Santa Fe International Film Festival Celebrates Local Filmmakers, Oscar Contenders

Hosting artistic icons as diverse as Georgia O’Keefe to Vince Gilligan, the state of New Mexico has a rich history of creativity and innovation, which has been buoyed over the past couple of decades by filmmaker-friendly tax incentives. It’s provided shooting locations for “Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul,” “The Avengers” and “Oppenheimer” and is the permanent home to a 100-acre Netflix studio lot. At the same time, the Land of Enchantment is filled with local filmmakers sharing intimate stories set in the state. Those two worlds converge at the Santa Fe International Film Festival, which will return to the city Oct. 15-20 this year.SFIFF is New Mexico’s largest film festival and, as of last year, it is an Oscar-qualifying fest for short films in all categories. The festival’s programming includes titles from around the world from renowned directors, several of which arrive after premieres at festivals in Telluride, Venice or Toronto. All films in the festival are New Mexico premieres, and in-competition titles are often submitted as U.S. premieres or even world premieres.This year’s out-of-competition program includes buzzy awards contenders such as Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt,” Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice,” Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent,” Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” Bradley Cooper’s “Is This Thing On?,” Ugo Bienvenu’s “Arco” and Raoul Peck’s “Orwell 2+2=5.” In-competition features showcase emerging filmmakers from around the world, there to debut feature, documentary and short films.The festival also is intentional about honoring the creative legacy and artistic spirit of Santa Fe, with a specific programs and awards for New Mexico filmmakers. Local programming in this year’s festival includes two New Mexico shorts blocks, narrative features “In Our Blood” and “Hello Out There” and documentary features “Land With No Rider,” “Dream Touch Believe” and “She Cried That Day.” SFIFF also hosts a program of shorts on AMC+ called “Indigenous Rising Stars,” which streams in November for Native American Heritage Month.SFIFF’s executive director Liesette Bailey says, “One of the most amazing parts of [SFIFF] is where we are in Santa Fe. It’s a town that just breathes art and really supports artists. One of our big points of the festival is really celebrating directors as artists in this amazing town.”In addition to hosting many filmmakers, actors and subjects attending SFIFF with their films, this year’s festival will also honor Edward James Olmos with a lifetime achievement award. The actor will accept the award at a ceremony during the fest, paired with retrospective screenings of “Stand and Deliver,” “American Me,” “Selena” and “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez.”The 2025 fest marks SFIFF’s 17th year bringing films to the city. “I think this year’s festival is really our best program to date,” says Bailey. “This year I hope audiences are inspired by our stunning landscapes and local cuisine, and feel enlivened in this new center for film in the American southwest, seeing new films from their favorite directors from all over the world.”

TIPSHEETWHAT Santa Fe International Film FestivalWHEN Oct. 15-20WHERE Santa Fe, NMWEB santafe.film