Pay attention to the lines of people at the upcoming Bentonville Film Festival. Friendships form in those lines, a result of spare time combined with the wonder of stepping into a theater not knowing much about the film.
"More often you're seeing a film that you've never seen before, and you're seeing things that haven't been distributed," says Jessica Wilson, who has 20 years of film festival experience and serves as the director of venues for the new event. "The lines are the place where people at film festivals bond, because there is all this anticipation."
FYI
Getting There
A series of shuttles will run in opposite directions from three park-and-ride locations, stopping at major festival venues along the way. Festivalgoers are encouraged to park in the lots of the Sheraton Four Points, Grace Point Church or the former Nunnally car dealership on Walton Boulevard just south of the Walmart home office. Shuttles will arrive every 30 minutes, approximately, and the service will run from 8:30 a.m. to midnight on each day of the festival with the exception of May 9.
FAQ
Bentonville Film Festival
WHEN — Tuesday through May 9
WHERE — Venues in Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale & Fayetteville
COST — Ticket prices vary per event
INFO — bentonvillefilmfest…
More important, perhaps, is that the lines will also provide a recourse for those looking for last-minute tickets to sold-out events. Sell-outs have been a common occurrence for the first "BFF," scheduled to run from Tuesday through May 9. Tickets to a preview screening of "Pitch Perfect 2," for instance, sold out in 27 minutes. Even so, a few seats may be made available courtesy of the rush ticket system, a common practice at other large film festivals.
The rush ticketing system works a lot like flying standby, says Carrie Raukar, accreditation and box office manager for the Bentonville Film Festival. Raukar has served in similar roles for several large film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, Nantucket Film Festival and the Doha Film Institute in Qatar. The process for securing rush tickets will echo the procedures at those festivals.
Queues form at venues 45 minutes prior to the start of the film or panel discussion, Raukar says, and there will be rush lines for everything, excluding anything considered a party or invitation-only event. Basically, if an event is on the festival's schedule of events, there will be a rush line. As the published start time of the event in question nears, festival staff members check for open seats in the house. Empty seats might exist if a festival passholder opted to attend another film, for instance. And if those openings still exist five minutes before showtime, patrons waiting in the rush line start being admitted. Rush tickets for films are $8 -- the same price as if the ticket had been purchased weeks in advance -- and there is a limit of one rush ticket per person. Rush tickets will also be available for festival events that were free but require a ticket as a form of reservation.
The system is not flawless, because not everyone gets in every time, Raukar says.
"It's all about availability. It's definitely a roll of the dice," she says.
But for those who have a keen interest in a particular sold-out event, it's better than not trying at all, she adds. The festival staff is good at communicating the chances of getting a seat, too. If Raukar expects fewer than 10 seats to open up for rush purposes, and 200 people are waiting in line, staff members will kindly suggest those at the back of the line find another film at a different venue.
Meanwhile, actual tickets -- no rush line necessary -- are still available for many of the films and panels offered during the festival, which focuses on gender and diversity issues in the film industry. Those tickets can be reserved through the festival's website, and Raukar says it's worth checking the website periodically because additional tickets may be released for events previously listed as sold out. Tickets can be picked up starting Saturday at the the festival's main box office, located in the former Benton County Daily Record building just southwest of the Bentonville square. Additionally, patrons can pick up their ticket packets are the first venue they visit during the event. Day-of tickets sales will also take place at the main box office and film venues, provided those tickets are still available.
Film festivals have their own flow and feel, but it won't take long for everyone in Northwest Arkansas to catch on, says Wilson, who like Raukar has worked at several such events across the country. The lines and venues and access to filmmakers, including the post-screening discussion sessions, are different, but the best part of the process, Wilson argues.
"You may not have ever attended a film festival before, but you'll be taught what the process is. Once you've had it, you'll tend to want to experience it over and over again," she says.
That chance may exist. Plans are already being made for the 2016 edition of the BFF.
NAN What's Up on 05/01/2015