The Oculto Horror Film Fest celebrates its fifth anniversary and El Paso debut on October 13-14 in the Philanthropy Theatre by celebrating one of the leading creature actors in horror — Doug Jones.
Jones will take part in a Q&A at 6 pm Friday, October 13 before a screening of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth at 7 pm in the Philanthropy Theatre, inside the Plaza Theatre Performing Arts Centre. He also will appear at a meet-and-greet at 9 pm Friday at the Mesa Street Grill, 3800 N. Mesa. The versatile Jones will receive Oculto’s Lifetime Achievement Award at 9 pm Saturday, October 14 on the Alcantar Sky Garden, part of the Plaza Theatre complex. A ticket is required for all events with Jones.
The Indianapolis-born Jones, 63, has played various creatures, monsters, and ghouls in more than 50 films and television series, including del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and Mimic. Other notable credits include movies Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus 2, Mystery Men, Batman Returns, and Adaptation, and TV series Star Trek: Discovery and What We Do in the Shadows.
The festival continues at 5:30 pm Saturday, October 14 with a screening of the 1986 horror cult classic Chopping Mall, which will be narrated Mystery Science Theater 3000-style by Juarez comedy podcasters Leyendas Legendarias.
The Oculto 2023 Official Film Selections program at 7 pm features 18 shorts by filmmakers from around the region and world. Both events are in the Philanthropy Theatre. Tickets are required for admission.
Tickets are $30 for one day, $50 for both days, on sale at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster.com.
This is the fifth year for the Juarez-based Oculto, but its first in El Paso. The international festival, which is an affiliate of the El Paso Community Foundation, was started by a group of filmmakers and creatives, led by filmmaker Carlos “Cabe” Tejeda. Their mission is to promote horror cinema and the Borderland region.
The Juarez edition will be Oct. 20-22, with coverage on Mexican TV channels 44 and 66 from Oct. 26-28.
Donations may be made at epcf.org/oculto.
Three teams. Five days. One $10,000 winner.
The Film Race — Borderland Edition is on.
Based on earlier Film Races in Illinois and Indiana, The Film Race — Borderland Edition is a reality-based film competition that pits three five-member film teams from El Paso and Ciudad Juarez against one another. It is produced by Film 765.
The three competing teams will have their films screened and the $10,000 winner will be announced at the Closing Ceremony at 7 p.m. September 26 in the Plaza Theatre, sponsored by the El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival. It is FREE and open to the public.
Gyro Studios (led by Josh Pulido), Human Beans (Alecs Roman), and Intelia Films (Roberto Ramirez) will showcase the beauty that is El Paso by shooting their films from September 15 to 19 at various locations in El Paso and Socorro.
The films, which can run no longer than 12 minutes, must be edited and submitted by September 22. Each team will be accompanied by a film crew to capture all the behind-the-scenes action and drama.
All three films will be judged by a panel of film and TV industry veterans, including actors Rae Dawn Chong (The Color Purple) and Misha Kushnetsov (Stranger Things). Also on the panel are: producer-director Naveen A. Chathapuram; actor-director-writer Myles Clohessy; El Paso-born actor/producer Damon Dayoub; Camera Ambassador founder Erica Duffy; and Pride of Gypsies producer James Mendoza.
The finished films and behind-the-scenes footage will be shown in the Closing Ceremony on September 26.
The Film Race — Borderland Edition is sponsored by the El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival, Flo Networks, El Paso County, Destination El Paso, Hunt Companies, JKB Family Limited Partnership, Rudolph Auto Group, and Tammy Vasilatos CPA.
To donate to The Film Race, go to epcf.org/filmrace.
The El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival returns for its 17th year from July 18-July 28 of 2024.
This year’s 16th annual edition was a huge success. We hosted celebrity guests Edward James Olmos (pictured at a private reception for passholders on July 28) and Helen Hunt, and the world premiere of Isaac Artenstein’s The People of the Crossing: The Jews of El Paso. We sold out the I’ll Have What She’s Having Dinner before a screening of When Harry Met Sally. And, by moving ahead of the start of school, we were able to show more children’s movies, many of which sold out or came close to it.
