere of "Lies I Told My Little Sister" is Thursday, May 7, 8pm, at White Auditorium, Burns Hall, NWACC, 1 College Avenue, Bentonville. Tickets available online at bentonvillefilmfestival.com. Not yet rated; contains strong language and adult situations. To see the trailer, visit the film's website at www.liesitoldmylittlesister.com.

Film Website: www.liesitoldmylittlesister.com
Festival Website: www.bentonvillefilmfestival.com
Trailer: vimeo.com/liesitoldmylittlesister/trailer-30sec
Images: tinyurl.com/litmls-njpress