The legendary Oscar, Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award winner Rita Moreno is returning to the Plaza Theatre and the El Paso Community Foundation’s Plaza Classic Film Festival!
The iconic singer, dancer, and actor will appear with 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 28 and Steven Spielberg’s 2021 version of West Side Story at 7 p.m. Friday, July 29, both in the Plaza Theatre. Ms. Moreno is the last surviving member of the main cast of Singin’ in the Rain. The 15th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival will be July 28-August 7 in and around the Plaza Theatre.
She played Zelda Zanders, her first Anglo character in a feature film, in Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s classic. She won a supporting actress Academy Award for her portrayal of the fiery Anita in 1961’s of West Side Story. In the new version, she served as an executive producer, played the newly created character of Valentina, and performed the pivotal song Somewhere.
Miss Moreno has a long history with the Plaza Theatre and the Plaza Classic Film Festival. She headlined a benefit concert there in 1986, which enabled the El Paso Community Foundation to purchase the deteriorating 1930 movie palace and eventually restore it with the City of El Paso. She appeared again in 2007, the year after the theater reopened, and headlined the Plaza Classic in 2013. Since then, she starred in the Latinx remake of TV’s One Day at a Time, received considerable Oscar buzz for the new West Side Story and has roles in the forthcoming Fast and Furious sequel, Fast X, and Tom Brady’s Eighty for Brady.
Rita Moreno, 90, is one of the few performers to receive TV’s Emmy, music’s Grammy, cinema’s Oscar, and Broadway’s Tony awards. In addition to her Academy Award, she received Emmy Awards for The Muppet Show and The Rockford Files, a Grammy for contributions to the soundtrack of the children’s show, The Electric Company, and a Tony for her performance in the Broadway production of The Ritz. Her extensive credits include HBO’s Oz and the films The King and I, Carnal Knowledge, and The Four Seasons.
Miss Moreno joins the previously announced F. Murray Abraham, an El Paso native, as this year’s special guests. Mr. Abraham will appear with Amadeus, for which he won Best Actor Oscar, at 7 p.m. Friday, August 5 and The Grand Budapest Hotel at 4 p.m. Saturday, August 6, both in the Plaza Theatre.
Tickets will go on sale on June 27 at the Plaza Theatre box office and Ticketmaster.com. Festival Passes, which include admission to Plaza Classic movies and special events, and the new Movies Only Pass, are on sale at plazaclassic.com/tickets. Go to plazaclassic.com for more information or follow us on social media.
Academy Award-winning actor and El Paso native F. Murray Abraham will appear at this year’s 15th annual El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Festival. Abraham is a 1958 graduate of El Paso High School who won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as the envious composer Antonio Salieri in director Milos Forman’s Amadeus.
Abraham will appear for a pre-screening interview with the director’s cut version of Amadeus at 7 p.m. Friday, August 5 in the Plaza Theatre. He will follow that with a pre-screening interview with director Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel at 4 p.m. Saturday, August 6 in the Plaza Theatre.
Born in Pittsburgh to Syrian immigrant Fahrid “Fred” Abraham and Josephine Stello, the daughter of Italian immigrants, Abraham grew up in El Paso. He attended Vilas Grammar School, El Paso High School, and Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso), where he won an acting award before transferring to the University of Texas at Austin. He also studied acting with Uta Hagen in New York City.
The 82-year-old actor’s storied career is all about the work, with roots firmly in theater, where he has performed more than 90 plays. He won an Obie Award for Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, appeared in Broadway productions of The Man in the Glass Booth and Angels in America, and numerous Shakespearean plays. He received an Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement and was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.
Abraham’s most visible work has been in movies and TV. His film credits include Scarface (also showing at this year’s Plaza Classic), The Name of the Rose, Finding Forrester, Last Action Hero, Mighty Aphrodite, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Inside Llewyn Davis. His extensive TV credits include 43 episodes of Showtime’s Homeland (with two Emmy Award nominations), plus appearances on The Good Wife, Louie, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Mythic Quest, The White Lotus, and Disney+’s Moon Knight, for which he voices the evil Khonshu.
Murray Abraham celebrated his 60th wedding anniversary to Kate Hannan this year. He has a son, Mick, and daughter, Jamili, and a granddaughter, Hannan.
