Bentonville Film Festival organizers expect smash-hit debut

Almost five months after announcing the Bentonville Film Festival, Trevor Drinkwater remains resolute in his initial belief in the concept.

Ticket sales continue to outstrip expectations, filmmakers jumped at the chance to submit their creations, and a strong group of celebrities committed to participate.

"It confirms the mission of the festival is being fulfilled," said Drinkwater, chief executive officer for presenting organization ARC Entertainment. "The town of Bentonville, and Northwest Arkansas, was ready for a film festival."

Drinkwater pledges his production team is ready for the inaugural event, which will take place May 5-9 in various venues in Northwest Arkansas.

Drinkwater partnered with actress Geena Davis and her Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to create the festival. The 54 films selected for inclusion share a common interest in gender and diversity issues. Thousands of tickets will be sold for the festival, Drinkwater said, as Bentonville enters the scene as one of the larger events of this type in the country.

As a first-year event, measuring success is not easy, Drinkwater said. The abbreviated schedule for planning the festival limited the size and scope in its first year. ARC Entertainment and partner sponsors such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Coca-Cola and AMC Theaters will have an entire year to plan for the 2016 event.

Drinkwater said the festival needs only to establish its presence in the first year and build on that for future festivals.

"Objective one is to put on the best festival we can and use that success to propel us into the future," Drinkwater said.

The first festival already has generated a substantial amount of interest, said Kalene Griffith, president and chief executive officer of the Bentonville Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"The quick sellout of the limited All Access Passes and the Pitch Perfect 2 screening is a great example of the area's response to the film festival," she said. "We continue to hear people talk about the excitement of the screenings and the panel discussions."

Ed McClure, a member of the board of directors for Rogers Little Theater and the chairman of the organization's production committee, said Northwest Arkansas residents are fortunate to have such an event.

"It's a world-class festival, with recognizable, bankable stars," McClure said.

Drinkwater said Bentonville presented the right fit for the festival because of the beauty of the town and the area amenities, such as Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Drinkwater also saw an opportunity to expose guests to a town he's been visiting for 20 years in various roles in the Wal-Mart vendor community.

A meeting between Wal-Mart senior director of films Louis Greth and Drinkwater put the festival in motion.

Greth, in the interest of including more films that championed gender or diversity roles on store shelves, pitched a concept for a film festival exploring those ideas. Drinkwater and his colleagues at Los Angeles-based ARC Entertainment, which distributes movies to theaters and retailers such as Wal-Mart, contacted their industry sources. That included Davis, a longtime advocate for women in the film industry.

"[Drinkwater] was so fired up about it, and the idea just kind of took off from there," Greth said.

Greth, from Bentonville, said the region should feel a sense of pride for what the out-of-town guests will see during the festival.

Those guests will include Robert De Niro, the veteran actor featured in nearly 100 movies, including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and more recently, Silver Linings Playbook.

De Niro joins other high-profile guests such as Rosie O'Donnell, Melissa Joan Hart, Alysia Reiner, Soledad O'Brien and festival chairman Davis as confirmed for spots on the numerous panel discussions sprinkled among the film offerings. Many filmmakers and actors are expected to join the festivities during the course of the week.

"I can't believe my town is hosting this," Greth said. "They'll be introduced to a wonderful community."

Wide distribution

Drinkwater originally said most of the venues would be within walking distance of the downtown Bentonville square. But availability of potential venues and a concern over finding enough parking in the downtown corridor led organizers to spread out its footprint, including the screening location in Rogers and the sold-out closing film, a preview of Pitch Perfect 2 at the AMC Fiesta Square location in Fayetteville.

The panels take place at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Northwest Arkansas Community College's Walmart Auditorium and the Bentonville Public Library. Films can be viewed at Victory Theater, the Four Points by Sheraton, Grace Point Church and Northwest Arkansas Community College's White Auditorium.

The Story Theatre, inside Grace Point Church in Bentonville, is one of the largest of the film venues, with the ability to accommodate 1,000 guests.

Films submitted to the festival came from all over the country. A group of University of California, Los Angeles film students helped narrow the initial pool of applicants. Further cuts were made by Bentonville Film Festival staff members.

The festival's jury was announced Friday afternoon, and it consists of industry figures such as Emilio Estevez, Judge Reinhold and Darla K. Anderson, the producer of Toy Story 3 and Cars. Gil Robertson, president of the African American Film Critics Association, will serve as jury president.

The 40-member jury will select the top films, which will be recognized during a closed-to-the-public awards ceremony May 9 at Old High Middle School.

None of the movies selected for the festival carry an "R" rating, a move designed to keep the festival family-friendly. If submitted films had yet to receive an official rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, Bentonville Film Festival staff members sorted through them to determine whether the films fit the focus of diversity or gender advancement while staying family-friendly, Drinkwater said.

Each of the films must also be appropriate for distribution, as the winning film receives screen time courtesy of AMC Theaters and distribution via Wal-Mart stores. The distribution deal is the only film festival award of its kind, Greth said.

"It's extremely important. That will really separate us from other festivals," he said.

Demand for tickets for the festival has exceeded expectations, Drinkwater said. Multiday passes sold out promptly, as did tickets for special events, such as a softball game at Arvest Ballpark featuring Davis and O'Donnell, both of whom starred in the women's baseball movie A League of Their Own. All tickets also have been claimed for the series of panel discussions at Crystal Bridges, including those featuring De Niro and Davis.

Individual tickets remain for most movies, and tickets remain for several of the community-oriented events, including a concert May 6 at the Arend Arts Center in Bentonville.

Available tickets will be sold from the main box office, located in the former Benton County Daily Record office on Southwest A Street just west of the Bentonville square. The location also serves as a pickup location for tickets reserved online. Tickets can also be purchased at any of the movie venues, starting about one hour before the first ticketed screening or event.

Even those without tickets can experience part of the festival. A sponsor village will be established just to the northeast of the Bentonville square and will allow guests to see demonstrations from movie industry businesses.

Griffith, of Bentonville's visitors bureau, said a finalized venue map, transportation map and schedule of public events will be available through the bureau's East Central Avenue office.

Plans for the 2016 Bentonville Film Festival are already underway, Drinkwater and Greth said.

Metro on 04/27/2015

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