The El Dorado Film Festival will kick off this year with a special 40th anniversary screening of the horror classic Fright Night — featuring star William Ragsdale, an El Dorado native.
Ragsdale, whose credits also include Search Party, Justified and Herman’s Head, got his start in a West Woods Elementary School production of Charlotte’s Web in El Dorado, a southern Arkansas city with a strong artistic bent. He graduated from El Dorado High School, then Hendrix College, before breaking into Hollywood.
The festival, which will include MovieMaker in attendance, takes place February 26th-March 2nd at the South Arkansas Arts Center. The film lineup includes H. Nelson Tracey’s Break Up Season, starring Chandler Riggs (The Walking Dead) and Wendy Lobel’s documentary Anxiety Club, featuring Marc Maron, Mark Normand, Aparna Nancherla and more. It will also feature the top films from the Louisiana Film Prize in nearby Shreveport, Louisiana, one of our 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.
The 2025 El Dorado Film Festival line-up also includes J.C. Doler’s The Fetch and Terre Weisman’s Max Dagan.
“Last year’s El Dorado Film Festival left me feeling inspired,” said executive director Alexander Jeffery. “We received over double the submissions this year and we are putting together an event that I think people in the community and surrounding area will really enjoy. There is plenty more to announce in the coming weeks, but for now I am absolutely thrilled to share this incredible line-up of films that we have the great fortune of showcasing next month.”
The Louisiana Film Prize block includes “Sex Date” (the Film Prize winner), “Most Likely to Succeed,” “Napoleonic Code,” “Toots” and “Three Sessions” (directed by El Dorado native Erica Michelle Singleton and
starring El Dorado native Moriah Hicks, who won for Best Performance at Film Prize).
Tamra Corley Davis, chair of the film committee, celebrated the work of the EDFF and the Film Prize in uplifting the regional film scene.
“Our partnership with the Louisiana Film Prize is one that Alexander and I have been fortunate to see continue to grow each year, and the slate of films that came from the 2024 Prize Fest has something for everyone!” she said. “We love our Prize family of filmmakers and are excited to showcase the Top 5 films, including the winner of the $50,000 top prize, during programming on Thursday.
“The Louisiana Film Prize and the Shreveport film community is a family that we at the El Dorado Film Festival are proud to be a part of. After the Prize Short Block we will be screening The Fetch, a feature film that premiered during the Austin Film Festival. The Fetch began as a short film, ‘Hangman,’ for the Louisiana Film Prize in 2016 and was developed into the feature film you can see Thursday night.”
The El Dorado Film Festival Shorts Lineup
Short films will screen throughout the week in various blocks. The Arkansas Shorts Block includes:
● “Carving” by Russell Sharman & Laura Shatkus
● “The Fundamentals” by Kyle Yazzie
● “Generational” by Jen Gerber
● “Greed” by Paula Blanco Perez
● “Little Bit” by Raeden Greer
● “Show Pub Queen” by Ren Tsukamoto & produced by Smackover native Javion Lee
● “Smoothie” by Chris Churchill
● “Stitches” by Madison Roy
● “Tippi & Barb” by Brad Burleson
● “Two of a Kind” by Skylar Nelson
● “Where Is It?” by Brady C. Ness
The festival’s Southern Made Film Block includes “The Artiste,” “Connected,” “The Heart of Texas,” “Love Is Neat,” “Miniature Life,” “Titty Boy,” “The Stage” (directed by Junction City native Jeremy Enis) and “Fast” (directed by Smackover native Clayton Henderson).
Other short films include “Canary,” “The Captives,” “The Chain,” “Deliberate,” “Detox,” “Donor,” “Dinosauria, We,” “Draft Night,” “Help Is…On the Way?,” “Not Afraid,” “The Owl,” “The River,” “Saint Christopher,” “Start Them Young,” “Tandem,” “They Call Me the Tattoo Witch” and “Pasture Prime” (which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival).
Cash awards presented to the winners include the categories Best of Fest ($1,500), Pam Callaway Spirit of the Festival Award ($1,000), Best Narrative Feature ($500), Best Documentary ($500), Best Short Drama ($500), Best Short Comedy ($500), Best Arkansas Short ($500) and Best Southern Made Short ($500).
Established in 2014, the El Dorado Film Festival offers a curated selection of independent cinema to audiences in El Dorado. Past guests have included actor/director Joey Lauren Adams (Come Early Morning, Big Daddy) and producer Kristin Mann (What Happens Later, To the Stars).
Its home, the South Arkansas Arts Center, is a visual and performing arts center that includes three gallery spaces, a ballet studio, a 207-seat theatre, a scene and costume shop, classrooms, a photography studio, and offices all of which provide AIE residencies, monthly gallery exhibits, community theatre productions, classes in visual arts, ballet, photography, drama, and music for people of all ages and people with special needs.
Main image: Fright Night. Columbia Pictures.
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