Overview
The North Bend Film Festival (NBFF) was a genre and arthouse film festival that operated in North Bend, Washington from 2018 to 2022. The festival is no longer active. Founders Jess Byers, Hugues Barbier, and Justin Timms launched the event in the small Cascade Mountain town where David Lynch filmed Twin Peaks, programming horror, thriller, surrealist, and psychologically intense cinema. The festival ran for five editions before closing in March 2023 due to the loss of a critical and consistent line of funding.
At its peak, NBFF screened features, short films, immersive experiences, and VR programming at the historic North Bend Theatre. The festival was one of the five original Nightstream collaborative festival partners. Submissions were accepted via FilmFreeway and, in earlier years, Withoutabox. The festival accepted open submissions for genre films that blended horror or genre elements with art cinema sensibilities.
The festival is listed here as a historical reference for filmmakers researching Pacific Northwest festival options. NBFF is no longer accepting submissions and will not return.
Key Sections (Historical)
- Feature Film Competition - horror, thriller, and surrealist features competing for jury prizes
- Short Film Competition - genre short films
- Special Screenings - Twin Peaks-adjacent and cult cinema events
- Immersive and VR Showcase - virtual reality and immersive storytelling (introduced in the second edition)
- Filmmaker Conversations - Q&A sessions in the festival's distinctive setting
Major Awards (Historical)
- Best Feature - jury prize
- Best Short Film
- Audience Award
What Filmmakers Should Know
North Bend Film Festival is defunct. Filmmakers should not submit films to this festival. The festival's website at northbendfilmfest.com remains online as an archive but does not accept submissions.
The festival's closure was announced in March 2023 by founder Jess Byers. The decision came after the 2022 edition, which Byers described as a successful "normal" year. The closure was caused by the loss of a critical and consistent line of third-party funding, combined with the structural challenges of running a festival in a small town: large transportation and housing costs for visiting filmmakers, harder-to-gain ticket sales compared to urban festivals, and insufficient local government and organizational support.
Byers noted that the festival had expected local organizations and government to rally around a nonprofit arts event bringing outside artists to town. Instead, the festival found it an uphill battle to get marketing engagement and support from local entities. The festival relied on partnerships with Seattle organizations to produce programming and build an audience.
Pacific Northwest Alternatives
Filmmakers who would have submitted to NBFF should consider these active Pacific Northwest festivals instead:
- Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) - the largest film festival in the Pacific Northwest, accepting submissions via FilmFreeway
- Portland Film Festival - genre-friendly programming in Oregon
- Spokane International Film Festival - regional festival in eastern Washington
- Tacoma Film Festival - community-focused festival at the Grand Cinema
Festival History
NBFF was founded in 2018 by Jess Byers, Hugues Barbier, and Justin Timms. Byers, a Northwest native and Twin Peaks fan, had visited North Bend as a child. After reading about a fundraiser to replace the projector at the historic North Bend Theatre, he identified the town as a potential festival location. The town had the right combination of proximity to Seattle (30 miles east), an airport within reach, affordable theater rental, and a pop culture connection to Twin Peaks.
The first edition ran August 23 to 26, 2018, at the North Bend Theatre. Beth Burrows had just taken over as owner of the 82-year-old theater that same year when the festival organizers approached her about hosting a summer festival. The theater became the festival's primary venue.
The festival ran annually through 2022, with a gap in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a hybrid edition in 2021. The 2022 edition was the final one. Over five editions, NBFF developed a reputation for programming that found films at the intersection of genre and art cinema: works that were simultaneously commercially engaging and formally ambitious. The festival drew filmmakers and patrons from Seattle, the broader Pacific Northwest, and nationally.
The closure was announced in a public letter by Byers in late March 2023. The North Bend Theatre continues to operate independently, hosting traveling festivals like the BANFF Mountain Film Festival, but no longer has its own local film festival.
Why the Festival Closed
The closure of NBFF illustrates the financial fragility of small-town destination festivals. Three factors converged:
- Loss of critical funding: A consistent third-party funding line was withdrawn, removing a core revenue source that could not be replaced
- Structural cost disadvantage: Running a festival in a small town 30 miles from Seattle meant higher transportation and housing costs for visiting filmmakers, with a smaller local audience base to generate ticket revenue
- Insufficient local institutional support: Local government and organizations did not provide the marketing and operational backing the festival needed to fill the theater consistently
Byers stated that the festival decided to "end on a high note" rather than continue with diminishing resources, which would have meant underpaying staff or providing a subpar experience for visiting artists.
Past Winners (Historical)
2022 (final edition):
- Best Feature: Incredible but True (dir. Quentin Dupieux) - a surreal French comedy about a couple who discover a mysterious tube in their basement. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2022 and was released in France by Atelier de Production. No US theatrical release was set.
