Bentonville Film Festival

The Bentonville Film Festival (BFF) is an American film festival held annually in Bentonville, Arkansas that focuses on diversity.[1]

Bentonville Film Festival
LocationBentonville, Arkansas, US
Founded2015 (2015)
Websitebentonvillefilmfestival.com

Foundation

Bentonville Film Festival was founded by actress Geena Davis and ARC Entertainment executive Trevor Drinkwater.[2] Bentonville was chosen as the location after Walmart, the founding sponsor, suggested it.[1] After Drinkwater learned Walmart was interested in supporting diversity initiatives, he brought in Davis, who he knew would be interested because of her work with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.[2]

The BFF is the only film festival in the world to offer guaranteed multi-platform distribution to its winners.[3] Films that win the Audience, Jury, and Best Family Film awards receive theatrical distribution from AMC Theatres,[4] are shown on Lifetime television, and get a DVD or video-on-demand release from Walmart and Vudu.[5] In 2015, 87% of the films shown were distributed in some way.[6]

The festival is notable is that until 2018, there was no functioning movie theater in Bentonville. This has led to the practice of turning any gathering area in the city into a potential screening location, included the use of "Cinetransformer" mobile theaters throughout the city.[7]

The festival has experienced attendance growth each year, welcoming 85,000 attendees and showing over 90 feature films, 33 short films and 13 episodes in 2018.[8][9]

See also

References
  1. Gupta, Shipra Harbola (2015-01-09). "Here's Why Geena Davis Started a Film Festival Focused Not on Women, But Diversity". Indiewire. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  2. Kay, Jeremy (2015-04-28). "Geena Davis and Trevor Drinkwater, Bentonville Film Festival". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  3. Saval, Malina (2017-05-15). "Bentonville Film Festival Announces 2017 Competition Winner". Variety. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
  4. McNary, Dave (2015-01-06). "Geena Davis Launching Bentonville Film Festival to Push for Diversity in Film". Variety. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  5. Milvy, Erika (2015-05-13). "Bentonville Film Festival pushes diversity message from year one". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  6. Saval, Malina (2015-08-27). "Bentonville Film Festival to Offer More Diversity in 2016, Says Geena Davis". Variety. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  7. "Bentonville, Ark., Hosts a Film Festival Without a Movie Theater". The New York Times. 2015-05-05. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
  8. "BFF Announces Continued Growth & 2019 Dates! - Bentonville Film Festival". bentonvillefilmfestival.com. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
  9. "Bentonville prepares for film festival; planners expect 100,000 people to attend". Arkansas Online. 2018-04-30. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
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