Stephanie Valle and Lisa Elliott are back with season two of the Plaza Classic Podcast, which debuts September 26 with a special double feature devoted to this year’s Oculto Film Fest.
Stephanie and Lisa interviewed Oculto co-founders and filmmakers Cabe Tejada and Angel Benitez in English, and Jaime Mendez interviewed them in Spanish.
This is the sixth year for the Oculto Film Fest, an affiliate of the El Paso Community Foundation, but its second year in El Paso. It’s from October 4-6, 2024 at the Philanthropy Theatre, part of the Plaza Theatre Performing Arts Centre complex. Tickets are on sale at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster. The Juárez portion will be October 11-13.
Opening night will feature a screening of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master in the Philanthropy, plus an appearance by the film’s star, Tuesday Knight, who also will appear at a post-screening reception in EPCF’s Foundation Room.
Go to the Oculto website for more details. Click here if you’d like to donate to Oculto.
The Plaza Classic Podcast is a sometimes irreverent, sometimes serious look into the many people, films and other aspects of the El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival, which returns for its 18th year July 17-27, 2025.
The podcast’s first season focused on some of the films in the 2024 edition of the film festival, including the annual The Rocky Horror Picture Show screening and the return of The Goonies, plus local filmmakers such as Josh Pulido, and various members of the Plaza Classic Film Festival Program Advisory Committee, which includes Stephanie (KVIA news anchor), Lisa (EPCC mass comm professor) and Jaime (UTEP’s Assistant Dean of Students).
A special bonus episode features Stephanie’s on-stage interview with Mira Sorvino before a screening of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion at this year’s PCFF.
Look for new episodes every two weeks. It’s available just about everywhere, including here.
The Plaza Classic Podcast is a coproduction of the El Paso Community Foundation and El Paso Community College.
Pictured: Jaime Mendez (left) interviews Oculto’s Angel Benitez (center) and Cabe Tejada.
Horror icon Tuesday Knight, known for her starring role in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, will be a special guest at the sixth annual Oculto Film Fest in El Paso.
The El Paso portion of the highly anticipated horror and fantasy film festival will be October 4-6 in the Philanthropy Theatre, located above the Plaza Theatre Box Office in the Plaza Theatre Performing Arts Centre. The Ciudad Juárez portion will be October 11-13.
Knight has an extensive career in film, music, and television, but she is best known for playing Kristen Parker in Nightmare 4.
She will sit down for a Q&A at 6:30 pm October 4, followed by a screening of A Nightmare of Elm Street 4 at 7:30 pm, both in the Philanthropy Theatre. Knight also will appear at a reception at 9:30 that night in the Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon.
She also is scheduled to take part in a filmmaker panel discussion at 5 pm October 5 in the Philanthropy Theatre and Oculto’s closing ceremony at 8 pm October 6 at the Alcantar Sky Garden, above the Philanthropy Theatre.
“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Tuesday Knight to this year’s Oculto Film Fest,” said Cabe Tejada, festival director. “Her role in A Nightmare on Elm Street defined a generation of horror fans, and her participation elevates what is already shaping up to be our most exciting festival yet.”
Oculto Film Fest will showcase more than 200 short and feature films from around the world, including selections from Argentina, Spain, Mexico, the United States, Brazil, and Turkey. This year’s complete lineup includes a mix of family-friendly content and films aimed exclusively at adult audiences, offering 10 hours and 36 minutes of captivating horror storytelling.
The El Paso portion opens October 4 with a red carpet ceremony at 4:30 pm, followed by 90 minutes of short films curated from this year’s submissions at 5 pm. Titles are The Biggest Fear (Argentina), Hado (Spain), Trick (U.S.-Mexico), Elote Man (U.S.), and Lucy’s Room (U.S.).
October 5 programming includes brunch at 1:30 pm in the Foundation Room, and 90 minutes of family friendly short films at 7 pm. Titles are The Torrential Melody (Mexico), Dolores (Mexico), Howl If You Love Me (U.S.), Les Bêtes (U.S.), and The Heart Beneath the Earth (U.S.).
Mark H. Rapaport’s bizarre dark comedy Hippo, which rogerebert.com described as “an unholy fusion of A Clockwork Orange and Napoleon Dynamite,” screens at 8:30 pm October 5.
The festival concludes October 6 with five short films at 5 pm. Titles are Sincopat (Spain), While I Sleep (Spain), The Red Stone (Mexico), Bookworm (Spain), and Arapuca Trampa Para Párajos (Brazil). They will be followed by Argentine filmmaker Facundo Escodero Salinas’ No Darkness Last Forever at 6:30 pm, all in the Philanthropy Theatre, with closing ceremonies at 8 pm at the Alcantar Sky Garden.
In a first for the festival, Oculto Film Fest will also be televised over Halloween weekend, allowing a wider audience to experience the event through Canal 44, Canal 66, and Canal 33.2. Fans who are unable to attend in person will still be able to enjoy some of the best horror shorts from the comfort of their homes.
Oculto Film Fest is an affiliate of the El Paso Community Foundation.
To donate to Oculto, click here.
Tickets for the El Paso portion of the festival are on sale at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster.com.
More special guests will be announced soon. Follow Oculto Film Fest on social media or click here.
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.
