Submissions for our February 2027 festival open on February 17, 2026.
2011
Closer to the Moon
Director Nae Caranfil is bringing to the Santa Fe Film Festival 2014 a special screening of his latest feature film Closer to the Moon. The movie is based on the true story of an audacious 1959 Romanian National Bank robbery, and could…
Why (and How To) Watch an Art Film
Here’s a question: Why should you watch an art film? Keep that thought in rotation. Now let’s back up. Everyone has walked out of a movie at least once (more than once if you’re unlucky) and thought: “That gave me…
Let’s All Go To The Lobby
Snacking, by its very concept in the US, is something we do as a reward. It’s a time of cramming stuff in our mouths in a moment of celebration (okay, or stress). But when we do it in a movie…
Zen and the Art of Motion Picture Editing
When Oscar-winning editor Hughes Winborne spoke with great humor at the Santa Fe Film Festival’s special presentation of “The Final Rewrite,” his idea of a Hollywood movie editor’s Help Wanted ad might have sounded something like this: HELP WANTED: creative,…
The Current State of Polish Cinema
I had the pleasure of attending one of the 2011 Santa Fe Film Festival’s panel discussions Friday afternoon at Zane Bennett Gallery. Brent Kliewer, this year’s program director for the festival, hosted the conversation. The audience was made up of…
Traversing Life’s Challenges: A Review of A USEFUL LIFE
“A Useful Life” by Federico Vieroj is a 67 minute mini-feature that focuses on a major turning point in the life of Jorge, the curator of a small art house cinema in Montevideo, Uruguay. Vieroj’s movie is about the fate…
Who Are You Fighting For? A Review of BATTLEFIELD HEROES
You’ve heard that “Battlefield Heroes” is like a Korean Monty Python film about the escapades of war in the 7th century with slapstick comedy, sight gags and silly kings. After seeing it screened at the Santa Fe Film Festival tonight,…
SPOTLIGHT ON NEW MEXICO FILMMAKERS – SHORTS
LOBSTER Is there a heaven for crustaceans? Could the cuisine on your stove top have attained a higher spiritual station? Relax, sit back and discover what one young couple learns. An age-old controversy is resolved after relational tensions come to…
SHORTS PROGRAM III: Longing for Innocence
Each of the delicacies in the Santa Fe Film Festival’s SHORTS PROGRAM III explores the loss of our innocence around our spiritual and intellectual decay, delivering a banquet of emotions to indulge in. This program screens Sunday, October 23 at…
SHORTS PROGRAM II: Circles Goin’ Round
What goes around comes around. Come full circle. Karma. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. A person’s actions, whether good or bad, will have consequences for that person. Actions create an entire cycle of cause and effect. In case you…
Defining Our Choices: SHORTS PROGRAM I Review
In this program of shorts from India, Italy, Albania and the USA, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Whether in the whole of a life, a decade, a day or a phase, we all make choices,…
Saving Lives, Saving Face, Making Peace: A Review of KILLING MEMORIES
“Killing Memories” begins like a movie script: A black screen with sounds of gunfire: Rifles. Machine guns. Running. Shouting. Chaos. The first images appear and a voice remembers: “That evening when I killed that first soldier I sat down to…