Tag Archives: Arkansas Cinema Society

Volunteers sought for Arkansas Cinema Society’s Filmland

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Filmland is August 22-25, and the Arkansas Cinema Society need your help! They cannot put on a film festival like this without the help of volunteers.

The benefits of volunteering at Filmland:
-Receive a complimentary ticket to the screening and its after party
-Students can have volunteer hours verified for honor societies and school credit
-Have the opportunity to meet local and national filmmakers
-Work with an exciting, diverse team who loves film
-Experience behind the scenes of an ACS event

To sign up, click the link.

#Filmland2019 #ArkCin #VolunteerACS #WatchLearnMake

FILMLAND to feature Andrew Stanton of TOY STORY 4 and “Stranger Things”

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Two-time Academy Award winner Andrew Stanton is bringing Toy Story 4 to FILMLAND!

He also directed episodes of the hit Netflix show Stranger Things and will screen Episodes 4 & 5 of Season 2 as well.

Tickets are not yet on sale for individual screenings, but if you want to have the first opportunity to reserve a seat, you can purchase a FILMLAND Pass.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton was raised in Rockport, Massachusetts. He was educated at The California Institute of the Arts (or “CalArts”) in Los Angeles, where he studied character animation. After graduation, Stanton began working as a writer on the TV series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (1987). In 1990, he became only the second animator and ninth employee to join Pixar Animation Studios.

Stanton went on to help establish Pixar as one of the world’s leading animation studios. He was designer and writer on Toy Story (1995), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. He went on to write and direct such worldwide hits as A Bug’s Life (1998), Finding Nemo (2003) and WALL·E (2008), the latter two both winning Oscars for Best Animated Feature. Stanton also dabbles in voice work, perhaps most memorably as Crush, the laid back turtle, in Finding Nemo (2003).

Submissions open for Arkansas Cinema Society Filmland: Arkansas 2019

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LogoThe Arkansas Cinema Society and its premiere event Filmland were created to build a film community in Arkansas where film lovers can watch films, share ideas, connect with each other and nurture the new and existing film talent within our state through increased exposure to filmmakers and their art.

Filmland returns this August to the CALS Ron Robinson Theater in downtown Little Rock, furthering ACS’s mission to promote local filmmakers with Filmland: Arkansas. Information and details on how to submit to Filmland: Arkansas can be found in the specific short film and feature film categories.

The past two years have included Academy Award nominated actor Adam Driver, five-time Oscar nominated Director Richard Linklater, Director David Lowery, Producers Fred Berger and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Actors David Arquette, WIll Forte and Ted Danson and Oscar winner and ACS board member Mary Steenburgen. Screenings also feature Q&A’s moderated by ACS Founder and Director Jeff Nichols and every night is topped off with a party for filmmakers and attendees.

Filmland 2019 will take place the weekend of August 23rd. The exact dates, events and other details will be announced once special guests are finalized.

Awards & Prizes

ACS Filmland is a non-competitive, curated event but there will be an audience award for the Filmland: Arkansas program.

Rules & Terms

Submissions are for Arkansas filmmakers who either made their film in Arkansas or for an Arkansas Filmmaker who is an Arkansas producer, director, or writer of a film. Films may also be considered if an Arkansas native was the lead or key role as an Actor, Supporting Actor, Production Designer, Costume Designer, Sound Designer, Composer, Editor, Cinematographer, Animator, Visual Effects, Makeup and Hair or First Assistant Director. The Arkansas filmmaker(s) must be available to attend the screening for a conversation after the film.

More information (including a link to submission) can be found here.

Czech That Film festival returns to Little Rock for fifth year June 7 & 8

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On June 7-8, the Czech That Film (CTF) festival hits Little Rock packed with a program to whet any film-goer’s appetite: A guest director Jakub Šmíd in person and five stellar films showcasing the best in Czech cinema.

The Honorary Consulate of the Czech Republic has partnered with the Arkansas Cinema Society, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, and CALS Ron Robinson Theater to bring the the Czech That Film festival to Little Rock. The festival begins on June 7 with the family drama Short Cut (Na krátko). A Q&A with director Jakub Šmíd will follow the film screening.