- Dulac Vanguard Filmmaker Award: Next Exit (dir. Mali Elfman) - a supernatural road movie starring Katie Parker and Rahul Kohli. The film premiered at Tribeca 2022 and was distributed in the US by Magnet Releasing (Magnolia Pictures) on November 4, 2022, with international sales handled by Blue Finch Films. Box office totaled $4,742.
- Best Performance: Valentina Herszage, Rachel 1:1
- Best Screenplay: Clay Tatum, The Civil Dead
2021:
- Dulac Vanguard Filmmaker Award (inaugural): We're All Going to the World's Fair (dir. Jane Schoenbrun) - a creepypasta-inspired horror film about a teen immersed in an online role-playing game. The film premiered at Sundance 2021, was distributed by Utopia in April 2022, and is now streaming on the Criterion Channel.
2019:
- Best Film: Villains (dirs. Dan Berk and Robert Olsen) - a horror-comedy starring Bill Skarsgard and Maika Monroe. The film premiered at SXSW 2019 and was released theatrically by ALTER (Gunpowder and Sky) on September 20, 2019. Skarsgard won Best Actor.
- Best Actress: Maeve Higgins, Extra Ordinary
- Best Screenplay: Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman, Extra Ordinary
- Audience Award: Circus of Books
Notable Alumni Films and Where They Ended Up
NBFF was a small festival that programmed films at the intersection of genre and art cinema. Most of its top winners had already premiered at larger festivals (Sundance, SXSW, Berlin, Tribeca), and NBFF functioned as a Pacific Northwest stop on the genre festival circuit.
- We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021, dir. Jane Schoenbrun) - NBFF 2021 Dulac Vanguard winner. Premiered at Sundance 2021, distributed by Utopia (April 2022), now on the Criterion Channel. Schoenbrun went on to direct I Saw the TV Glow (A24, 2024).
- Villains (2019, dirs. Dan Berk and Robert Olsen) - NBFF 2019 Best Film. Premiered at SXSW 2019, released by ALTER/Gunpowder and Sky. The directing duo later signed on to multiple studio projects.
- Next Exit (2022, dir. Mali Elfman) - NBFF 2022 Dulac Vanguard winner. Premiered at Tribeca 2022, distributed by Magnet Releasing. Box office: $4,742.
- Incredible but True (2022, dir. Quentin Dupieux) - NBFF 2022 Best Feature. Premiered at Berlin 2022. Dupieux is a fixture on the genre festival circuit with films including Rubber, Deerskin, and Mandibles.
Submission Tips Specific to This Festival
North Bend Film Festival is defunct and no longer accepts submissions. The following guidance reflects what the festival looked for during its active years (2018 to 2022) and applies to similar genre festivals that filmmakers should target instead.
- Genre and art cinema hybrid was the programming sweet spot. NBFF programmed films that blended horror, thriller, or surrealist elements with formal art cinema ambition. Pure genre exploitation did not fit. Films like We're All Going to the World's Fair and Incredible but True represent the curatorial taste. If your film sits at this intersection, target Popcorn Frights, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, and Fantasia Festival.
- The Dulac Vanguard Award rewarded first and second features. If you are a first or second-time feature filmmaker working in vanguard genre cinema, this award was the festival's most distinctive recognition. Festivals with similar emerging-director genre awards include Fantasia's New Flesh Award and Popcorn Frights' Best First Feature.
- VR and immersive work had a dedicated showcase. NBFF was one of the earlier small festivals to program VR and immersive storytelling. Filmmakers working in immersive formats should now target Venice Immersive, Tribeca Immersive, and SXSW XR.
Industry Reputation Notes
During its five editions, NBFF built a reputation among genre critics and programmers as a carefully curated small festival with strong taste. The founders also ran the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, and NBFF brought a similar curatorial sensibility to the Pacific Northwest with a more avant-garde slant. The festival drew coverage from genre outlets including Screen Anarchy, Collider, and The Stranger (Seattle).
Compared to Popcorn Frights in Florida (a similar small genre festival), NBFF had a stronger art cinema orientation and a more distinctive physical setting (the Twin Peaks town). Compared to Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal (the largest genre festival in North America), NBFF was a fraction of the size but offered a more intimate filmmaker experience with direct access to programmers and peers. The festival's closure in 2023 was noted in the genre festival community as a loss of a programming voice that championed formally ambitious genre work.
The closure itself became a case study in the financial fragility of small-town destination festivals. Founder Jess Byers cited the loss of a critical funding line, high transportation costs for visiting filmmakers, and insufficient local institutional support as the converging factors. The North Bend Theatre continues to operate independently but no longer hosts a local film festival.
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See Also
For active genre festival options, see Film Festival Strategy. For independent filmmaking approaches, see Independent Filmmaking Strategies. To evaluate whether a festival submission is worth the entry fee, use the Festival ROI Calculator.
