Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino will appear at the 17th annual El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival.
Sorvino will appear with Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite(1995), for which she won the Academy Award for best supporting actress, at 7 pm Friday, July 19. She also will appear with one of her most popular movies, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997), at 3:30 pm Saturday, July 20. Tickets are $10 for each screening, on sale at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster.
Sorvino, daughter of late actor Paul Sorvino, has appeared in numerous films and television series since the early 1990s. Notable film appearances include Quiz Show, Norma Jean & Marilyn, Mimic, and last year’s independently released box-office blockbuster Sounds of Freedom, which dealt with a topic about which Sorvino is passionate — human trafficking.
A Harvard University graduate, Sorvino has been an outspoken advocate for the elimination of human trafficking, sex-trafficking, and slavery. Married with four children, she is a United National Goodwill Ambassador and was named its Global Advocate of the Year. She is part of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, being among the first to speak out about studio executive Harvey Weinstein and served as an ambassador for Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women campaign, receiving its Artist of Conscience Award.
Sorvino joins fellow Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek as this year’s special guests. Spacek will appear with Coal Miner’s Daughter, for which she won the Academy Award, at 7 pm July 27 in the Plaza Theatre.
The 17th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival will feature more than 90 movies from July 18-28 in and around the Plaza Theatre. Individual tickets are available at the box office and Ticketmaster. Passes and special events are on sale at plazaclassic.com/tickets.
Academy Award winner — and Texas native — Sissy Spacek will appear at the 17th annual El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival, which runs from July 18-28 in and around El Paso’s historic and restored Plaza Theatre.
Spacek will appear with Coal Miner’s Daughter at 7 pm Saturday, Juy 27 in the Plaza Theatre. She received the Academy Award for her inspired portrayal of legendary country singer and songwriter Loretta Lynn in the 1980 Michael Apted classic, in which Spacek did her own singing.
Sissy Spacek has been one of the industry’s most respected actresses in a career spanning six decades. Her many honors include an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, five additional Oscar nominations, a Grammy nomination, three Golden Globe Awards, and numerous critics awards.
Born in Quitman, Texas, Spacek aspired to be a singer-songwriter before her acting career took off. She first gained the attention of critics and audiences in Terrence Malick’s widely praised Badlands, on which she met production designer Jack Fisk, with whom she celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary this year.
Spacek earned her first Academy Award nomination for her chilling performance in the title role of Brian de Palma’s Carrie, based on the Stephen King novel (also showing in PCFF 2024). Other notable film credits include Three Women, Fisk’s Raggedy Man, and Oscar-nominated performances in Missing, The River, Crimes of the Heart, and In the Bedroom. Other film credits include The Straight Story, JFK, and The Help. She also starred in Netflix’s Bloodline, Hulu’s Castle Rock, and Amazon Prime Video’s Homecoming and Night Sky, with a recurring role in FX’s forthcoming Dying for Sex.
Tickets for this year’s Plaza Classic Film Festival go on sale at 10 am Friday, June 14 at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster. Passes are on sale at plazaclassic.com/tickets. Go to plazaclassic.com for more information.
The El Paso Community Foundation’s Plaza Classic Film Festival is in the podcast business. The Plaza Classic Podcast is now streaming on the Plaza Classic Film Festival website and streaming platforms.
The Plaza Classic Podcast is hosted by KVIA news anchor and three-time Regional Edward R. Murrow Award-winner and Borderland Crimes podcaster Stephanie Valle and EPCC Mass Communication Professor Lisa Elliott. Valle and Elliott are members of the Plaza Classic Film Festival Program Advisory Committee. The podcast is produced in partnership with EPCC and the El Paso Community Foundation.
Each episode features guests ranging from committee members to filmmakers who delve into a different aspect of the city’s No. 1 feel-good summer event, including this year’s schedule, the Local Flavor showcase, screenwriting competition, and more.
