Little Rock Film Festival

The Little Rock Film Festival (LRFF) was an award-winning showcase festival for Arkansas filmmakers and their fans. Founded by brothers Brent and Craig Renaud along with Jamie Moses and Owen Brainard, the LRFF was incorporated by its founding members on September 13, 2006, as a nonprofit corporation in Little Rock (Pulaski County) and was held every spring from 2007 until 2015. It ended, according to the organizers, “due to lack of funding, resources and time.”

On February 9, 2007, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette announced that the first LRFF was planned for May 17–20 in downtown Little Rock. The impetus for starting the LRFF was to showcase the best in “Narrative, Documentary, and Short films from around the World, as well as parties, panels, workshops, and youth programs.” That year, thirty-five films were shown across several venues, including Riverdale 10, Historic Arkansas Museum, and the Main Library campus of the Central Arkansas Library System. Along with screenings, there were cash prizes handed out and panel discussions with industry professionals and the filmmakers themselves.

By 2014, prize winners at the LRFF included Beasts of the Southern Wild, Winter’s Bone, Another Earth, Tiny Furniture, Breaking Upwards, Natural Selection, That Evening Sun, The Interrupters, Restrepo, High Tech Low Life, and Invisible War. By then, LRFF had hosted more than 350 films from more than three dozen countries. The following year’s festival featured Applesauce, a film by New York’s Onur Turkel, and director Bob Byington’s 7 Chinese Brothers, in addition to Luke Meyer’s Breaking a Monster.

By October 2015, the relationship between the LRFF and the Central Arkansas Library System had become strained. An agreement between them was terminated, which caused the library to evict them from its rent-free library office; the following day, LRFF organizers announced the festival’s end. LRFF co-founder Brent Renaud said that the library’s decision did not factor into their choice to end the Little Rock Film Festival, however. On September 30, Renaud cited busy schedules and a lack of funds for a full-time executive director as their reasons for ending the festival. Renaud reiterated in an email on October 2 that the festival was always a volunteer effort. Both library executive director Bobby Roberts and Brent Renaud agreed that the ultimate reason the festival could not continue was the lack of an executive director for the LRFF. The Renaud brothers added that LRFF was financially sound and had no debt at that time.

The Arkansas Times reported on October 1, 2015, that the festival’s 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service had been revoked due to the LRFF’s failure to file a Form 990. The Renaud brothers stressed that this was not a factor in the LRFF’s closure; however, Brent Renaud said that “the decision was mine, and I didn’t know about it. So, it didn’t factor into my decision at all.” Renaud said the form was sent to a previous address and was a “nonissue.” A letter addressed to Brent Renaud by library director Bobby Roberts said that he decided to end the library’s relationship with the LRFF because he found that there was no real benefit to CALS.

For additional information:
Crowe, Alexis. “Little Rock Film Festival Ends After 9 Years.” Arkansas Business, September 30, 2015. https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/107401/lrff-ends-after-9-years (accessed November 21, 2023).

“Film Festival Taking Entries.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, February 9, 2007, pp. 1E, 5E.

Stephenson, Will. “What Happened to the Little Rock Film Festival?” Arkansas Times, October 1, 2015. https://arktimes.com/rock-candy/2015/10/01/what-happened-to-the-little-rock-film-festival (accessed November 21, 2023).

Walkenhorst, Emily. “Library, Film Fest Ties Strained.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 12, 2015, pp. 1A, 5A.

Cody Lynn Berry
Benton, Arkansas