How Santa Fe Became Our No. 1 Town for Moviemakers
On Mother’s Day 2024, director Paul Greengrass was in Santa Fe shooting the Apple film The Lost Bus when he came down with a terrible toothache.
Luckily, the Santa Fe film commissioner is Jennifer LaBar Tapia, who, in addition to cheerfully explaining New Mexico tax incentives and finding ideal locations, happens to know a great dentist.
“I got a call that the director had a toothache on Sunday, and call time is 10 o’clock on Monday — and ‘Can you help us?'” LaBar-Tapia recalled. “So here I am calling my dentist on his emergency line. He’s in New York, but his best friend is an oral surgeon in Santa Fe, and so we called the oral surgeon. They got him in at 6:30 in the morning on Monday.”
That kind of concierge-level support is one reason Santa Fe is marking its fourth consecutive year at the top of our list of the Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker, in the top Smaller Cities and Towns category. (Nearby Albuquerque is No. 1 among American cities on the list of Big Cities; Toronto is No. 1 among Big Cities overall.)
LaBar-Tapia, as well as Santa Fe International Film Festival executive director Liesette Bailey and creative director Jacques Paisner, took part in a special Sundance 2026 panel hosted by Moviemaker and dedicated to Santa Fe’s achievement. No other city has ever been our top town for four consecutive years. You can watch full video of the event here or above.
Known for some of the best tax incentives anywhere, Santa Fe was also the home base of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which won the 2024 Oscar for Best Picture, in addition to other top awards for Nolan, stars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr., and more. It has also hosted the 2008 Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men, Westerns like True Grit and Young Guns, and blockbusters like Avengers and Terminator 2.
Santa Fe also benefits from the steady business that only successful TV shows can provide. While Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul were based in Albuquerque, they also shot in Santa Fe and other parts of New Mexico. And some of their crew members have signed on with AMC’s Dark Winds.
The Santa Fe International Film Festival’s Role as a New Mexico Film Hub
Bailey talked about the Santa Fe International Film Festival’s role as an anchor of the New Mexico film scene.
“We’re heading into our third year being an Oscar qualifying festival, and it’s been really a whirlwind,” she said. “We actually have more Academy voters in Santa Fe and Albuquerque than anywhere outside of New York or L.A.”
She also noted that filmmakers who visit the town to film frequently end up buying a home there.
“We’ve been really lucky to have not just people come here and shoot their movie and leave, but people to come here and shoot their movie and stay. So I think that’s something really special,” she said.
She and Paisner take care to keep things relaxed at the festival, which in addition to being Oscar qualifying is also on our list of 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.
“The festival’s become a hub and a place where people can really meet, and we give space for people to breathe,” she noted. “We really give space for people to get to know each other, so they can come and bring back their next film.”
Paisner noted that Santa Fe has a long history of artistry, which is evident to anyone who walks past the endless downtown galleries or shops for Native American jewelry outside the historic Palace of the Governors. The creative spirit of the town feeds off the film scene, and vice versa.
“Santa Fe is one of UNESCO’s Creative Cities. It’s got a street called Canyon Road that’s galleries from beginning to end. It has the biggest American Indian Art Market in the world, by SWAIA,” he noted.
But Santa Fe also has qualities that can’t be identified through lists and numbers.
“There’s just a peace about Santa Fe — there’s a peace in the air, with our elevation, our crystal blue skies, our seasons, our sunshine,” said LaBar Tapia. “And it’s just very spiritual, something you can’t really explain. The air is super clean. And about Golden Hour, and having all the amazing light — just that unfiltered light that our cinematographers love. There’s no matching it.
“And then there’s all of our cultures, living together and blending together and respecting one another. And it’s very much a food town, and it’s very much about the arts and the culture and embracing creativity,” she added. “It’s a slower pace of life, but we get things done.”
She adds: “The culture runs deep. There are families that have been around for centuries. And so there’s just the pride that comes with Santa Fe.”
Paisner noted that Santa Fe and its surroundings are also “the settings that inspired Georgia O’Keeffe, once upon a time.”
The panel closed with a discussion of all the cool things Game of Thrones creator and longtime resident George R.R. Martin owns in the town. His businesses include the charming Jean Cocteau Cinema, an inviting bookstore, Beastly Books, and the Sky Railway, a train line he owns with other investors including entrepreneur and filmmaker Bill Banowsky.
Paisner, the former director of programming at the Jean Cocteau, recounted how Martin ended up buying the cinema during a period when it was shut down.
“He drives by the theater, and he thinks, ‘You know, somebody ought to buy that theater and remodel it and open it again.’ And then he thought to himself, ‘Well, I am somebody.’ And he said, ‘With this, I may lose my shirt —but I’ve got other shirts.'”
Martin didn’t lose his shirt: Judging from our latest visit, the theater is doing quite well. And so is the town.
By Tim Molloy