What to see at the Santa Fe International Film Festival

The 2025 Santa Fe International Film Festival (SFiFF) kicks off Wednesday, Oct. 15, with more than 200 films screening across the city.

Special guests will include talk show host Ricki Lake, who produced the short documentary “Big Rock Burning,” journalist Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now,” and actor Edward James Olmos, who is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jacques Paisner, SFiFF’s artistic director, called Olmos “a beautiful human being, who’s done so much for various Latino communities.”

“When I was a boy, going to elementary school in Santa Fe, they would wheel the VCR and TV into the classroom and show us ‘Stand and Deliver,’” Paisner said. “So, I think here in Santa Fe there’s a real connection to that film, in particular.”

The festival will include 13 official submissions for Best International Feature Film for the Academy Awards.

Among these, France’s submission, “It Was Just an Accident,” by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, has been generating a lot of buzz, having won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Spain’s submission, “Sirāt,” which won the Jury Prize at Cannes, is also being screened, as is Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Norway’s submission., which won the Grand Prix.

“Before Sunrise” director Richard Linklater has two films at SFiFF this year: “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague.”

“‘Blue Moon’ is a real vehicle for Ethan Hawke. It’s about (musical theater-writing duo) Rodgers and Hammerstein, and I saw it in Telluride (Colorado) and just loved it,” Paisner said. “I think it’s a real crowd-pleaser.”

Paisner said “Nouvelle Vague,” a film about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless,” is “a lovely tribute to the French New Wave.”

SFiFF will open with “Frankenstein” by Guillermo del Toro and close with the U.S.-Hungarian co-production “Nuremberg” by James Vanderbilt.

Reflecting on the festival as a whole, Paisner sees a trend toward auteur-style filmmaking.

“Director-driven films are coming back,” he said. “I think market-driven movies have kind of plateaued, and it’s a new revolution like we saw in the 1970s of directors as artists, and filmmakers taking the reins.”

In addition to the more widely publicized films, SFiFF features many hidden gems, including these five.

“Blackfeet Buffalo Yo-Yo Ma”

Directed by Hunter Robert Baker and Elias Gallegos

A short film about Indigenous-led nature conservation and the power of music, “Blackfeet Buffalo Yo-Yo Ma” depicts an unlikely encounter between the acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma and a herd of free roaming buffalo.

“This whole project was made together with a nonprofit organization called Indigenous Led, which works to restore buffalo on Blackfeet territory,” Hunter Robert Baker said, who produced, photographed and co-directed the film, along with Elias Gallegos.

Ma wanted to lend his artistry to the cause by performing for a group of buffalo who had recently been restored to Blackfeet territory in Montana. Although Baker said “movie magic” was used to depict Ma in closer proximity to the buffalo than would have been safe, the cellist really did perform on Blackfeet Nation with no barrier between himself and the majestic animals.

“One thing that was really remarkable is that these animals are drawn to classical music,” Baker said. “So, when Yo-Yo performed, they actually did start to come closer to him. ... I saw it firsthand, and it was incredibly magical to experience.”

Baker, an Emmy-winning director, was impressed with Ma’s acting ability, as well.

“Yo-Yo is a performer. He performs for the world,” Baker said. “So, for Yo-Yo to act in this film — because he does do some acting — I think it was fully natural for him, and he did a fantastic job.”

“The Whistle”

Directed by Greg Franklin

“The Whistle” is a short-animated film based on the true story of a Jewish doctor in 1938 Cologne, Germany, who defies a Nazi law forbidding him from treating non-Jews.

The film was the brainchild of executive producers Jenniphr Goodman (“The Tao of Steve”) and her mother, Nancy Dickenson, who both live in Santa Fe.

“What was uniquely interesting for me, in working with this wonderful animation studio Six Point Harness, was trying to achieve a common sensibility,” Goodman said.

Inspired by sources as diverse as the German neo-noir television series “Babylon Berlin” and the animated charcoal drawings of South African artist William Kentridge, they were ultimately able to achieve the look they wanted.

The film is told entirely through visual language and music, with no dialogue. The tune that the imprisoned doctor whistles is the only “voice” in the film, and it’s the fulcrum on which the plot turns.

