An LED backlight assembly is disclosed. The assembly includes a housing having a plurality of internal surfaces. At least one of the internal surfaces is a light emission surface and an opposing surface is a reflective surface. An optical film is disposed between the light emission surface and the reflective surface. The optical film includes at least one of a diffusing film, a reflective polarizing film, a multilayer optical film, and a structured surface film. An array of LEDs in electrical communication is disposed on the optical film. At least one LED of the array of LEDs has an illumination field that is directed toward the reflective surface.