As her film fest goes virtual, Geena Davis fights on for Hollywood diversity and inclusion

When Geena Davis isn’t acting, her side projects in the pursuit of diversity and inclusion keep the Oscar winner busy. Through the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, the nonprofit research and advocacy group she formed in 2004, she brings stats about representation to studio boardrooms year after year. Complementing that work is the Bentonville Film Festival, held annually in Bentonville, Ark., which she cofounded, and which has persevered to open its sixth iteration on Aug. 10 in a largely virtual edition due to the pandemic. Luckily, Davis has always been an optimist. As the festival’s mission to foster inclusivity across media continues to expand, she’s hopeful that going online this year will bring new audiences in to see what they’ve been doing in Bentonville, pop. 54,909. “We realized that this is an exciting opportunity to see how it will go over because now anybody in the world can watch these movies,” Davis said over Zoom from her home in Southern California. Read More…