“It was a very conscious decision to have no dialogue, and also for it to be animated,” said Nancy LaPook Diamond, the film’s producer. “This way, everything’s universal. There are no accents. There’s no recognition of perhaps an actor whose name and voice you recognize.”

Diamond said current events have made the film chillingly relevant.

“We never, ever imagined when we began the project over two years ago, how timely the story would become with the rise in antisemitism, recent ICE operations, growing censorship threats and the constant spread of misinformation,” Diamond said. “The film’s message — that each of us has the power to stand up, speak out and do what we feel is right — feels more important than ever.”

“Being Bublé”

Directed by Dan Perlman

New York City-based comedian Dan Perlman, co-creator and star of “Flatbush Misdemeanors,” never dreamed of becoming a Michael Bublé impersonator. But that’s exactly what he does in his new comedic documentary film, “Being Bublé.”

The project began when a woman approached Perlman after a stand-up comedy set, saying, “You must get this all the time, but you look exactly like Michael Bublé.”

In fact, the 34-year-old comedian had never been told he looked like the 50-year-old Canadian crooner, but he humored her. Before he knew it, he found himself performing at the 60th birthday party of the audience member’s Bublé-loving mother.

“Being Bublé” documents Perlman’s week-long preparations for the party, including vocal training and clothes shopping. Hilarity ensues.

It’s one of Perlman’s first forays into unscripted comedy. The closest thing he had done previously, Perlman said, was an ill-fated attempt to get the celebrity boxer and grill-hawker George Foreman to make an appearance at his college dorm for a fictitious “Important American Figures” series. Perlman, then a freshman at Northwestern University, had been named Grill Chair and wanted to impress his dorm mates.

“In a world where I could have pulled that off, the 'Important American Figures' series would have become a thing,” Perlman said. “Instead, they just eliminated the position of Grill Chair after the semester.”

“NMSA: A Story About a School’s Becoming”

Directed by Timothy Harrier

The New Mexico School for the Arts (NMSA), based in Santa Fe, is the only statewide public arts high school in New Mexico. It is the subject of a documentary by Timothy Harrier.

“The school is incredibly special,” Harrier said. “I didn’t realize just how special it is until we were almost finished putting the film together.”

Harrier documented life at the school over a period of a year and a half. Rather than going in with a strong vision of what themes he would focus on, he kept an open mind and allowed the story to evolve naturally from the footage.

“We literally had 500 or 600 pages of (interview) transcripts we were pulling from,” Harrier said. “We wanted to tell the story from a variety of different points of view — from the students, the parents, the faculty members, the donors — talking about what the school was, what it is and what it’s going to be.”

Harrier was both surprised and “very proud” that the film was selected for SFiFF, and that many of the people involved in NMSA, who appear in the film, will be able to see it.

“I think it will really resonate with the community in Santa Fe,” he said.

“She Cried That Day”

Directed by Amanda Erickson

A documentary six years in the making, “She Cried That Day” follows one New Mexican family’s fight for justice amid the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR) crisis.

The film centers on Christine Means, whose sister, Dione Thomas, was killed in Gallup in 2015.

“We were able to interview tribal police and state police, and we were there at the beginning when the New Mexico (MMIWR) Task Force had its first meeting in November of 2019,” said director Amanda Erickson.

She said the length of the project allowed her to tell the story in a sensitive, nuanced way.

“It was really important to not just be extractive but to really sit, listen and learn, and to let the families guide us in how their story goes out into the world,” Erickson said. “It was really important that this was done with community and not just about a community.”

“She Cried that Day” is Erickson’s first feature documentary film.

“I’ve been a longtime TV producer out of New York for almost 20 years,” she said. “It was reconnecting with my Apache relatives that made me want to use whatever skills I had to amplify Native issues and Native voices.”

Prior to the screening, Erickson will hold a rally on the steps of the Roundhouse.

“We are asking not only our families but supporters and allies across New Mexico to come forward and stand with Native women, to stand in honor of our missing, and those who have been taken by violence,” Erickson said. “And it’s a reminder to the government that we’re still here, we’re still fighting, and we remember the promises that have been made. And we’re really hoping that those will extend beyond words and into concrete, actionable change.”

Santa Fe International Film Festival brings over 200 films to The City Different

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