LOS ANGELES, September 15, 2026 – Pendragon Pictures congratulates filmmaker Timothy Hines, who has been named Best Director for The Wilde Girls at the Hollywood Gold Awards.
The honor adds another distinction to the critically praised period comedy and its creative team.
Written and directed by Hines and produced by longtime producing partner Susan Goforth, The Wilde Girls is an affectionate collision of classic screwball comedy, wilderness adventure and coming-of-age storytelling, a film in which old Hollywood elegance meets mud, mosquitoes, danger and two young women spectacularly unprepared for any of it.
“It was an honor and a genuine pleasure to produce this film alongside Timothy and to watch his extraordinary vision come to life on screen with so much heart, love and laughter,” said Goforth.
“Every film is a journey, and bringing The Wilde Girls to life was one I will always treasure. Timothy envisioned a world that could be genuinely funny without losing its humanity, a period adventure where the comedy comes from character, but beneath all of it is a story about sisters, resilience, friendship and discovering who you are when everything you thought defined you is suddenly gone.”
A SCREWBALL COMEDY DROPPED INTO THE WILDERNESS
Set in 1932 at the height of the Great Depression, The Wilde Girls follows Tinsley and Mattie Wilde, two extravagantly privileged young heiresses whose insulated world collapses along with their family fortune.
Banished from high society and sent into the unforgiving wilderness of the Pacific Northwest, the sisters discover that designer wardrobes, impeccable manners and family money are of absolutely no use when confronted with hunger, wildlife, isolation, and the troubling realization that someone may actually be trying to kill them.
With virtually no survival skills between them, Tinsley and Mattie fall into the orbit of Silas Colter, a cantankerous, solitary mountain man who reluctantly becomes their protector and guide. What begins as an outrageous clash between privilege and frontier reality evolves into a funny, dangerous and unexpectedly moving story of two sisters learning that survival requires considerably more than simply getting their own way.
At its center is the chemistry of Cali Scolari as Mattie Wilde and Lydia Pearl Pentz as Tinsley Wilde, opposite veteran New York comic Teddy Smith, whose wonderfully weathered Silas provides a grounded counterweight to the sisters’ escalating chaos.
Critics responded enthusiastically to the film’s combination of period filmmaking and character comedy.
Film Threat’s Alan Ng praised Hines’ achievement, writing:
“As an indie filmmaker, I’m in awe of how Hines was able to create a period piece on a low indie budget.”
Ng also praised the chemistry between Scolari and Pentz, noting how naturally the comedy grows from the contrasting personalities of the Wilde sisters.
Avi Offer of NYC Movie Guru called the film:
“A funny, witty and razor-sharp satire.”
He further declared that The Wilde Girls “deserves to become a sleeper hit and a cult classic.”
IndieWrap similarly praised the picture, declaring that “Timothy Hines managed to make a great film – one that works on multiple levels.”
CALI SCOLARI EMERGES AS A BREAKOUT
Among the film’s discoveries is Cali Scolari, whose performance as the thoughtful, bookish and increasingly resourceful Mattie Wilde marks a breakout feature performance.
Playing the quieter center of the Wilde sisters’ comic storm, Scolari brings warmth and restraint to Mattie while matching Lydia Pearl Pentz beat-for-beat through the film’s increasingly absurd circumstances. Critics have repeatedly singled out the pair’s chemistry, with Film Threat praising the roles as wonderfully played by Scolari and Pentz.
For Scolari, The Wilde Girls also carries a deeply personal connection to one of American television comedy’s most beloved performers.
Cali is the daughter of the late Peter Scolari, the Emmy Award-winning actor whose extraordinary career included starring opposite longtime friend Tom Hanks in Bosom Buddies, his celebrated performance as Michael Harris on Newhart, which earned him three consecutive Emmy nominations, and his Emmy-winning performance as Tad Horvath on HBO’s Girls.
The timing of the Hollywood Gold Awards recognition carries an especially poignant coincidence: Peter Scolari would have celebrated his 71st birthday on September 12, just two days before the announcement.
While Cali unmistakably carries a remarkable comedy lineage, The Wilde Girls establishes her on her own terms. Her Mattie is not an imitation of the comic style associated with her father, but an assured, individual performance built around stillness, intelligence, vulnerability and an ability to let comedy happen around her before landing the moment herself.
That quality became one of the foundations of the film.
Alongside Scolari, Lydia Pearl Pentz delivers a fearless performance as the imperious and endlessly combustible Tinsley Wilde, while Teddy Smith brings dry humor, warmth and authenticity to Silas Colter, the wilderness loner whose peaceful existence is comprehensively destroyed the moment the Wilde sisters enter it.
Together, the three form the unlikely comic heart of the picture.
ANOTHER HONOR FOR HINES AND THE WILDE GIRLS
For Hines, the Hollywood Gold Awards recognition continues a filmmaking career defined by ambitious independent productions across markedly different genres, including the historical drama 10 Days in a Madhouse with Christopher Lambert, the science-fiction feature War of the Worlds: The True Story and the comedy Tomorrow’s Today with Kelly Le Brock and Burt Young in his last role.
With The Wilde Girls, Hines turned his attention to something deliberately different: an old-fashioned character comedy made with a contemporary rhythm, built around two women who discover that losing everything may be precisely what forces them to discover who they really are.
“Timothy never approached The Wilde Girls as simply a series of jokes,” Goforth said. “He believed completely in Mattie, Tinsley and Silas. That is why the comedy works. However ridiculous their circumstances become, the characters themselves never believe they are in a comedy. To them, everything happening is deadly serious – and frequently disastrous.”
Pendragon Pictures proudly congratulates Timothy Hines, Cali Scolari, Lydia Pearl Pentz, Teddy Smith and the entire cast and crew of The Wilde Girls on the film’s continuing recognition.
Congratulations to Timothy Hines – Best Director, Hollywood Gold Awards – for The Wilde Girls.
NEXT FOR HINES: THE RED HEAD
Hines is now preparing to return behind the camera for The Red Head, an ambitious World War II historical thriller based on the true story of Hannie Schaft, the young Dutch law student who became one of the most feared resistance fighters operating against the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
Set principally in Haarlem during the final years of the war, the film follows Hannie’s transformation from an idealistic university student into an underground operative and assassin, while exploring the profoundly human question at the center of her story: at what point does doing nothing in the face of overwhelming injustice become the immoral choice?
Written by Timothy Hines and Susan Goforth, The Red Head is being produced by Hines and Goforth through Pendragon Pictures, with Kimberly Olsen, who is EP on Paper Tiger starring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller. Olsen is serving as Executive Producer on The Red Head. Conceived as a sweeping but intimate prestige drama, the film will place Hannie’s personal loss of innocence at the center of one of the most extraordinary true stories of resistance to emerge from occupied Europe.
ABOUT THE WILDE GIRLS
The Wilde Girls is a period comedy written and directed by Timothy Hines and produced by Susan Goforth for Pendragon Pictures. Set during the Great Depression, the film stars Cali Scolari, Lydia Pearl Pentz and Teddy Smith in the story of two pampered heiresses thrown into the wilderness with no survival skills, a price on their heads and a reluctant mountain man as their only hope of making it out alive.
ABOUT PENDRAGON PICTURES
Pendragon Pictures is an independent motion picture production company founded by filmmaker Timothy Hines and Susan Goforth, producing character-driven feature films for international audiences. Its productions include 10 Days in a Madhouse, War of the Worlds: The True Story, Tomorrow’s Today and The Wilde Girls, with the World War II historical thriller The Red Head next moving toward production.
Media Contact
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