Norma, a touching 32-minute documentary about a Juárez street vendor, took the $1,500 first prize in this year’s seventh annual Local Flavor Showcase and Awards in the Plaza Theatre on July 28, the last day of the Plaza Classic Film Festival.
It was one of four local film projects that shared in $3,600 in prizes in the seventh annual Local Flavor Showcase and Awards, held for the third consecutive year in the Plaza Theatre.
Nearly $1,000 was awarded in this year’s third annual Plaza Classic Film Festival Screenwriting Competition.
Norma was filmed largely on the streets of Juárez in 2015, but the project encountered various delays, including the COVID-19 pandemic, before filmmakers Edmund A. Lozano and Romina Alexendra completed it earlier this year.
Second prize went to El Paso native and Harvard University filmmaker Bryant Valenzuela for his narrative short The Cost of Opportunity. Valenzuela receives $1,000 for his efforts, plus an additional $100 for film’s selection as the best college student effort, a new award this year.
The $750 third prize went to director Ulises Córdova for his humorous dystopian short Three Months in Star City (Ay Ay), which also was voted the $250 audience favorite in a live text-to-vote during the Local Flavor program.
In all, eight short films were screened as part of this year’s program. Also shown were the documentary Echoes of the Rio by Jackie Barragan, a Papayas con Chile music video by Ryan Michael Robson, the documentary Babette + Fontaine by Zak Zeh, a modern music video of the Romancers’ I Did the Wrong Thing by Diego Munoz Holguin, and UTEP student Lia Gonzalez’s narrative short Haunted Places.
The awards were hosted and handed out by Drew Mayer-Oakes, director of the El Paso Film and Creative Industries Commission, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Mayer-Oakes received our Plaza Classic Award for contributions to the community. The showcase and awards were sponsored by the commission and the Texas Film Commission.
This year’s showcase and awards were followed by a free, public reception in the Foundation Room that drew nearly 200 attendees.
Returning as judges this year were filmmakers Javier Gonzalez and Ilana Lapid, plus El Paso Community Foundation staff member and longtime PCFF operative Asia Saucedo.
Candace Cano took first prize in this year’s third annual screenwriting competition with her screenplay Wounds. In addition to $500, she receives a copy of Coverfly’s Final Draft 13 screenwriting software, a consultation with writer-director Lucky McKee (May, Woman, The Old Man, Poker Face), and an abridged table read of her screenplay, which was held July 28 in the Foundation Room as this year’s Filmmakers Brunch.
The $250 second prize went to Sheryl Levine Guterman of Los Angeles for her screenplay Memory Road. She also receives a copy of Coverfly’s Final Draft 13.
In a related event, writer Michael Forte took the $100 first prize in our second annual PCFF Screenwriting Competition Pitch Fest, which was held July 25 at Aaron & George’s Film Cafe. Our runner-up by applause was Hannah Hollandbyrd, who pitched the screenplay she wrote with Daniella Balarezo called La Chingada. We “passed the bucket,” taking up a collection for her totaling $65 — and a canned cake!
The 18th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival will be July 17-27, 2025 in and around the Plaza Theatre. Expect announcements regarding Local Flavor and screenwriting submissions in the late winter/early spring.
Among the Local Flavor Awards winners pictured (from left) are: Bryant Valenzuela, *The Cost of Opportunity; Christopher Saldaña and Ulises Córdova, Three Months in Star City (Ay Ay); and Edmund A. Lozano, Norma.*
Guess you were pretty curious about La Nube.
Our Wednesday screening of the animated children’s favorite Curious George has sold out.
It will be the first movie shown at the new science and discovery center for kids of all ages, part of its soft opening in the run up to its August 10 grand opening.
Doors open at 7:30 pm, with ticket check-in inside the front entrance on Main Street. Ticket holders will be on a guest list and will be issued souvenir tickets at the check-in.
