The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival began in 1992, launched by a small group of arts activists in Hot Springs. That year, 10 Academy Award nominated documentary films were screened to the public free of charge. Veteran actor James Whitmore lent his presence to this first event and spoke of a bright future: "This (Hot Springs) could be the documentary capital of the world."

Encouraged by the enthusiastic response to the fledgling effort, the festival grew in 1993 to screen a total of 44 films. A gala fundraising event featured actor James Earl Jones, who proclaimed, "I see the 1990's as holding the promise of an unparalleled era of popularity for nonfiction film and video, with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival as one of the genre's most important venues."

An audience of more than 5,000 attended the 1994 Festival. Fourteen documentary filmmakers attended with dozens of films screening. The filmmakers met with audiences and participated in post-film discussions, a rare occurrence at most other festivals but one that has helped establish a tradition of filmmaker participation in the Festival. This tradition is what makes HSDFF a unique venue, one that returning audiences and filmmakers cite in praising the Festival.

In 1996, the Festival acquired a permanent home with the two-screen Malco Theatre property. This encouraged the HSDFI board to begin planning a year-round slate of activities and to formally approve a new direction, signaled in the name change to the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute. This expanded sense of mission prompted the first significant non-festival activity, the Library of Congress Film Preservation Tour in 1997. Film director Arthur Hiller, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, attended and added his voice to the chorus of those proclaiming the great potential of the Institute. Celebrity guests have been consistently supportive as well: Geraldine Chaplin, Eleanor Coppola, Alan Ginsberg, Connie Stevens, Tippi Hedren, and Brenda Vaccaro have all voiced their praise and support.

The 1997 Festival enjoyed the benefits of a major first-time grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and an extensive promotional partnership with AETN. These initiatives transformed the Festival from a "Hot Springs event" into an "Arkansas event." Furthermore, a demographic profile of attendees revealed the importance of the Festival as an educational as well as cultural institution, as a large percentage of attendees were college faculty, secondary teachers, and students. These numbers grow annually.

The period since 1997 has been marked by a number of major breakthroughs in resource development, including substantial grants from the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Arkansas Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. The growth of Festival audiences, educational initiatives, prestige, and the acquisition of the Malco Theatre has led to the broadening of the Festival into an internationally acclaimed year-round Institute that attracts over 30,000+ audience members and filmmakers.

The artistic goals of the organization.
The Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute strives to provide cultural opportunities, entertainment, and cinematic education to increasingly wider audiences through quality documentaries on a variety of topics and themes. It is also a goal of the HSDFI to provide a venue for new and established documentarians from across the nation and abroad; and to provide support for other community and cultural organizations through film programming and other educational outreach efforts.