{"id":43452,"date":"2026-08-13T16:43:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43452"},"modified":"2026-08-13T16:43:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:43:21","slug":"oldenburg-festival-honors-stunt-legend-zoe-bell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43452","title":{"rendered":"Oldenburg Festival Honors Stunt Legend Zo\u00eb Bell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany\u2019s leading indie film fest, will honor actress and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/general-news\/meet-hollywoods-first-solo-female-stunt-coordinator-a-major-film-1165843\/\">stunt legend Zo\u00eb Bell <\/a>this year with a tribute to her life\u2019s work. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBorn and raised in New Zealand, Bell first became known in the late 90s as the stunt double for Lucy Lawless in the fantasy action series <em>Xena: Warrior Princess<\/em> (1995-2001). Her work attracted attention from Hollywood, particularly from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/quentin-tarantino\/\" id=\"auto-tag_quentin-tarantino_1\" data-tag=\"quentin-tarantino\">Quentin Tarantino<\/a>, who cast her as Uma Thurman\u2019s stunt double for <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/kill-bill\/\" id=\"auto-tag_kill-bill_1\" data-tag=\"kill-bill\">Kill Bill<\/a> : Vol. 1<\/em> (2003) and <em>Kill Bill: Vol.2 <\/em>(2004).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tTarantino was so impressed, he gave Bell her first leading role as an actress, having her play a version of herself in his grindhouse <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/critics-notebook-death-reincarnated-2-137002\/\">revenge thriller <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/death-proof\/\" id=\"auto-tag_death-proof_1\" data-tag=\"death-proof\">Death Proof<\/a> <\/em><\/a>(2007) alongside Kurt Russell. She became a Tarantino regular, with roles in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/django-unchained-film-review-399663\/\">Django Unchained <\/a><\/em>(2012), <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/hateful-eight-film-review-849069\/\">The Hateful Eight<\/a><\/em> (2015) and <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-cannes-2019-1212805\/\">Once Upon a Time\u2026In Hollywood <\/a><\/em>(2019), in the latter as stunt coordinator Janet Miller, wife of Kurt Russell\u2019s stuntman character Randy Miller.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cZo\u00eb is actually the greatest stuntwoman in the world,\u201d Tarantino has said of Bell. \u201cAnd she\u2019s one of my best friends \u2014 like a sister to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tShe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/once-a-time-hollywood-zoe-bell-her-stunts-1226747\/\">has continued to work<\/a> as both stuntwoman, on such features as <em>Iron Man 3 (<\/em>2013) and <em>Thor: Ragnarok <\/em>(2017), and actress, playing roller derby star \u201cBloody Holly\u201d in Drew Barrymore\u2019s directorial debut, <em>Whip It<\/em> (2009), the assassin Eve in cult classic <em>Angel of Death <\/em>(2009), and Scorpion in James Wan\u2019s horror feature <em>Malignant<\/em> (2021). She\u2019s a four-time winner of the Taurus World Stunt Awards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tOldenburg will screen a selection of Bell\u2019s films for the tribute, including Death Proof, Once Upon a Time in\u2026Hollywood, Angel of Death, and <em>Double Dare<\/em>, Amanda Micheli\u2019s 2004 documentary about Bell and veteran stuntwoman Jeannie Epper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAfter years of campaigning by the stunt and filmmaking community, stunt work will finally receive official recognition at the 100th Academy Awards in 2027, with a new competitive category, Achievement in Stunt Design.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cFor far too long, stunt work was regarded as the invisible art of cinema \u2014 indispensable, but unseen,\u201d said Oldenburg, announcing the Bell tribute. \u201cZo\u00eb Bell broke with that pattern. Over the course of more than three decades, she transformed the work of the double into an artistic performance in its own right; she became one of the defining physical presences of modern genre cinema and, in the process, a star herself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBell is attending the Oldenburg festival where she will present her films. The 33rd Oldenburg Film Festival runs Sept. 16-20.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany\u2019s leading indie film fest, will honor actress and stunt legend Zo\u00eb Bell this year with a tribute to her life\u2019s work. Born and raised in New Zealand, Bell first became known in the late 90s as the stunt double for Lucy Lawless in the fantasy action series Xena: Warrior Princess&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1200613706.jpg?crop=0px%2C215px%2C4000px%2C2238px&resize=1440%2C810","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}