BENTONVILLE, Ark. — It makes sense that the fate of this quintessential company town is being plotted in a conference room just a mile from Walmart headquarters. But what Trevor Drinkwater and his lieutenants are plotting is cultural, artistic and urban. In other words, something less stereotypically Walmart.

Along with the actress Geena Davis, Mr. Drinkwater is founder of the nascent but ambitious Bentonville Film Festival, running May 5-9, which hopes to build on the city’s recent and surprising development boom.

Cranes are cutting up the skylines, and real estate prices are headed in the same direction. This year, the northwest Arkansas metro population, which also includes Rogers, Springdale, Fayetteville and other towns, passed the half-million mark.

In Bentonville alone, the population jumped 14 percent to more than 40,000 between 2010 and 2013. The rest of the state straggled along at 1.5 percent.