Softball game added to Bentonville Film Festival events

Geena Davis, left and Rosie O'Donnell
Geena Davis, left and Rosie O'Donnell

The schedule for the Bentonville Film Festival was rounded out Monday courtesy of the announcement of several new events. And participants in one of the festival's newly announced events will be rounding the bases, as well.

Among many additions revealed is a softball game at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale. The four-inning contest will feature Rosie O'Donnell and Geena Davis, whose Institute on Gender in Media is a founding partner of the film festival.

Both O'Donnell and Davis appeared in the 1992 film A League of Their Own, which will be screened at the stadium in after the game.

The events were posted on the Bentonville Film Festival website Monday and tickets for those events went on sale at the same time. Individual tickets remain, but multi-day passes for the festival's run from May 5-9 in various Northwest Arkansas venues are sold out, said festival spokeswoman Allison Krissberg of Los Angeles-based publicity firm Rogers and Cowan.

Other film festival events posted Monday include a series of panel discussions and the free Sound of Music concert at 7:30 p.m. May 6 at the Arend Arts Center at Bentonville High School. That event features performances by von Trapp family descendants The von Trapps, magician Justin Flom and local symphonic organization SoNA.

As for the panels, several such discussions are listed on the festival's website, as are the participants for those events. Television journalist Soledad O'Brien, who will also serve as one of the hosts of the closing awards ceremony, will be present for a panel after a screening of When the War Comes Homes. Robert De Niro will highlight a chat at 3 p.m. May 7 at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art that discusses his father Robert De Niro Sr., a visual artist.

Also, Davis has gathered friends and fellow actresses O'Donnell and Alysia Reiner to re-imagine dialogue from significant all-male movies. The quartet will sit for a table reading and impart female voices and characterizations to several scenes. That discussion will be at 1 p.m. May 8, also at Crystal Bridges.

Update

Allison Janney will be unable to attend the festival as previously scheduled. This story has been updated to reflect that change.

The events at Crystal Bridges will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. For the majority of the other events, tickets must be procured through the Bentonville Film Festival's website at bentonvillefilmfestival.com. This is true even for many of the free events, such as the softball game and movie at Arvest Ballpark.

Tickets will also be available at several regional ticket outlets. The main festival box office will be in the former Benton County Daily Record's building on Southwest A Street, just west of the downtown Bentonville Square. The box office opens at 10 a.m. May 2.

Other box offices will be established at film festival venues including the Four Points by Sheraton, Grace Point Sanctuary, Northwest Arkansas Community College's White Auditorium and NWACC's Walmart Auditorium, all in Bentonville, and at Victory Theater, the home of Rogers Little Theater in Rogers.

The opening of those ticket outlets coincide with the beginning of the festival May 4. Additionally, tickets reserved online may be picked up at the main box office location.

A limited amount of "rush" tickets may be available for sold-out screenings if pass holders don't arrive on time, and lines for rush tickets will form 45 minutes to the event's start time, according to the festival's website.

The festival will conclude with a screening of "Pitch Perfect 2" at 6 p.m. May 9 at the AMC Fiesta Square 16 in Fayetteville and a red-carpet gala later that evening.

NW News on 04/21/2015

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