Event Details
Dates: 8/26/2022 - 8/27/2022
Description
Fort Smith, AR – 2nd Annual Fort Smith International Film Festival will be screening 137 official selections in 4 rooms over 2 days. We have movies from over 30 counties, nations, and tribes with genres including drama, comedy, sci-fi, LGBTQ+, thriller, and many others.
Located in an original wild west border town, the 2022 Fort Smith International Film Festival, celebrates “Borderlands,” where the stories of our lives exist. Our shared humanity is experienced at the borders between countries, nations, states, cities, neighborhoods, languages, races, genders, cultures, social economic classes, and ages. Borderlands are where innovation happens, realities are challenged, novel concepts and fresh identities are born and questioned. These societal edges represent a coming together of physical and emotional boundaries, the forming of territories, the space where conflicts are both heightened and resolved. Film acts as a threshold between actuality and fantasy capturing the moment a border is established, defended or overcome. For filmmakers, art is our manifest destiny, and the Fort Smith International Film Festival, is the theatrical gateway to creativity’s wild west, where all perspectives and points of view are welcomed.
Film Categories: People of Color, Indigenous, Music Video, Animation, High School & College Student Short Film, Documentary, Short & Feature-length Films.
Admission: We have a limited number of VIP tickets ($30), which give you the best seats in the house, access to the filmmakers, actors, and more.
Our goal is to keep the festival accessible, general admissions are $10 in advance and $15 Day of. You can get your tickets at HERE
Schedule
FRIDAY: 5 PM - 12 AM
The festival opens Friday, August 27, with the NWA Screenwriters Collective who invites anyone interested in scriptwriting or storytelling to join their meeting. On the Main Stage, Mayor George McGill welcomes film fans as we highlight local high school and college movies. Next, the Cherokee Nation Film Office will discuss the importance of indigenous representation in cinema featuring Jennifer Loren’s latest work, “ᏚᏙᎥᎪᏪᎸ: Signature: The Cherokee Speakers Roll.” The Arkansas Cinema Society showcases a group of filmmakers from across the state. Finally, the evening ends with our special guests and a conversation about the economic impact of the entertainment and film industry in our region.
SATURDAY: 10 AM - 2 AM
Saturday’s marathon of movies begins at 10 AM in four rooms throughout TempleLive, capped off with a Midnight Awards Ceremony. The Main Stage features shortblocks including Drama, Experimental, Comedy, Animation, People of Color, Indigenous, Action, Sci-Fi, and High School films. The Lodge Room hosts our local and alumni filmmakers along with the much-anticipated thriller movie block. Emphasizing the fact, we are an international film festival, seven feature length foreign films will be screened in the Grotto Room. A mix of categories will be shown in the Commandry Room ending the evening with a fan favorite, music videos. Lastly, the Midnight Awards Ceremony will be emceed by Jesica Beaty, host of Arklahoma Grown, a weekly radio show on The Rock 94.5.
* Please confirm directly with the promoter or box office to ensure event details have not changed.