FORT SMITH, Ark — The Fort Smith International Film Festival runs Thursday, Aug. 22, through Saturday, Aug. 24, at Temple Live and The Bricks.
The fourth year of the film festival, which has grown to become the largest in the region, brings several significant firsts. There are more films to see this year, with 201 total and 34 feature films — double the amount from previous years.
A major reason for that growth is the launch of the MidAmerica Film Market, which puts Fort Smith's festival on the map as a movie market. This means the films shown at the festival have a chance at being distributed.
“The whole idea is we have filmmakers here [and] we're bringing in people who want to buy films,” said Dr. Brandon Chase Goldsmith, Executive Director of the film festival. “We're trying to marry the two together because … our currency [is] our filmmakers and the amazing stories that we have here. We have some distributors that are here from DC, from Atlanta and L.A., and they're here to look at people's films, and who knows, you come here to the Fort Smith International Film Festival, you may see that film come up on one of the big streaming services or even on a cinema screen.”
Goldsmith said the MidAmerica Film Market will help build Fort Smith’s creative economy and allow local filmmakers to make more films.
He added that one of the best parts of the festival is bringing local stories together with international stories.
“That's one of the things that we're trying to show Hollywood and the rest of the world, is that there are stories here that you're not going to find anywhere else,” Goldsmith said. “We have a story about the Joplin tornado, we have stories about the Elaine Massacre, or down at Black Wall Street, Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa … Where else are you going to find stories about that?”
Another new addition to the film festival this year is a high school film festival. Those films will be shown at the King Opera House on Saturday night.
Information about times and tickets can be found here.
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