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Arkansas is filled with talented filmmakers and The Arkansas Cinema Society’s Filmland: Arkansas 2025 program will bring their works to the big screen during Filmland, August 13-17th, in the Performing Arts Theater at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. The selections were chosen by a committee of filmmakers and film lovers. A Filmland: Arkansas Showcase featuring even more films by Arkansas filmmakers will follow later this year.
Each year, the submissions have grown. ACS Executive Director Kathryn Tucker is thrilled by the growth.
“It’s so inspiring to see submissions for Filmland: Arkansas continue to grow each year,” said Tucker. “There is an incredible amount of activity happening all across the state that fuels and empowers emerging Arkansas filmmakers. Supporting that growth has always been central to the ACS mission—when our film community is connected and unified, everyone benefits. We’re proud that Filmland: Arkansas can help create opportunities for filmmakers to share their work and build relationships in the beautiful, state-of-the-art cinema at AMFA.”
Filmland: Arkansas is non-competitive in nature but all of the selected films in August will be eligible for the Audience Award for their category. Thanks to the generosity of our friends at Panavision, each year, the winners of the Professional Shorts and Feature Film Audience Awards receive a Panavision New Filmmaker Program equipment grant - $15,000 for audience favorite for short film and $60,000 for the audience favorite for feature film. The feature winners the last two years have each gone on to make films the following year in Arkansas, with the help of the Panavision equipment grant.
The 2025 ACS Filmland: Arkansas selections are:
Features:
Mississippi River Styx - directed by Andy McMillan + Tim Grant
Peeping Todd - directed by Josh Munds
Professional Shorts:
Student Shorts:
Tickets for Filmland: Arkansas will go on sale in the coming weeks. Members receive 15% off their ticket to each event and 25% off to each workshop along with advance notice when tickets go on sale for all events. Memberships are $50 and available now on the ACS website.
About Filmland
Filmland is made possible by ACS Headline Presenting Sponsor: the Tyson Family Foundation; Premiere Presenting Sponsor: the Rahman Family Fund; Presenting Sponsors: Saracen Casino Resort and the National Endowment for the Arts; Workshop Sponsor: the Windgate Foundation; Marketing Partner: Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau; Promotional Partner: the Arkansas Department of Tourism; Industry Partner: Panavision; Media Partner: Variety; and Youth Education Partner: City of Little Rock.
Over the last seven years, Filmland has been honored to host award-winning filmmakers like actors Jessica Chastain, Colman Domingo, Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Will Forte, Ted Danson, David Arquette and ACS board member Mary Steenburgen along with directors including Chloé Zhao, Richard Linklater, David Lowery, Neil LaBute, David Gordon Green and Jeff Nichols; and producers such as Evan Hayes, Jayme Lemons, Christina McLarty Arquette, Fred Berger and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones. Filmland has showcased award-winning films such as The Bikeriders, Nomadland, The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Free Solo from top festivals like Sundance, Telluride, Toronto and Venice before they had a theatrical release in Arkansas. Each screening features a Q+A moderated by Writer/director and ACS Co-founder Jeff Nichols, board members or staff and every night wraps with a party for filmmakers and attendees. Filmland also features selections from Filmland: Arkansas and the short film created each year by our Filmmaking Lab for Teen Girls.
At ACS, we believe that if we provide filmmakers an arena to exhibit their talents, and film enthusiasts a healthy diet of quality programming, we can inspire more Arkansans to make and watch more films. By supporting filmmakers, festivals, theaters and young people interested in filmmaking throughout the state, we hope to create statewide network, pool Arkansas’s resources and be an umbrella organization that feeds all things film. We believe a rising tide lifts all boats.
To be a filmmaker, we have to connect to create. A painter needs a brush, paint and a canvas. A director needs a writer, a cinematographer, a sound mixer, production designer, editor, actors, distributors, and an audience. We cannot do it alone. This art form forces one to collaborate and thus, creates jobs. Filmmaking is unique in the arts in this way. It takes an army.
