Pasatiempo
The lights go up on the Santa Fe International Film Festival
Movie lovers, it’s time to pop the corn and settle in. The 2024 Santa Fe International Film Festival presents 42 narrative feature films, 24 documentaries, and 118 short films, all presented across 98 screenings over five days.
“This year is really a culmination of a lot of hard work, and really does show our spot as one of the top regional festivals around,” says Liesette Bailey, the festival’s executive director.
Besides watching lots of flicks and attending post-screening Q&As, attendees can also catch eight free industry panels and a free New Mexico filmmaker salon, Bailey says. Each event includes multiple industry experts who will share tips, tricks, and movie-making craft lessons.
The Directors Panel on Friday, October 18, for example, includes three filmmakers whose films are in the festival — Austin Alward (Tasmania), Wook Hwang (Mash Ville), and Rachel Goldberg (Agatha All Along) — who will discuss their creative process. The Documenteur Panel on Saturday, October 19, will gather Academy Award-nominated documentary directors Kirby Dick, Glenn Silber, and Jon Else (The Day After Trinity) to talk about documentary styles and techniques involved in telling real-life stories.
Other panels include a production panel, a short film panel, one about acting, and another about casting, as well as a distribution panel and one about nonfiction filmmaking. The New Mexico salon, on Sunday, October 20, features local filmmakers who have films in the festival, offering the audience a chance to meet and hear from local talent.
The festival includes an award ceremony on Saturday, October 19, in honor of Bryan Cranston, this year’s SFIFF Lifetime Achievement Award recipient (see “Breaking It Down”). Cranston played the title character in Trumbo, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award in 2016; the film will screen at Cranston’s award ceremony.
The festival — which also was designated earlier this month as an Oscar-qualifying festival in the Best Animated Short, Best Narrative Short, and Best Documentary Short categories — ends with Amber Sealey’s new film, Out of My Mind (USA, 102 minutes). “Being able to close with a film by a local director, Amber Sealey, is really special,” Bailey says. “She’s directed this big movie for Disney, and her film offers this exciting look at what kind of talent can come out of Santa Fe.” Sealey will attend the screening and answer questions afterward.
by Ania Hull
