At a moment when Sundance Film Festival is poised to move from its Park City, Utah, home of four decades to Boulder, Colorado, BendFilm is doubling down on staying local and being indie. With a honed vision to support emerging independent filmmakers at its new Basecamp mentorship retreat and with a program of North American films, the nonprofit’s Bend Film Festival moves into the future with a focus on connection.
Founded in 2004 by Katie Merritt, the first Bend Film Festival brought culture, cash prizes for filmmakers and parties open to all attendees to Bend, plus VIPs, like Gus Van Sant, and put it on the national film-circuit map.
Being part of a community and a shared experience is one of the incomparable experiences of a film festival. In 2024, Bend Film Festival drew its highest-ever attendance, and with that momentum in mind, it added a day, going from a four- to five-day event held October 8 through 12, 2025. It also introduced Basecamp, an immersive retreat held at the Caldera Arts Center near Sisters, Oregon.
“Basecamp feeds into the idea of a discovery film festival,” said BendFilm’s executive director Giancarlo Gatto. “We’re helping build a platform for filmmakers. It’s not just people coming here to see the films, but for people to connect within the industry.”
Expanding the Lens of a Film Festival Experience
In its second year, Basecamp’s intensive four-day residency program invites 45 emerging or mid-career filmmakers for hands-on workshops, industry networking, creative collaboration and real-world guidance from film-industry experts. “We wanted a program to help launch a career, not just a film,” said John Cooper, former director of Sundance Film Festival and a consultant to BendFilm. The Basecamp cohort spent three days at the inaugural session with mentors including power agent Craig Kestel, producers Christine Vachon (“Carol”) and Effie Brown (“Real Women Have Curves”).
“Basecamp gave me the creative reset I didn’t know I needed,” said Bend filmmaker Erin Galey. “It was mentorship, community, and creative oxygen all in one.” A veteran of the film industry with 23 years of experience, she found the experience invaluable, particularly for the practical skills like pitching that are rarely taught in film school. “Something inexplicable happened when we were there, which created a connection that was really magical,” she added.
Basecamp and BendFilm Forge Connections
“The secret is that the mentors get as much out of it as the fellows,” said Cooper. Basecamp adds one more layer of connection to a film festival experience—whether it is filmmaker to mentor or audience to the art. “What you’re really building is relationships and a form of loyalty to a place and
an experience.”
Furthering the interaction, this year’s Basecamp program culminates in a public pitch event during Bend Film Festival’s opening day, allowing audiences and industry insiders alike to witness stories at their inception. This is an increasingly rare opportunity in a marketplace that often only rewards finished products, according to Cooper. Providing momentum leading up to the festival, it also ties the public into the filmmaker experience. “The experience is a stoke. To be in an audience, to rub elbows with filmmakers and the industry,“ BendFilm’s Gatto said. “Basecamp is an opportunity for us to lean in and create something special as an education piece and to platform these emerging filmmakers.”
Defining Festival Margins
BendFilm has also strengthened its own point of view. Starting in 2025, the juried competition will spotlight films with majority financing from, or shot in, North America. “It’s not about excluding the rest of the world,” Gatto explained. International films will be shown in noncompetitive categories to ensure the festival retains its global lens while amplifying regional voices, he said.
A major festival like Sundance shifting out of its founding location signaled both a logistical and philosophical rethinking of how and where stories are shared. Today, viewers are curators by streaming a personalized experience each evening in their living room. But BendFilm’s programming power can connect communities and continuously contribute to the local cultural landscape. Year-round, BendFilm operates Tin Pan Theater, a boutique cinema, and supports the Future Filmmakers Program, summer camps, the IndieWomen advocacy group, and a BIPOC Women Production Grant.
“Theories may divide us, but stories unite us,” said Cooper. “Telling stories is what helps you break down walls. It’s a shared drama when as humans, we have something that resonates with you. Film is an amazing storytelling device.” By attending a film festival, “you can own a moment in a film’s life,” he said. BendFilm’s Gatto agreed, “We’re not just building a festival,” he said. “We’re building a pipeline, a culture, a community.”