On the following day, June 8, Ron Robinson will screen the drama/comedy Patrimony (Tátova Volha) followed by the sports drama The Golden Betrayal (Zlatý podraz). This will be followed by the Winter Flies (Všechno bude) film which received the Best Director award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival; and a historical drama Jan Palach (Jan Palach) honored with the best film award for 2018 from the Czech Film Critics’ Awards.

Q&A June 7th with
Director of SHORT CUT, Jakub Šmíd

Friday June 7th After-party
The Pantry Crest

Tickets can be purchased here.

Rock the Oscars 2019: BlacKkKlansman

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The Oscars are tonight.  One of the films nominated for Best Picture is BlacKkKlansman by Spike Lee.  Though previously nominated for Best Screenplay (Do the Right Thing) and Docmentary (4 Little Girls), this is the first time Lee has been nominated for producing a Best Picture nominee and for Best Director.

There are at least three Little Rock connections to the film.  First, it opens with vintage news footage of members of the Little Rock Nine being escorted into Central High in September 1957 (even though the film erroneously says August 25, 1957).

Second, Adam Driver stars in the film, and has earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination.  His father now lives in Little Rock. Driver also participated in the 2017 Arkansas Cinema Society’s “Premiere” event. Following a screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Driver and ACS founder Jeff Nichols took part in a discussion.

Third, Little Rock native and Hendrix College alum Ashlie Atkinson appears in the movie. She is also a former intern at Arkansas Times.

Rock the Oscars 2019: Mary Steenburgen

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It is Oscar month, so it is fitting to highlight at Arkansas’ own Academy Award winning actress, Mary Steenburgen on her birthday.  She was born on February 8, 1953, in Newport, Arkansas.  After moving to North Little Rock as a schoolgirl, she had her first starring role as Emily in the 1971 Northeast High School production of Our Town, which was the new school’s first play.

Her big break in the movies came when Oscar winner Jack Nicholson picked her to star opposite of him in Goin’ South.  This was followed by Time after Time before she appeared in Melvin and Howard.  For that film, she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.  It also marked the first of three times she starred with Jason Robards (the other two being Parenthood and Philadelphia).  Over the years, her films have run the gamut from period piece (Ragtime, Cross Creek) to sophisticated comedy (Romantic Comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy) to fantasy (Back to the Future III) to holiday comedy (Elf).  She has been hard to pigeonhole into a specific “type” of actor because she has played so many different types of roles.

Throughout her career, Mary Steenburgen has been a champion of the arts in Central Arkansas.  In 1986, she starred in and was executive producer of End of the Line, filmed in Central Arkansas, directed and co-written by Arkansan Jay Russell, and also starring Kevin Bacon, Wilfred Brimley, Levon Helm, Barbara Barrie and Holly Hunter.  More recently, Steenburgen has also been an active supporter of the Oxford American magazine as well as South on Main restaurant and performance venue.

She has been an active supporter and a board member of the Arkansas Cinema Society.  During the 2018 FILMLAND she appeared in panel discussions on comedy and on her TV show “The Last Man on Earth.”

The Arkansas Cinema Society offers an Exclusive FREE Screening of True Detective Season 3, Episode 6

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This Monday, February 11, the Arkansas Cinema Society is offering the chance for a free screening of Episode 6 of the third season of TRUE DETECTIVE.

Arkansan Graham Gordy, ACS Board Member and head mentor for Little Rock’s Young Storytellers program, is a seasoned screenwriter, Co-Writer/Actor/Producer of the feature film Antiquities, the Co-Creator of the series Quarry on Cinemax, and a consulting producer and writer for True Detective Season 3. He played an instrumental role in recruiting HBO to film the series here in Arkansas. Graham will be our guest after the screening for a conversation about the making of the series and answer any questions you may have!

It will take place at the Ron Robinson Theater.  Screening begins at 6:30pm, doors open at six.  Admission is FREE, but you must Reserve Your Seat!