The River Bend Film Festival celebrated its 10th year in Goshen and its 24th year overall this weekend. The festival showed more than 70 short films, bringing independent filmmakers and actor Doug Jones to downtown Goshen for three days of community events, including screenings and Q&As. 

The festival featured local filmmakers along with filmmakers from all over the world. The post-screening Q&As, and other events such as the coffee talk, helped the festival focus on connecting the audience directly with filmmakers, not just promoting the films. 

Behind the festival’s three-day schedule was a team of volunteer members who started organizing the event a year ago in order to be ready in time. 

Kyle Hufford, professor of communication at Goshen College and department chair, is the board chair of the organizing team for the festival. 

Hufford said, “The board is a volunteer board, and we do this in our spare time. We don’t have a paid staff and I think the volunteer nature of putting this huge event on is the most challenging.”

One of the events of the festival was a coffee talk, in which actor Doug Jones joined other guests for an open breakfast discussion. Attendees had the chance to listen to the discussions and talk with Jones after.

Jones also drew many people to the Goshen Theater for a screening of “The Shape of Water,” a 2017 Guillermo del Toro film in which he was a lead. The theater was nearly full for the screening, and Jones participated in another Q&A session afterwards, giving the audience another chance to interact with him. 

While the River Bend Film Festival brought well-established actors to Goshen, its main focus remained on independent filmmakers and their work. Among the filmmakers participating in this year’s event was Isabel Massud ’26, whose film “Burning” was screened on opening night. 

Massud has been part of the River Bend Film Festival in the past. “Being able to come back with my senior capstone and other projects I did in my senior year was really fulfilling. I love the festival, it is a very welcoming and [a] very community based festival,” Massud said.

The festival also gave independent filmmakers a chance to interact directly with the audience and hear real feedback from them, but also with bigger names who can advise them in a relaxed, informal setting. 

Massud said that she was able to chat with Jones like she was “just one of his neighbors.” 

For some people present, the festival was also an opportunity to support GC filmmakers and see their work on the big screen. Kellam Venosky, a GC staff member who attended the festival, said, “I thought it was great, a good turnout as well.” 

“I have seen most of these films before, just with them being Goshen College students, but I wanted to come back, because there are great films, great storytelling and I wanted to support local artists, like some of our students,” he said.