Fort Worth’s Lone Star Film Festival To Premiere Jimmy Stewart WWII Biopic Starring KJ Apa

Kelly Stewart Harcourt first realized her father, legendary actor James “Jimmy” Stewart, was a celebrity when she was just five or six years old, as she watched him participate in a soapbox derby in Akron, Ohio. Before the race began, she saw thousands of fans being held back, all yelling, “Jimmy!”

“And I thought, ‘My God, how do all these people know Dad’s name?’” she tells PaperCity.

Decades later, Harcourt is helping tell a lesser-known chapter of her father’s extraordinary life as an executive producer of Jimmy, a new biographical film exploring the Hollywood legend’s World War II military service and his return to cinema as the star of It’s a Wonderful Life. Jimmy will make its world premiere on November 4 at Fort Worth’s Lone Star Film Festival (LSFF), with Harcourt in attendance.

“A lot of people don’t know that he served in the military,” she says. “He always told me that was the part of his life he was most proud of, but Dad didn’t want to mix his Hollywood career and his military service.”

The Man Behind the Hollywood Legend

Growing up in Beverly Hills, California, with her twin sister, Judy, and two brothers came with bedtime requests for scary stories improvised by their father, one of the greatest actors in American cinema.

“He would tell us bedtime stories,” she recalls. “One involved a shipwrecked island controlled by a giant tarantula called Pong Boy because his eyes were as big as ping-pong balls. Judy and I loved being scared by him. He just made up those stories on the spot.”

Her childhood was also filled with family vacations to Europe, horseback riding, and travels with her parents to Africa alongside Fort Worth oilman Francis Johnson and his wife, Bess. That friendship connected the Stewarts to Cowtown and is part of the reason the LSFF is premiering Jimmy.

Kelly and Judy knew relatively little about their father’s World War II service, but discovering his wartime diary revealed a side of him they had never fully known, including his fears and grief over fellow servicemen who never returned from combat missions. The personal notes, Harcourt says, revealed her father’s self-doubts about whether to enlist in the first place. The government at the time wanted Stewart to stay in Hollywood to support the war effort at home.

The idea for Jimmy originated with Sam Juergens, who developed an initial idea of exploring Stewart’s wartime service. Director Aaron Burns brought the project to life, with Harcourt offering insights drawn from her father’s wartime diary.

New Zealand actor KJ Apa (Riverdale, The Hate U Give, I Still Believe) portrays Stewart in the film, a performance Harcourt praises for capturing her father’s distinctive speech patterns, gestures, and mannerisms without resorting to impersonation.

“A lot of people do Jimmy Stewart impressions,” Harcourt says. “And nobody really wants to sit there for two hours listening to a Jimmy Stewart imitation. KJ was able to bring Dad alive, to become Jimmy Stewart without imitating him. He really nails the way he holds himself and his gestures and posture.”

The Lone Star Film Festival Celebrates 20 Years of Cinema History

Lone Star Film Society executive director Chad Mathews says extra planning went into preparing the film festival’s 20th anniversary, building on a legacy that has seen top-tier actors like Bill Paxton, Sam Elliott, and Robert Duvall, among many others, make red carpet appearances for the annual Fort Worth tradition. This year’s LSFF will see the greatest number of filmmakers attend, he said, in addition to three additional world premieres.

“I’ve talked to a few people who were reminiscing about past Lone Star Film Festivals, including ones that drew Wes Anderson and others,” he says. “I wasn’t involved during those early days, so it’s cool hearing people share those stories. We’re going to continue to create opportunities for filmmakers to network. Sometimes, those connections lead to collaborations and films that end up at film festivals. The best thing a film festival can do is inspire future work.”

The festival will host the world premieres of three additional feature films: Unwinding, Autofiction, and Rumination. Unwinding features James Paxton, son of Fort Worth native Bill Paxton, who helped establish the festival. James attended the LSFF as a teenager with his father, making his return especially meaningful, Mathews says. Autofiction marks the feature debut of a filmmaker who previously screened a short at the festival, while Rumination, filmed in West Texas, features Fort Worth actor Eric Nelsen.

Mathews is particularly excited to see students from the film society’s summer camps get to see their films shown at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth this Saturday. For the film festival director, the world premiere of Jimmy is especially meaningful given Stewart’s longstanding ties to Fort Worth. The timing of the film’s theatrical release coincided with the festival, creating an opportunity to bring the Hollywood legend’s story to a city he knew well.

Stewart returned from World War II uncertain about his future, much like George Bailey, the conflicted protagonist he would portray in It’s a Wonderful Life. Harcourt says the opportunity to work with director Frank Capra for that now-beloved film helped her father rediscover his place in cinema.

Asked what she hopes audiences will take away from Jimmy, Harcourt pauses to gather herself.

“I want people to realize what an honorable, brave man he was,” she says.

The Lone Star Film Festival runs November 4 through 13, with screenings at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and other venues throughout the city.

The world premiere of Jimmy takes place November 4 at AMC Palace 9 in downtown Fort Worth. Visit the festival’s website for tickets.