The “Storytelling in Music and Sound” panel gave attendees a special opportunity to hear from Watch the “Storytelling in Music and Sound” panel to hear from industry professionals on how they collaborate on different projects and how they use music and sound as a storytelling tool. Featured panelists: re-recording mixer Kate Finan of Boom Box Post (Pupstruction), composer Greg Nicolett (Pupstruction), director/ editor Sean Olson (Camp Hideout), sound designer Andres Boulton (Camp Hideout), producer Jiarui Guo, and composer Pancho Burgos-Goizueta, Moderated by Film.Music.Media’s Kaya Savas.

A four-time Emmy winner and member of the Producers Guild of America, films and television shows Sean has worked on have been distributed by Netflix, Warner Bros, Universal, Sony, Lionsgate, Starz, Showtime, Hallmark, Lifetime, Fox, MTV and Discovery.

Sean Olson, a former long-time Ahwatukee resident and editor for the entertainment news magazine Extra, was anxiously awaiting the Arizona premiere of his newest movie and its opening in Harkins Theatres in April.

But then came the pandemic, closing film festivals and theaters.

“Ah, the challenge of releasing an independent film in the middle of a pandemic,” Olson lightheartedly mused.

Last year Skipstone Pictures filmed its latest release “F.R.E.D.I.” in and around Bentonville, and the family-oriented film about a teen who makes friends with a robotic artificial intelligence makes its local theatrical run starting today at the Skylight Cinema in Bentonville.

If you haven’t heard, F.R.E.D.I., the sci-fi adventure film shot in Bentonville and co-produced by Fayetteville-based Rockhill Studios, took home “Best in Fest” at the conclusion of Bentonville Film Festival! As the video captures below, the award took director Sean Olson by surprise and filled him with emotion as he and producer Johnny Remo sung the praises of the Bentonville and the Northwest Arkansas community in their acceptance speech.

"F.R.E.D.I." made its world premiere at this year's Bentonville Film Festival and secured the coveted Best of the Fest award.

Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival, which champions women and diverse voices in media, on Saturday announced its 2018 award winners.

The ceremony was hosted by The Real’s Loni Love, and presenters included festival co-founders Davis and Trevor Drinkwater and actress Stephanie Beatriz, with performances by Martina McBride and the Latin X Theater Project.

Bentonville Film Festival fans lucky enough to land a ticket to the competition film "F.R.E.D.I." will get an eyeful of familiar scenery: The sci-fi adventure was shot right here in Northwest Arkansas last summer. Bentonville's downtown square, the Walmart Museum and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art are all featured prominently, though eagle-eyed viewers will also spot scenes shot in Rogers and Fayetteville as well.

A cloudless Sunday sky offered no relief to the production crew shuffling two cameras and three actors through traffic and around the Bentonville square earlier this month. After their hour-long lunch break, everyone was back to work creating FREDI, a family-friendly action-adventure slated to hit theaters in the summer of 2018.

Independent film producer Johnny Remo first visited Northwest Arkansas last year, for a screening of his movie “Saved by Grace” at the Bentonville Film Festival (BFF). He decided then it would be the setting of his next feature film, F.R.E.D.I.