Se lo Merecía, a black-and-white short by El Paso filmmaker Brandon Herrera, took the $1,500 First Prize in this year’s Local Flavor Showcase and Awards at the 19th annual El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival.
Herrera wrote and directed the nearly 14-minute film, about a schoolyard incident that exposes the cultural differences between two 12-year-old Mexican American boys. It was shot at St. Joseph Catholic School, of which Herrera is an alumnus.
A total of $3,500 in cash prizes was handed out at this year’s showcase.
A 7 1/2-minute comedic short by El Paso writer-director Jorge Villarreal, La Entrevista, took the $1,000 Second Prize. It’s about a young female tennis player who is not prepared for the media circus that follows her rise to fame.
This year’s $750 Third Prize winner was Training Wheels, a 23-minute sports comedy by El Paso writer, director and editor Skyler Carreon. It’s about a boy who challenges a bully to a bike race, capturing the world’s attention in the process.
The $250 Audience Favorite Award went to Ulises Córdova’s colorful short Tito Ritmo, which features zoot suits, dancers, music and a prized car won in a 1941 dance contest that a troubled young man tries to sell for the money in 2009.
For more on this year’s Local Flavor Showcase and Awards, click here.
The festival ran July 16-26. The Plaza Classic returns for its 20th year in July 2027. Festival passes are on sale now here.
Pictured: Local Flavor prize winners (from left): Brandon Herrera, First Prize, Se lo Merecía; Jorge Villarreal, Second Prize, La Entrevista; Skyler Carreon, Third Prize, Training Wheels; and Ulises Córdova, Audience Favorite, Tito Ritmo.
Eight short films have been selected for this year’s Local Flavor Showcase and Awards in the 19th annual El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival.
The locally connected films include comedies, dramas, documentaries, and one experimental film. Click here to see this year’s selections.
A total of $3,500 in cash prizes will be awarded at the conclusion of the July 26 showcase, including the $1,500 first prize, $1,000 second prize, and $750 third prize. Additionally, the audience will vote via text for its favorite short, which is worth $250 to the filmmaker.
The showcase will be at 3:30 pm Sunday, July 26 in the Plaza Theatre.
Local Flavor is sponsored by the El Paso Film and Creative Industries Commission (CreativElPaso) and the Texas Film Commission.
This is the fifth consecutive year Local Flavor filmmakers will get to see their work on the Plaza Theatre’s big screen.
Tickets are $6, on sale at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster.
A free, public reception will follow from 5:30-7pm Sunday, July 26 in the Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon.
The Plaza Classic Film Festival returns for its 19th year July 16-26, 2026. Festival passes are on sale here. Individual tickets are on sale at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster.
Update: A Dinner to Love has sold out, but there are plenty of tickets available for “Something’s Gotta Give.” Read on.
Dinner and a movie? We’ve got you. The El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival’s popular dinner-and-a-movie event returns for its fifth year with a screening of the romantic comedy Something’s Gotta Give and a pre-show dinner called inspired by the movie.
Called A Dinner to Love, the menu is inspired by the movie. The dinner is from 5-6:30 pm Monday, July 20 in the Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon. Seating is family style. Vegetarian options will be available.
Tickets are sold out.
Something’s Gotta Give shows at 7 pm Monday, July 20 in the Plaza Theatre. Tickets are $8 at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster.
It stars the late Diane Keaton as playwright Erica Berry and the irascible Jack Nicholson as music mogul/womanizer Harry Sanborn, middle-aged strangers who are thrown together one fateful weekend in the Hamptons. Written and directed by Nancy Meyers, the 2003 release was a huge hit at the box office and earned Keaton, who died last year, an Academy Award nomination.
A Dinner to Love and Something’s Gotta Give continue a newer Plaza Classic tradition that started in 2022 with Sleepless in Seattle and continued with When Harry Met Sally in 2023, Moonstruck in 2024 and Notting Hill in 2025.
Tickets for the 19th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival are on sale at the Plaza Theatre Box Office (no service charges) and Ticketmaster (service charges added). The Plaza Theatre has a clear bag/cashless policy, which will be enforced. Click here for details.
Festival and Movies Only passes are available at plazaclassic.com.
The festival schedule is available at plazaclassic.com/schedule.
Check out the Plaza Classic Podcast here.