The 15th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival will be held July 28-August 7, 2022. Among this year’s 90 titles are a 70th anniversary showing of Singin’ in the Rain, Sleepless in Seattle, Superman, Lawrence of Arabia, Bonnie and Clyde, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Festival passes are on sale for $200, with Movies Only passes available for $100 at plazaclassic.com/tickets. Individual tickets go on sale in July. Call 915-533-4020 or go to plazaclassic.com for more information.
The winner of the first Plaza Classic Screenwriting Competition will receive more than a $500 first prize and a table read of their winning entry. They also will receive Final Draft 12, the latest version of the movie industry’s premier screenwriting software.
The early bird deadline for the inaugural competition is fast approaching. Entrants have until 11:59 p.m. Friday, May 20 to submit their screenplays for $30.
The submission cost rises to $40 from May 21 through 11:59 p.m. June 13, with a late registration fee of $50 June 14 through 11:59 p.m. June 27. Coverage, or an analysis of the submitted screenplay, is available for an additional $15.
The competition, which is sponsored by the El Paso Film and Creative Industries Commission, is open to writers 18 years of age or older. Screenplays must be submitted in the PDF format only, and should include only the title on the cover sheet, not the writer’s name. The writer’s identity and contact information, as well as the logline for their screenplay, may be filled in on the submission form, which the judges do not see.
The winner will be announced on or around August 1 and will be awarded the $500 first prize at the conclusion of the Local Flavor film showcase and Local Flavor Awards, which start at 7 p.m. Thursday, August 4 in the Plaza Theatre. A free table read will be offered as part of this year’s annual Filmmakers Brunch on Sunday, August 7 in the El Paso Community Foundation Room.
Go to plazaclassic.com/screenwriting for details and the submission form.
The El Paso Community Foundation’s Plaza Classic Film Festival will host its first screenwriting competition as part of the 15th annual Plaza Classic, which runs July 28-August 7 in and around the Plaza Theatre.
The first Plaza Classic Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, sponsored by the El Paso Film and Creative Industries Commission, will award a $500 first prize and a table read of the winning screenplay. It’s open to anyone 18 and older. Entries must be feature-length scripts of no more than 120 pages. There are no genre restrictions.
Screenplays may be submitted at plazaclassic.com/screenwriting. The cost to submit is $30 through May 20, $40 from May 21 through June 13, and $50 from June 14-27. For an additional $15, an entrant will receive coverage, or written feedback, of their screenplay.
Screenplays may be uploaded in the PDF format only and must include a cover sheet with only the screenplay’s title. The entrant’s name and contact information will be included on the submission form, along with a logline and payment. A point system will be used to grade the submissions, with a 50 point maximum. Scripts will be awarded up to 10 points each for premise, plot, characters, dialogue, and the script’s potential prospects.
The winning screenplay will be announced at the Plaza Classic Film Festival’s Local Flavor showcase (entry deadline for films is June 20), sponsored by the Texas Film Commission, and Local Flavor Awards, sponsored by TFCU, at 7 p.m. Thursday, August 4 in the Plaza Theatre. The winning entry will receive a table read at the free Filmmaker’s Brunch on Sunday, August 7 in the Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon.
The 15th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival will feature more than 90 movies from July 28-August 7 in and around the Plaza Theatre. This year’s titles include a 70th anniversary showing of Singin’ in the Rain, 1983’s Scarface, Sleepless in Seattle, the 1950 version of Father of the Bride and our 14th annual free outdoor screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Passes are on sale now at plazaclassic.com/tickets. Tickets go on sale in early July.
Call 915-533-4020 or email local@plazaclassic.com for more information about the contest.
The Plaza Classic Film Festival is accepting entries for this year’s Local Flavor showcase, which moves this year to the Plaza Theatre.
The series features short and feature-length films that are made by, set in or in some way connect to the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez-Las Cruces area.
A total of $2,500 in cash prizes will be handed out on August 4 when the Local Flavor showcase and awards will be presented in the Plaza Theatre, the first time the shorts-heavy series will be presented in the historic 1930 movie palace. First prize is worth $1,000, with $750 for second prize, $500 for third prize and $250 for the audience favorite.
For the fifth straight year, the series will be curated by filmmakers Zach Passero and Lucky McKee, along with festival director Doug Pullen, program director for the El Paso Community Foundation, which produces the festival. They’ll choose the submissions that make it into the program, and the top three prize winning entrants.
To submit, go to plazaclassic.com/localflavor and fill out the submission form. More details are included on the Local Flavor page.
The deadline to submit is 11:59 p.m. Monday, June 20, 2022.
Selections will be announced in July.
