The 2025 Bentonville Film Festival lineup is officially live, as announced in Deadline. Co-founded by Academy Award winner and Institute founder Geena Davis, BFF continues to serve as a national model for what inclusive storytelling can look like—both on screen and behind the camera.
Elevating Representation in the 2025 Lineup
The Bentonville Film Festival lineup includes a powerful mix of stories that center women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with disabilities, and people with larger bodies. These categories align with the Institute’s ongoing research and advocacy to ensure that on-screen content reflects the world we live in.
“It’s not just about visibility—it’s about accuracy, depth, and impact,” said Davis in a past festival keynote. That spirit continues to shape the festival’s programming and aligns closely with the Geena Davis Institute’s mission.
The 2025 festival will take place June 10–16 in Bentonville, Arkansas, with both in-person and virtual screenings. The full lineup includes narrative features, documentaries, episodic content, and short films, many of which mirror the themes and values highlighted in GDI’s most recent research on media representation.
Why This Matters to GDI
At the Geena Davis Institute, we believe data and storytelling go hand-in-hand. The Geena Davis 2025 Bentonville Film Festival lineup proves how far we’ve come—and reminds us of the work still ahead to create equitable representation in entertainment media.
