The Early Bird deadline is Wed. December 19, 2018. A $5 discount is applied to the submission fee, making the fee $25 instead of $30.  As of today, we have 11 films submitted from Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. Hey students in Nebraska and Oklahoma, let's see your submissions! Remember the final deadline is February 2, 2019.

WE would like to introduce the 2019 Festival Selection Committee:
L to R, seated: Mindy Littlecook, Sam Stuart, Gayle Williams
L to R, standing: Dolley Rolland, Chris Littlecook, Stephe Long, Jeri Casey Nash, Todd Stuart, Shane Bereman, Carla Rafferty
Not Pictured: Winston Henry, Jose Cervantes, Lance Garret
Remember: WE'RE WATCHING!

Nicolas Saenz for
Darkness in the Shadows    
Rating: PG    Running time: 10 min.
About the Film: When a kid detective is trapped inside a film noir, he must solve one last case to break his curse!
About the Filmmaker: Nicholas is a student finishing his last semester at the University of Texas Austin as a radio-television film major and is now trying out the whole Los Angeles thing. He would like audiences to know he like comedies, being goofy, pretending to take himself seriously, and world peace.

Joseph Tesfaye  for
What Do You See    
Rating: PG-13 Running time: 14 min.
About the Film: Saleem Aboubaker finds himself in a tough spot when robbing a couple, but the audience gets a inside look on how this young man is not only affected by his surroundings, but molded by it. He is just desperate, but he still has hope for his future.
About the Filmmaker: Joseph is an undergrad majoring in Film/Video in the University of Texas Arlington. His story comes from receiving a letter from friend in jail. His father was irate that he received a letter from an inmate from jail and refused to listen. Joseph made this film, so others would understand that not all inmates are “thugs” or “horrible people.”

Joshua Gallas for
1917    
Rating: PG-13 Running time: 13 min.
About the Film: Attempting to bury his past, an Ottoman soldier flees his home country during The Great War and struggles to find his place in America.
About the Filmmaker: Joshua got his start in the film/video world as a teenager making videos with his brothers. This led him to earn his BFA in Film/Video and continuing towards a MFA at The University of Texas at Arlington. Josh strives to inspire, educate, comfort, provoke, and encounter audiences with stories by shinning light on areas of life and culture that many people look past.

BisonBison Film Festival wished to express our gratitude to Geoffrey Smith for his service as our Festival Outreach Coordinator for the past three years. He approached this duty with energy, creativity and enthusiasm. Much of the growth the Festival has experienced is due to his efforts. Best of Luck in your new adventures, Geoffrey!

That is an excellent question. All films are submitted through FilmFreeway. From that site, the Selection Committee (eight people) view ALL of the films. As committee members are watching, we ask them to think about these
11 questions:
Is the film too slow and how does it grab your attention within the first minute?
How will the sound quality transfer to the large screen format?
Does it have originality?
Do you care about the characters and are they memorable?
How is the overall image quality and will it transfer to the large screen format ?
For a documentary, is it just a profile which can be told in a minute?
Is the story too predictable?
Is there a specific goal or theme?
If there is a soundtrack, does it match the visuals?
Can you connect emotionally?
Was the performance consistent and entertaining?

When the committee member is ready to select, there are four categories which are a 1-10 score, with one being the lowest:
Content (Story, Writing, Coherence)
Technical Excellence (Sound, Lighting, Cinematography)
Acting
Overall Impact

These scores are averaged. Then the committee meets and considers: the averages and any comments or notes; whether the films will fit in the limited time frame to show the films; if someone has submitted before; the number of films representing the six states involved; and if a member of the committee is willing to fight for a specific film to be included.

After the films are selected, then those films are released to the jurors.

The submissions deadline closed on Feb. 2, 2018. BBFF is very proud, excited, overwhelmed (and other thesaurus entries of amazement!) to announce we had 50 total submissions! Now comes the very difficult task of decided which films we accept into our limited time slots. Then it is on the to jurors (see more about these three fabulous individuals on our Jurors page) for the Award of Excellence decisions. No later than March 1, hopefully before, we will announce our selections. Of course, the three films chosen as the winners will be announced at the Saturday night event (March 31).

Trish Avery, the SAG-AFTRA DFW Local Executive Director, and she represents over 2500 professionals in TX, OK and AR. Check  out her info on the Workshops page!

Thank you to the new Ponca City Rotary Downtown Chapter!!! They have volunteered to provide a good meal for the student filmmakers, jurors, workshop presenters during the lunch break on the Saturday BBFF Workshops. This group is very motivated to help and volunteer for civic and non-profit events and one of the first volunteer outreach is the BisonBison Film Festival!!!

BisonBison Film Festival wants to thank the Oklahoma Arts Council for a Small Project grant, in support of the 2018 festival on March 30-31. Without the support of this very important organization, this project and many other arts events around the state would not exist. The arts are a vital resource for economic development and community sustainability. Please attend events sponsored by OAC and remind your legislators about the importance of continued arts funding.

On January 11 and 12, BBFF representatives attended a viewing of past Award of Excellence winners at the Individual Artists of Oklahoma Gallery (OKC) and the Living Arts Gallery (Tulsa). Audiences saw 2014 winning film "Hana" by Bunni Tomlinson, 2016 winner "Movie Magic" by Chris McIntosh, 2017 winner "Starch" by Nathan Manning and several other films. At both locations Bunni was available for Q & A, while at Tulsa, the audience was joined by Lee Boccacio, a TU student who had his film in the 2017 BBFF festival. A very big thank you to the galleries for the chance to share the films, to Bunni and Lee, and to our audiences.