Join us for the rialto family film festival - may 2-3, 2025

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CGA is excited to host the Rialto Family Film Festival in Searcy, Arkansas. The festival's mission is to provide a space where families can experience the artistry of independent cinema. We aim to curate and showcase high-quality films that are accessible to all ages. We welcome both children's films and faith-based films (in fact, we have a category for the latter) but by no means limit the festival to those genres - we invite filmmakers to submit any works that meet our criteria below.

We're hosting the festival in the Rialto Theater, a historic movie theater that has been in continuous operation since it was first constructed in the early 1920's. For the 2025 Rialto Family Film Festival, 17 films have been selected to be screened and judged. This two-day event which will host panels of experts, including Stephen Sinclair (screenwriter for the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) John Means (scenic department head for Universal Studios for movies likes Jaws, Back to the Future, and Jurassic Park), Byron Motley (producer of The Leagues), Dylan Treadwell (intellectual property attorney and filmmaker), Joe Aaron (writer/director for Surrounded by Idiots and co-creator of Doug), and Dr. Charles Bane (chair of the film department and professor of communication at Harding University). 

Congratulations  to Cries from the Cotton Field by Larry Foley and Ed Eaves for winning Best Feature Film, Kolbe House by Trevor Thomas Tosto for winning Best Faith-Based Film, and Bird Drone by Radheya Jang Jegatheva for winning Best Short Film! Also, congratulations to our Feature Film Finalists:  The Science Adventures of Tom & Huck by Lee Fanning, Benjamin Stark and Michael Willams and Forever One by EO Milvado!

Support for the Rialto Family Film Festival is provided in part by the Searcy A&P Commission, by the Arkansas Arts Council, and agency of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism, and the National Endowment of the Arts, by Harding University, and by Equip—Bible Online.