We celebrated El Paso filmmakers Lucky McKee and Zach Passero, as well as Hector Gallardo’s Subharmonic City Productions, the 7th annual Femme Frontera Showcase, documentaries from NMSU’s Gila Film School and handed out more than $4,000 in prize money to local filmmakers and screenwriters in our annual Local Flavor showcase and PCFF Screenwriting Competition.
We watched in amazement as Walt Strony worked his magic on the Wyler Mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ accompanying Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr., and as four all-female groups from the first You Rock! Music Camp (aged from 10 to 16) rocked out onstage before a free outdoor showing of School of Rock.
Did you know that we had audience members from more than 60 cities outside of the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez/Las Cruces borderland region? We had visitors from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Austin, New Orleans, Denver, and Seattle.
We thank our passholders, audiences and our sponsors for making the world’s largest classic film festival a truly feel-good event and important part of El Paso’s cultural landscape.
Passes for the 2024 film festival are on sale now. Click here for details.
Entre Fronteras took the $1,500 first prize in this year’s Local Flavor Showcase and Awards during the 16th annual El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival.
The first installment of Entre Fronteras (Between Borders), a live-action narrative film that follows the fates of migrants on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, was shown on July 29 in the El Paso Museum of Art Auditorium. It was announced as the first prize recipient at the Local Flavor Showcase and Awards on July 30 in the Plaza Theatre, sponsored by the El Paso Film and Creative Industries Commission (Creative El Paso) and the Texas Film Commission.
Writer and producer Julian Nunez of New Mexico was on hand to receive the awards from El Paso Film Commissioner Drew Mayer-Oakes and film festival program director Doug Pullen.
Filmmaker Josh Pulido was a two-time winner, taking the $1,000 second place with his genre-bending comedy The Film Cafe and the $250 Audience Favorite Award. Audiences members voted for their favorite film by text-to-vote.
The $750 third prize went to the evocative short film Platonico by El Paso-Juarez filmmaker Alecs Roman.
Nine films out of more than 40 submissions were selected for this year’s showcase. Two feature films were shown on July 29 at the El Paso Museum Art.
This year’s selections were made by a panel consisting of filmmaker and New Mexico State University film professor Ilana Lapid of Las Cruces, film producer Javier Gonzalez of El Paso, and El Paso Community Foundation staff member Asia Saucedo, a veteran of the Plaza Classic Film Festival.
Submissions for the 17th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival Local Flavor Showcase and Awards will be announced in March. Next year’s PCFF will be July 18-28, 2024.
Carrie Silva of El Paso is a double winner in this year’s second Plaza Classic Screenwriting Competition.
Her screenplay The Best Dive in the 915 took first place in this year’s competition. Carrie also received first prize in our first PCFF Screenwriting Pitch Fest last Wednesday at the International Bar (INTL).
She will receive the $500 first prize, a copy of Final Draft 12, and a script consultation with El Paso writer-director Lucky McKee. Her pitch fest prize is $300 toward production of a short film of her script by El Paso’s Subharmonic City Productions.
Competition coordinator Austin Savage has adapted the 111-page screenplay for a one-hour table read at 12:30 pm Sunday, July 30 in the Philanthropy Theatre, inside the Plaza Theatre complex. Admission is FREE. Silva plans to attend. Savage leads a cast of six actors who’ll read various parts — Roland Esparza, Mia Grajeda, Nichole Audrey Hardgrove, Aura Moon and Brad Thomason.
El Pasoan Don Patterson is the second prize award winner for his screenplay, Freddy Reno Went Missing. He receives $250 and a copy of Final Draft 12.
Second prize in the pitch fest went to El Paso’s Diego Rico for his pitch of his screenplay, A Permanent Record. We took up a collection from the more than 40 people who attended the event, raising $70 cash for our runner-up.
Silva, Patterson and Rico were among 10 finalists in this year’s competition. The others are Humberto Castro of El Paso, Dreamality; Marie Descrosiers of Sunshine, FL, for Infanticide; Justin Kalman of El Paso, A Tale to Tell; Joanna Karler of Garland, TX, and Liane Morales of El Paso for That One Night in J-Town; Arthur Portillo of Canutillo for The Killing Kind; Khtohi Ross of Monroeville, PA for The Behavior of Grace; and Samuel Taylor of Los Angeles for At the Mercy of Faith.
Pictured: Joanna Karler and Liane Morales face other finalists at the pitch fest.
