Santa Fe Film Festival

The Santa Fe Film Festival is a 10-day celebration of the best in cinematic arts, the 22nd Annual Santa Fe Film Festival will run February 3rd-13th, 2022 with a program of over 100 screenings, panels, juried awards, workshops, and parties. This year, the festival will continue to be a part of Film Week in Santa Fe which brings a large variety of attendees from the industry, local and regional businesses, and even our legislators. Long before New Mexico received statehood, artists have found our diverse landscapes, light, and culture integral for sharing their stories. New Mexico has been a key part of filmmaking since the first ‘short film’ entitled “Indian Day School” was shot by a crew sent by Thomas Edison in 1898. Filmmakers found that shooting in the light in our state added more drama, depth, and atmosphere to the story. With a rich history in film, it’s not surprising that over 300 feature films from Westerns to Action genres and everything in between have been shot here since 1911. Select titles include 3:10 to Yuma, The Astronaut Farmer, Silverado, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Grapes of Wrath, Red Dawn, Independence Day, Young Guns, and Wild Wild West. In the 1920s, Film Festivals became popular with independent filmmakers as an alternative to Hollywood-controlled theaters, allowing them to share their important stories from documentaries to avant-garde films; allowing them to show their work to audiences, film distributors, critics, and fans. The Santa Fe Film Festival’s beginnings started to grow organically forty years ago with an off-shoot from a festival in the region creating a “New Directors/New Film” program in partnership with MOMA (NYC) which attracted many notable Hollywood directors and film stars. From this start as a hub for celebrating filmmakers, the Santa Fe Film Festival was officially created in 1999 as a nonprofit and awarded “The Cider House Rules” as the first Best Feature. Over the years, the Santa Fe Film Festival has garnered international industry acclaim receiving submissions from all over the globe by bringing together distinguished industry professionals and film-lovers alike with the diverse categories of cinema. We welcome you to join us. Come experience the beauty of Santa Fe's culture and outdoors (skiing, hiking, biking, etc) and join us for our upcoming celebration of cinematic arts.