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This week heralds the 16th iteration of the Santa Fe International Film Festival (Various times and locations, Wednesday, Oct. 16-Sunday, Oct. 20, santafe.film), that sprawling week-long conglomeration of movies, talks, parties, panels, gatherings, awards and events that takes over Santa Fe’s theater spaces each October. Likely, you’ve heard it before—each year at the festival gets a little bigger and better; though something about 2024 feels new and urgent, like SFIFF has fully come into its own as a competitive festival alongside the likes of Tribeca and Sundance. And speaking of Sundance, news from earlier this year that the long-running event will not move to Santa Fe if and when it leaves its longtime Park City, Utah, home emphasizes the importance of our homegrown festival. New Mexico is, after all, a film-loving state—why shouldn’t we have a festival to match our fervor? Between the massive slate of movies dropping this week, plus the Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony for actor Bryan Cranston and all the usual goings-on, we checked in with SFIFF Executive Director Liesette Bailey. This interview has been edited for clarity and concision. (Alex De Vore)
2024 feels like a turning point for the festival. Does it feel like it’s hitting the proverbial next level?
I think last year we were starting to feel it, but this year opening with [Malcolm Washington’s] The Piano Lesson and closing with Amber Sealey’s Out of My Mind, amazing things are happening to the fest. I mean, our partnership with Variety…it’s so major for them to be presenting the 10 Screenwriters to Watch program here, and it’s really showing the festival as a launching point for talent…it’s such a cool thing to show that Variety does have an interest in Santa Fe and an interest in the area is an awesome way to bring the fest to the next level. And then there’s Bryan Cranston’s Lifetime Achievement Award. We’ve been doing the fest for 16 years, and it’s kind of our love letter to Santa Fe.
Now that we know definitively Sundance won’t move to Santa Fe, do you feel any sense of urgency to either augment or cement the SFIFF identity? Is there a sense of responsibility in fostering New Mexico’s connections to the larger film community now that SFIFF is the film festival in our city?
I feel like that’s what we’ve always been working for. Sundance is wonderful, but what we’ve tried to create is more like a European festival, which fits what Santa Fe really is. We have over 100 filmmakers coming in from places like South Korea and the Czech Republic; a connection to Hollywood here with Variety; these great movies where it’s the second or third chance in America to see them, or sometimes the first chance; and I think that’s really exciting. What’s better than to be able to present the best film festival in the state in your hometown? It’s a big economic boon for Santa Fe, too—the hotels sell out, the restaurants are busy, there’s a little more of a nightlife and people go shopping. Maybe it’s not at a Sundance level, but it’s sustainable at our level. I think of that Lew Wallace quote that’s like, ‘all calculations…fail in New Mexico,’ and how we don’t run into that because we’re from here. With Sundance not coming, it does shine a light on how there is and was already a great film fest that was doing things Sundance was doing, like giving grants to filmmakers and supporting the local community.
Are there any films playing this year you’d particularly recommend?
OK. This is hard. Sunlight screening at the New Mexico History Museum for its US premier, and we have a special guest director Nina Conti, as well as executive producer Chrisopther Guest. I mean…ohmygod. And some of our US premieres, like Mash Ville from South Korea or Waltzing Matilda from the Czech Republic. September 5 is a gripping story about the Munich bombings that’s a must-see. It’s low ticket alert, but The Seed of the Sacred Fig is one of the greatest movies to come out this year. It’s daring cinema, and the director Mohammad Rasoulof, when it came out in Cannes, had to flee the Iranian mountains to get to safety in Germany. It’s highly critical of the Iranian gov’t, but also Hitchcokcian—it’s so good! I could rattle on. Oh! Of course, Cranston, but also our panels, which are free. Also, Yolanda Ross from The Chi and Cassie Freeman from Righteous Gemstones have a talk on what it takes to become a series regular; plus our distribution panel, where we have some of the major indie distributors talking about how to get your film distributed. I’m particularly excited for Documenteur Panel with Kirby Dick…Glenn Silber and Alexandria Bombach. It’s so hard to choose, though.
