Lights, Camera, Action!

Entering its 11th year, the Bentonville Film Festival is an annual event chaired by Academy Award® winner Geena Davis in partnership with founding sponsor Walmart and presenting sponsor Coca-Cola. This year, our festival dates will be June 16 – June 22, 2025 in Bentonville. In 2024, we had over 10K+ viewers watching films, panels and Q&A’s on our virtual platform and over 15,000 attendees in-person screenings of competition and spotlight films, outdoor family films, panels and discussions, private filmmaker events and BFF community events, around Bentonville and the Northwest Arkansas region.

 

In the BFF 2024 juried competition program, 75% was from content creators who identify as female or gender non-confirming; 51% who identify as BIPOC, Asian, or Pacific Islander; 30% who identify as LGBTQIA+; 7% over 50 years of age; and 6% who identify as a person with disability. Additionally, onscreen leads were 56% women/gender non conforming, 45% BIPOC, and 11% representing talent with disabilities. More than 60% of all selected films had background cast and crews made up of majority of people who identify as female or gender-nonconforming and BIPOC, AAPI or Indigenous.

 

We want to continue this important work, so filmmakers, if you have a project that fits our mission to champion inclusion on and off screen and accurately reflect the gender balance and diversity of our world, please submit your shorts, episodics, and feature films to the 2025 Bentonville Film Festival, produced by the BFFoundation (501c3).