La Nube staff will give mini-tours of the world-class space before patrons will be directed to the Galeria on the second floor, where the movie will be screened.
The program starts at 8 pm.
La Nube is a public-private partnership of the El Paso Community Foundation, the City of El Paso and other stakeholders.
Talk about a hot ticket.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, our third annual Elizabeth Taylor film offering atop the Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park, is sold out.
It is scheduled to show at about 8:30 pm Tuesday, July 23 at the La Perla Patio Bar, site of the former penthouse where she lived occasionally. Doors open at 8 pm. A taco bar is included in the ticket price, drinks are extra.
If you are one of the lucky ones to purchase a ticket, just go to the hotel, take the elevator to La Perla and check in at the door. You’ll be issued a souvenir ticket as a keepsake.
Just a reminder that our Snap Out of It Dinner on Monday, July 23 is sold out. For those of you who purchased tickets to the dinner, your name will be on a guest list at the Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon. Check in there and you’ll receive your tickets to the 7 pm showing of Moonstruck in the Plaza Theatre.
While the dinner is sold out, there are plenty of tickets for Moonstruck. They’re $8 at the box office and Ticketmaster.
Eight local and locally connected films will be featured in the El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival Local Flavor Showcase and Awards. There are three narrative shorts, three documentary shorts, and two music videos in this year’s program.
This year’s selections are Barbette + Fontaine, documentary, Zak Zeh; The Cost of Opportunity, narrative, Bryant Valenzuela; Echoes of the Rio, documentary, Jackie Barragan; Haunted Places, narrative, Lia Gonzalez; ‘I Did the Wrong Thing’/The Romancers, music video, Diego Munoz Holguin; ‘Mares de Lagrima’/Papayas con Chile, music video, Ryan Michael Robson; Norma, documentary, Edmund A. Lozano; and Three Months in Star City (Ay Ay), narrative, Ulises Córdova.
They will screen at 3:30 pm Sunday, July 28 in the Plaza Theatre’s Kendle Kidd Performance Hall. Tickets are $6 at the Plaza Theatre Box Office (no service charge) and Ticketmaster.com (includes service charges).
The 17th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival runs July 18-28 and features special guests Sissy Spacek and Mira Sorvino. Go to plazaclassic.com/schedule to learn more.
The seventh annual Local Flavor Awards total $3,600 and will be handed out at the end of the program. Awards will be given for First Prize ($1,500), Second Prize ($1,000), Third Prize ($750), College Student Film ($100), and the audience will choose a favorite via text, which is worth $250 to the winner.
An after party will follow from 5:30-7 pm Sunday, July 28 in the Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon (across from San Jacinto Plaza). It is free and open to the public.
Local Flavor is sponsored by the El Paso Film & Creative Industries Commission, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and the El Paso Community Foundation.
Like the old man in Moonstruck says, someone tell a joke.
Did you hear the one about the pre-show dinner at this year’s Plaza Classic Film Festival?
It sold out.
No joke.
Tickets are all gone for this year’s Snap Out of It Dinner at 5 pm Monday, July 22 in the Foundation Room.
It’s the third straight year we’ve sold out our pre-show dinner, which precedes a romantic comedy in the Plaza Theatre.
While the dinner is sold out, there are plenty of tickets left for our screening of Moonstruck at 7 pm Monday, July 22 in the Plaza Theatre. Tickets are $8 at the Plaza Theatre Box Office (no service charge) and Ticketmaster.com (service charges apply).
If you missed out on the dinner, you might consider the free lecture about Moonstruck from 6-6:30 pm in the Philanthropy Theatre, which is inside the Plaza Theatre complex.
Passes and two other special events — Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the La Perla Patio Bar of the Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park and Curious George at La Nube — are on sale at plazaclassic.com/tickets. Check out this year’s PCFF schedule at plazaclassic.com/schedule. Tickets are on sale at the box office and Ticketmaster.com.
