After sitting out 2021 due to the pandemic, the Hot Springs International Women's Film Festival returns this weekend.
Bill Volland, founder of the festival, has teamed up with Chris Rix, owner of Central Theatre, to bring the festival back to town Saturday and Sunday.
"We have lots and lots of good films coming in," Volland said, noting movies that will be shown include the work of a couple of Academy Award winners.
"We've got executive producer Spike Lee, we've got a film from him, executive producer Jeff Bridges, we've got a movie from him," Volland said. The two films are "You Resemble Me," by director Dina Amer, and "Hot Money," by director Susan Kucera.
Rix said the venue will screen around 20 movies for the festival, noting, "We've got two full days of movies that go from 11 in the afternoon until 11 in the evening."
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The festival includes scheduled appearances by actress Juliet Landau and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, Gen. Wesley Clark.
Landau, the daughter of Oscar-winner Martin Landau, who is known for her work in "Ed Wood" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," had her directorial debut in "A Place Among the Dead," which is showing at the festival.
Clark is "supposed to be here also," Volland said, noting he appears in the film Bridges executive produced and Kucera directed.
Volland said the lengths of the films range from the longest at two hours "all the way down to like seven minutes."
Narrowing down the lineup can difficult, he said.
"All year long people submit the movies and then I have a team of judges throughout the country and they all have access to watching the films," Volland said. "They all get judged and I compile that and figure out who's going to be selected and then whittle it down to what's going to get shown."
While it is an international film festival, with films "from all over the place," including Australia, all across Europe, and the Netherlands, Volland noted they also have an Arkansas-made section.
"And the only real category is just women in film. They could have produced it, had a starring role," Rix said.
"As long as there's a woman in above the line -- which above the line is where the crew takes over, so the director, the producer is all above the line, or any key position too -- but if it's just a crew member, that doesn't qualify," Volland said.
"Or it can be a male director and a male producer, and have the cast be all-female or it can be about women, too."
The original idea for the festival, which Volland is holding for the fifth time, came from Volland's experience working in the movie and television industry, he said.
"I worked in the industry for quite a few years and going all the way back to when they used to wear tuxedos, and the grips used to wear tuxedos at studios, there was hardly any women back then," Volland said, "and even today there's hardly any women who get a chance to direct or anything."
While working on a TV series for CBS, he said he "noticed one woman for every 10 guys on the crew and then from then on, no matter what I was doing whether it was a movie or a commercial or whatever I was working on, it was kind of the same thing, it was always way, way off."
While he occasionally saw a woman's name "above the line," he said, "for the most part it was all men in the business, so when I thought about doing a film festival, it was one of the things I thought about doing, just trying to help balance it out and hear some more from some of the women because they don't get much of a chance."
The previous festivals were held at Central Theatre, but Volland also owned the theater back then. He later sold the theater to Rix, who noted the plans for the 2021 festival "got derailed" when it was canceled due to COVID-19.
"So it skipped a year," Rix said, noting the festival surviving the pandemic and returning "is an accomplishment."
"I'm looking forward to doing anything I can to push it now that I can kind of co-work with (Volland)," Rix said. "I think it's such a cool event."
Rix said he is looking forward to holding the festival in his theater, though more for what the festival represents.
"I'm more excited about what the event is about. That platform fits what my mission statement is for the theater, which is inclusive and diverse, and having a stage for voice, and that's what (Volland) is doing," he said.
"Showing the movies, I'm glad, I'm excited. We've put some new technology into the theater. I'm excited about showing Bill what we've done there, because I think that's going to be a draw," Rix said, "We put a sound system in and that's going to be fun for the movies.
"The biggest part is less about just projecting the movie and more about the whole energy behind the effort," he said.
There are several options for tickets, he said, including festival passes, day passes and individual movie tickets.