Episode 1, which examines the history of the festival and the popularity of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, is streaming now. The second episode features committee member and UTEP administrator Jaime Mendez and will be posted May 30. Episodes will be posted weekly through the end of the Plaza Classic. Future episodes feature El Paso filmmaker Josh Pulido, screenwriting competition coordinator Austin Savage, and 2023 screenwriting winner Carrie Silva.
“The Plaza Classic Film Festival is a gift to El Paso. We wanted to share behind-the-scenes details and introduce the people involved in the process,” Valle said. Added Elliott: “There’s also more to say about the films featured than can be covered in our introductions before festival screenings. A podcast was a natural way to do that.”
The 17th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival will be July 18-28, 2024, in and around El Paso’s historic Plaza Theatre. The festival will include movies based on Stephen King stories, a film noir thread, the Local Flavor Showcase and Awards, and movies such as Sunset Boulevard, The Shawshank Redemption, and our 16th annual FREE outdoor showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Passes are on sale at plazaclassic.com/tickets. Individual tickets go on sale in June.
Good writing will be rewarded in the El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival’s third annual screenwriting contest — including a $500 first prize.
The third Plaza Classic Film Festival Screenwriting Competition is accepting entries through July 3, 2024.
It will award a $500 first prize, a $250 second prize, and Final Draft 13 screenwriting software to the top two finishers.
The first prize winner also receives a consultation with El Paso writer-director Lucky McKee (Poker Face, Old Man, The Woman, May), and a table read of their screenplay.
The contest is open to anyone 18 and older. Entries must be feature-length scripts of no more than 120 pages. There are no genre restrictions. Go to plazaclassic.com/screenwriting or Film Freeway to enter.
The deadline is 11:59 pm July 3, 2024. Cost to submit is $30 through June 13, $40 from June 14 through July 3. An entrant may receive written feedback, or coverage, for an additional $15.
Screenplays must be uploaded in PDF format only, must be anonymous and include a cover sheet with only the screenplay’s title (name and contact details are on the entry form), a logline, and payment. Entries will be graded on a point system, with a 50-point maximum. Scripts will be awarded up to 10 points each for premise, plot, characters, dialogue, and the script’s prospects.
The top two finishers will be announced before the 17th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival, which is July 18-28.
The competition is sponsored by Final Draft, Coverfly, the El Paso Film and Creative Industries Commission, and the Texas Film Commission.
Plaza Classic Film Festival tickets go on sale in June. Passes are on sale at plazaclassic.com/tickets.
Details: 915-533-4020, local@plazaclassic.com.
Submissions for this year’s Local Flavor Showcase and Awards are now open.
A total of $3,650 in cash prizes will be awarded to filmmakers this year, including new awards for students films.
The deadline to submit your films is 11:59 pm Monday, June 17. It is FREE to submit. You can enter your film here.
The Plaza Classic Film Festival’s Local Flavor Showcase and Awards is accepting short and feature-length films (works-in-progress will not be accepted). Projects must have been completed on or after January 1, 2023 and must be made locally, set locally, or have a connection of some kind to the El Paso-Juarez-Las Cruces area, which should be noted in the online entry form’s Synopsis window.
A panel of judges will review all of the submissions and select finalists for this year’s showcase and awards program, which will be in the Plaza Theatre during this year’s Plaza Classic.
This year’s awards include the $1,500 First Prize, $1,000 Second Prize, and $750 Third Prize. A $250 Audience Favorite Award will be determined by a live text-to-vote during the showcase.
New this year: a $100 First Prize for a film by a college student; and a $50 First Prize for a film by a high school student.
Local Flavor is sponsored by the El Paso Film & Creative Industries Commission, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and the El Paso Community Foundation.
This year’s Local Flavor Showcase and Awards will be curated by El Paso-based, Emmy Award-winning Producer Javier Gonzalez; award-winning Las Cruces filmmaker and NMSU Creative Media Institute associate professor Ilana Lapid ; and Asia Saucedo, a member of the El Paso Community Foundation staff and longtime Plaza Classic Film Festival contributor.
Call 915-533-4020 or email local@plazaclassic.com for more information.
