Danny McBride to receive Flannery O’Connor Award at Rome film fest
Rome International Film Festival will honor Danny McBride in November, making him the award’s first Georgia-born filmmaker recipient.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
Danny McBride will receive the Flannery O’Connor Award at the Rome International Film Festival in Georgia this November, with the event set to bring the Statesboro native back home for a Southern storytelling salute.
The festival, known as RIFF and held in Floyd County’s largest city, will present the honor during its 23rd edition, which runs from November 5 to 8. Organizers said the award was created in memory of Savannah-born writer Flannery O’Connor and recognizes artists whose work carries the bold, distinctive and lasting spirit of Southern storytelling.
McBride is the sixth person to receive the prize and the first Georgia-born filmmaker to do so, according to the festival. Previous recipients are Billy Bob Thornton, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, Tim Blake Nelson and Jerusha Hess, who received the honor in 2025.
What is Danny McBride being honored for?
RIFF is recognizing McBride for a body of work that has often used the American South as both setting and engine, from family, faith and ambition to oddball power struggles and bruising comedy. The festival said he was nominated by filmmaker Jerusha Hess, with support from RIFF leadership, including Executive Creative Director Seth Ingram.
McBride works through Rough House Pictures and is best known on television as co-creator, writer, executive producer and star of HBO’s Eastbound & Down, Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones. His film credits include Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, Up in the Air, Alien: Covenant and This Is the End.
Ingram said McBride has had a powerful effect on how the South is discussed in contemporary culture. He described McBride’s work as comic, provocative and human, and said both McBride and O’Connor look past stereotypes to examine family, faith, ambition and identity.
McBride said his Southern upbringing continues to shape his point of view as a storyteller. “Flannery O’Connor’s voice is one of the most important and distinctive in Southern literature, so being connected to her legacy through this award is incredibly meaningful,” he said.
What will happen at the festival?
During his RIFF appearance, McBride is scheduled to take part in a career retrospective and a live In Conversation masterclass. The festival said those events will give audiences a look at his creative process, career path and approach to storytelling.
The honor arrives during a busy stretch for McBride. Deadline reported that his debut book, Thrilling Tales of Modern Men, reached The New York Times Best Seller list in its first week of publication. Deadline also reported that McBride has been tapped to write the next G.I. Joe movie at Paramount.
O’Connor remains one of the defining names in Southern literature. Her best-known works include the short story collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories and the novels Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away. John Huston adapted Wise Blood for the screen, and O’Connor’s life was explored in Ethan Hawke’s 2023 film Wildcat.
The festival said the Flannery O’Connor Award name is used with permission from the Mary Flannery O’Connor Charitable Trust.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.