Cookie Queens

WINNER! Audience Award, SXSW Film Festival

It’s Girl Scout Cookie season, and four tenacious girls strive to be a top-selling “Cookie Queen,” navigating an $800 million business in which innocence and ambition collide.  Captivating, candid, and full of heart, the new documentary Cookie Queens, from filmmaker Alysa Nahmias, follows four girls, ages 5-12, as they navigate the annual whirlwind of selling, striving, and succeeding. For these Girl Scouts, selling cookies isn’t just about Thin Mints and sisterhood – it’s a crash course in commercialism. Behind the smiles lie real pressure: long hours, ambitious goals, and weighty expectations. The girls use many tactics, from writing viral songs about cookies to threatening potential buyers with karate, as they prepare themselves to be future leaders of America. Their goals are as diverse as the girls themselves; some want to pay for a trip to Europe, others want to pay for summer camp. One wants to be a Supreme Court Justice. With humor, warmth, and a keen eye for small moments revealing big truths, Cookie Queens shows how growing up is shaped by tensions between community and capitalism. (Dir. by Alysa Nahmias, 2026, USA, 91 mins., Rated G)