Take the Short Drive
The 3rd Annual Albu-Crazy Film Fest Fundraiser for and by the comedic OffSet Web Series (which is both the title of the show and the name of the thing to which funds will go) runs from 1-2:30 pm this Saturday, Aug. 10 at Albuquerque’s Guild Theater (3405 Central Ave. NE, Albuquerque, (505) 255-1848), and it only runs $5. Hosted by OffSet Executive Producer Khalid Naz, the event features short films, a Q&A session with local filmmakers and, best of all, the feeling that comes from supporting cool shit, like comedic web shows and The Guild, whose owner Keif Henley is…he’s just, like, a really great guy who loves movies, and you can ask anyone in ABQ about that. Tickets are available through ticketleap.events.
Viktorious
Just last week in Bonus Features, we mentioned the short film Mary Margaret Road Grader featuring Cree actor/writer/director Cody Lightning. Now, the triple threat himself comes to Santa Fe to introduce a screening of his fantastic 2023 mockumentary Hey, Viktor! as part of Reservation Dogs writer and filmmaker Blackhorse Lowe’s (Diné) CineDoom series at Violet Crown Cinema (6:30 pm Saturday, Aug. 17. $16. 1606 Alcaldesa St., (505) 216-5678). In the film, Lightning plays a fictionalized version of himself some years after his real-life appearance as young Victor in the groundbreaking 1998 Chris Eyre-directed film Smoke Signals. Fictional Cody has written a sequel to Smoke Signals subtitled Still Smoking (hilarious) and he tries to get the original cast back together while contending with his perceived shortcomings and the cruel machinations of fame. The star-studded Hey, Viktor! played at last year’s Santa Fe International Film Festival, and SFR was all about it. “Hey, Viktor! is both a brilliant commentary on the aftermath of child stardom,” our review read, “and a surreal yet insightful comedy that dips into pitch-perfect dramatic moments.” Tickets remain available through Violet Crown as of press time, but interested parties should get ‘em fast.
More Like Best-ival
Though it doesn’t kick off until Oct. 16, organizers from the Santa Fe International Film Festival would like to remind people that it is pretty awesome, and folks should probably get tickets early in order to access all the screenings and panels and meetings and parties and hangs and chill-outs and such. This year, the fest’s nonprofit org Santa Fe Film Institute will hand out cash prizes in six categories, and Panavision (being the film company one might have seen during credits in that little “Filmed in Panavision” mention) will award more than $100,000 in prizes, including a pretty boss camera worth $90,000/post-production prize package for whoever wins the Best Narrative Feature award. While we don’t know all the films screening this year, we’ll have more details and at least a handful of reviews when we get closer to the festival itself, but just like the Cody Lightning thing, the time for tickets is now.
Recon Party
By now you’ve likely heard that the Sundance Film Festival may be looking for new digs after 2026 and Santa Fe’s made the shortlist. As such, we’re supposed to expect some sort of Sundance contingent to come check out the city between now and the final announcement. When that does happen, we’ll try to let you know, and maybe we can all agree to be on our best behavior—or, conversely, our worst if we don’t actually want to deal with having a mega film fest here in town. Santa Fe New Mexican writer Daniel Chacon doubled down on the crummier aspects of our fair city. “If they fly into the Santa Fe Regional Airport, they’ll be greeted by junked cars on the drive into town,” Chacon writes. “If they go for a walk downtown, they could stumble intro scraggly weeds and gritty, uneven sidewalks.” SFR, in turn, ran into Mayor Alan Webber recently (at the opera) and asked if the Guadalupe Street construction will still be underway when the Sundance folks come to visit. He said it will and that the road work demonstrates the city’s authenticity.