The legendary Ann-Margret — a dynamic force in film, television, music and live performance for more than six decades — will appear at this year’s **El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival. **
She will receive the festival’s Plaza Classic Award for Lifetime Achievement and take part in interviews before two of her best-known movie performances — her breakout role in the 1963 musical Bye Bye Birdie at 7 pm Friday, July 17 and her Oscar-nominated turn as the title character’s mother in 1975’s Tommy at 3:30 pm Saturday, July 18. Both are in the Plaza Theatre.
Tickets for Bye Bye Birdie are $20. Tickets for Tommy are $10. They are on sale at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster.
Ann-Margret remains one of Hollywood’s most celebrated and versatile stars. Born Ann-Margret Olsson in Valsjöbyn, Sweden, she emigrated to the United States as a child and quickly demonstrated extraordinary talent as a singer and performer. Her breakthrough came in the early 1960s with a recording contract and a series of film roles that showcased her electrifying screen presence. She rose to prominence with standout performances in films such as Bye Bye Birdie and Viva Las Vegas, the latter opposite Elvis Presley, cementing her status as a pop culture phenomenon.
Throughout the 1970s, Ann-Margret earned critical acclaim for her dramatic performances, including Academy Award–nominated roles in Carnal Knowledge and Tommy. Her work in Grumpy Old Men and its sequel in the ‘90s introduced her to new generations of audiences, highlighting her enduring charm and comedic timing.
A multi-award-winning performer, Ann-Margret has received five Golden Globe Awards, Emmy Awards, and numerous other honors recognizing her contributions to film, television, and music. In addition to her acting achievements, she has maintained a successful recording career spanning genres from pop to gospel, earning Grammy nominations and critical praise.
Her legacy has been formally recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and induction into multiple entertainment halls of fame. Beyond her professional accomplishments, Ann-Margret is admired for her resilience, longevity, and dedication to her craft.
Tickets for the 19th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival are on sale at the Plaza Theatre Box Office (no service charges) and Ticketmaster (service charges added). The Plaza Theatre and Philanthropy Theatre have a clear bag policy. Click herefor details.
Festival and Movies Only passes are available at plazaclassic.com.
The festival’s schedule of 100 movies is available at plazaclassic.com/schedule.
Check out the Plaza Classic Podcast.
Silent film fans are in for a double treat at this year’s El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival. Theater organist extraordinaire Walt Strony returns to accompany two silent classics on the Plaza Theatre’s original, restored Wyler Mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ during the festival, which runs July 16-26 in and around the Plaza Theatre in downtown El Paso.
Strony, who has been a fixture at the Plaza Classic since 2013, will accompany Clara Bow’s 1927 comedy It at 4 pm Sunday, July 19 in the Plaza Theatre. Tickets are $6, on sale Monday, June 22 at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster.
He’ll return the following week to accompany Buster Keaton’s 100-year-old Civil War classic, The General, at 12:30 pm Thursday, July 23, part of the festival’s free, annual Plaza Days program. Strony made his Plaza Classic debut in 2010 when he accompanied the 1926 Keaton film.
He returned to the Plaza Classic in 2013 to accompany The Thief of Bagdad and has returned every year since to work his magic with some of the best silent films ever made, including Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last!, Kid Brother and Speedy, Keaton’s The Cameraman and Steamboat Bill Jr., and other classics including Cecil B. DeMille’s The King of Kings and Lon Chaney’s The Phantom of the Opera. He’s also accompanied several silent shorts by Charlie Chaplin, Charley Chase and Laurel and Hardy in various Plaza Days programs.
One of America’s premiere concert and theater organists, Strony studied with silent film accompanists and was a protégé of longtime Chicago Stadium organist Al Melgard. He has performed with films and symphony orchestras all over the world and is frequently featured at conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the American Theatre Organ Society, which inducted him into its hall of fame in 2011.
Walt also will play before several films during this year’s film festival. Ken Fedorick, John Fields, Rick Garven, Joshua Gunstream and Laurie Koval also will perform on the Wyler Mighty Wurlitzer before many of the films in the Plaza Theatre.
Tickets for the 19th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival go on sale Monday, June 22 at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster.
Festival and Movies Only passes are available here. The festival schedule of 100 movies is available here. Check out the Plaza Classic Podcast here.
