‘Queen of the Ring’ Filmmakers and Bob Mackie Honored at Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival

variety.com:

Todd Gilchrist editor The 2024 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival opened Nov. 8 with a screening of “Queen of the Ring,” writer-director Ash Avildsen’s biopic of female wrestler Mildred Burke starring Emily Bett Rickards, Josh Lucas, Walton Goggins and Gavin Casalegno.

Marking the festival’s 39th year, the film commenced ten days of programming across seven South Florida venues, including the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to costume designer Bob Mackie.

Speaking from the red carpet Friday night, FLIFF chair Lisa Grigorian thrilled at this year’s programming. “We are so excited for this year’s festival,” Grigorian said. “We’ve got a hundred films from 35 countries — something for everybody.” Attending the festival for the first time, “Queen of the Ring” costar Casalegno spoke about what resonated with him in Burke’s true life story. “I really wanted to make films that will make the world a better place, and I wanted to do more films that will make people think about just the world and their life and humanity after they finished watching it,” he said. “I feel like this movie does a great job at showing this underdog story … to actually win and change history for the better.” Among those appearing on opening night were cast and crew members of “Beyond the Rush,” including writer-director Robert Sayegh and actors John Savage (“The Thin Red Line), Jayce Bartok (“Founders Day”) and Bill Barrett (“Fly Me To the Moon”).