jOIN uS FOR THE wESTERN hERITAGE & Film Festival!
Learn more at the Festival Website!
A HUGE 'THANK YOU' TO OUR WONDERFUL 2025 SPONSORS!
A Special Thank you to the Arizona Commission on the Arts for a 2026 Festival Grant!
Contrubuting Supporter
Mazatzal Casino
Poster Contest!
Artists, buckle up and create your designs for a poster!
The winner will receive $1000.00 in prize money from Rim Country Artists in exchange for donating the original artwork to RCA.
There will be special press and social media publicity.
- Proportion your artwork to have high resolution when reproduced at 24” x 36”.
- Use any medium and any support.
- Do not frame your work so that it is camera-ready.
- Oriented vertically, the artwork must leave room to give very visible room to these words:
143nd World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo
August 20-23, 2026 and the presenters’ titles with their logo (See logos below)
Rim Country Artists, Payson Pro Rodeo Committee
The Payson Pro Rodeo Committee (PPRC) will judge the competition. No Rim Country Artists (RCA) Board members may compete. After the winning artwork is selected, RCA will add the typography. Both the Rodeo and RCA Boards will approve the design before production. The PPRC will select the number of posters, pay for them, sell them, and retain all profits. The winning artist is asked to sign a maximum of 50 printed posters for the PPRC.
RCA will never reproduce the artwork, as reproduction rights are reserved by the PPRC. RCA may, however, sell or auction the original at a future date. The PPRC will keep all rights to the poster itself, in perpetuity, as well as its reproduction and all profits from sales. These posters will likely become collectors’ pieces, especially those that are signed.
All photographed entries must be turned in by July 1st. Send your jpeg photo file to Elizabeth Fowler at WHandFF2023@gmail.com
Our Logos
Introducing FilmFreeway!
New to our festival in 2026 is FilmFreeway - where filmmakers can submit their films for us to download and judge. We invite you and your films to the Western Heritage and Film Festival, Payson AZ, a celebration of the American West!
We ask that your submission uses, reflects, or springs from the classic genre, and that this is apparent in the majority of your entry. We are interested in tales that pull from authentic Western heritage -- whether Indigenous, White or Hispanic. We encourage submissions which consider the traditional Western from different perspectives and offer unique interpretations. Standard narratives about the Old West may be used and/or transformed, bridging the past and the present to make compelling stories. Post-modern Westerns are welcome. Your entry may be full length or short, a documentary or a commercial, web-based or animated.
13-16 August 2026
THE WESTERN HERITAGE AND FILM FESTIVAL 2025
13 August
-
16 August
Multiple Venues
Event Details
13-16 August 2026
THE WESTERN HERITAGE AND FILM FESTIVAL 2025
The Western Heritage and Film Festival is August 13th -16th this year. More information coming soon!
13 August
-
16 August
Multiple Venues
Previous 2025 Event Schedule
2025 Cowboy Poetry
2025 SunDay Doin's
Western Heritage and Film Festival 2025 (Previous Year)
We set into action our festival’s mission: To promote Rim Country's Western culture and history through films, events, and activities, attracting both residents and visitors of all ages. At the same time, we supported the World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo the following weekend! Most of what we planned was centered on Payson’s historic Main Street. Our four-day event, running August 7-10 2025, will include:
- Eight varied western movies from different time periods and directors, with introductions, shown Thursday - Saturday at the Sawmill Theatre:
STAGECOACH
Starring Claire Trevor & John Wayne
Directed by John Ford-1939
One of the Greatest and most influential films ever made!
Thursday, Aug 7, 12 Noon!
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
Starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford & Katherine Ross
Directed by George Roy Hill - 1969
AFI's 7th Greatest Western Film
Thursday Aug 7, 2 PM
Rio Bravo
Starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan & Ward Bond.
Directed by Howard Hawks - 1959
Filmed in Old Tuscon Studios , AZ
Friday, Aug 8, 11 AM
Junior Bonner
Starring Steve McQueen, Robert Preston, Joe Don Baker & Ida Lapino
Directed by Sam Peckinpah - 1972
Warmest & most gentle of Peckinpah's films
Friday, Aug 8, 2 PM
Little Big Man
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Chief Dan George, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Jeff Corey & Richard Mulligan
Directed by Arthur Penn - 1970
An American Revisionist Western Film
Friday, Aug 8, 4 PM
Tombstone
Starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, with Sam Elliot, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn & Dana Delany
Narrated by Robert Mitchum
Directed by George P Cosmatos -1993
A Cult Classic!
Saturday Aug 9, 2 PM
The Wild Bunch
Starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Ben Johnson & Warren Oates
Directed by Sam Peckinpah - 1969
One of the Greatest films of all time!
Saturday Aug 9, 6 PM
Silverado
Starring Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, Kevin Costner, Brian Dennehy, Rosanna Arquette, John Cleese, Jeff Goldblum, Lynne Whitfield & Linda Hunt
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan - 1985
Sunday Aug 10, 4 PM
- Cowboy Poetry at Noley's Thursday night
- On Friday, a 5-hour student field trip, lunch included, to the Calico Springs Studio in Kohl's Ranch for participation in actual filming
- On Friday night, a public dance at Macky's with a fabulous local country western band
- On Saturday, a ticketed luncheon at the Rim Country Barbeque with speakers Bob Boze Bell - publisher of True West Magazine, and Stuart Rosebrook - Director of the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott. They will be comparing and contrasting other films to Tombstone, which will be shown immediately following at the Sawmill Theatre across Main Street.
- Sunday from 12 noon to 4 pm, our "Sunday Doin's" event -- free fun for the entire family at the Zane Grey Museum and surrounding grounds at Green Valley Park! We will have:
- Artist, Gold Sponsor, and western apparel and accessories booths; Territorial Troupers performing; museum activities and displays and free tours; Tonto Apache Tribe’s exhibit; the Payson Pro Rodeo Exhibit; food vendors including a chuck wagon, Apache Fry Bread, Mexican Tacos, Danseizen Ice Cream, and Kona Ice; a rock and a mining display; FAA students running stick horse and chicken races as well as dummy roping lessons; a water relay and other relay races, pony rides in a carousel; country music playing; DJ making announcements, including sponsor thanks
Image Right: by Deb Schwalm
2025 Poster Contest Winner - RCA's Donn Morris!
Contact Us
Reach out to us for any questions!
Festival Email: whandff2023@gmail.com
RCA Email: rimcountryartists@gmail.com
Sponsor Our Event
Your support and contributions will enable us to meet our goals and improve conditions. Your generous sponsorship will fund our mission.
Rim Country Artists | Western Heritage & Film Festival 2025
Rim Country Artists | Western Heritage & Film Festival 2024
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