Plaza Classic Film Festival

About:

The Plaza Classic Film Festival — which goes into its 14th year — was started by the El Paso Community Foundation in 2008 as a special project to bring movies back to the historic Plaza Theatre. The Community Foundation purchased 35mm and then state-of-the-art 2K digital projection equipment (upgraded to 4K in 2018) for the atmospheric theater, which opened in 1930, closed in the early ’80s, and was restored for $38 million in 2006 in a joint partnership between the City of El Paso and the Community Foundation.

The first Festival was called The Movies Return to the Plaza Theatre and was the brainchild of EPCF President/CEO Eric Pearson and movie enthusiast Charles Horak. It was a smash hit. More than 25,000 people turned out to watch more than 60 movies at the Plaza Theatre and adjacent Philanthropy Theatre.

It returned in 2009 with a new name, the Plaza Classic Film Festival, and a growing popularity in the region and throughout the country. Now the world’s largest classic film festival, the Plaza Classic averages attendance of 40,000 people a year, and has brought in a glittering array of celebrity guests, including Al Pacino, El Paso native Debbie Reynolds, Rita Moreno, Richard Dreyfuss, Eva Marie Saint, Kathleen Turner, Sam Elliott, Katharine Ross, Bruce Dern, Ali MacGraw, Tippi Hedren, Shirley Jones, Robert Wagner, Cindy Williams, animators Don Bluth (an El Paso native) and Gary Goldman, Peter Bogdanovich, Kathleen Quinlan, Louise Fletcher, Michael York, Nancy Olson, Candy Clark, Elsa Cardenas and Margaret O’Brien.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 edition of the film festival was staged on tour and online. Pop-up drive-in movies were screened over 11 nights at six locations around the El Paso metro area. Additionally, locally connected features, documentaries and the popular Local Flavor local film showcase were screened digitally, including a special screening of Amadeus and a Zoom interview with star and El Paso native F. Murray Abraham.

More than 480,000 people have attended the first 13 Plaza Classics. The festival has an economic impact of $1.5 million annually. About 15 percent of its audience comes from outside of the El Paso/Juarez/Las Cruces radius.

Plaza Classic has expanded its footprint and programming roster to include outdoor movies and concerts within walking distance of the Plaza Theatre. This year’s festival includes movies in the Abraham Chavez Theatre and free outdoor screenings at the Convention Center Plaza, next to the Chavez (home of Alfresco Fridays).

The Plaza Classic Film Festival also has become a major showcase for regional filmmakers through its Local Flavor series, sponsored by the Texas Film Commission. It screens features, shorts, documentaries and other projects, and its audience has tripled in recent years. This year, Local Flavor will award $2,250 in cash prizes to local filmmakers in the fourth annual Local Flavor Awards, sponsored by TFCU.

The festival is programmed by Doug Pullen, program director of the El Paso Community Foundation. He works with an advisory committee made up of community volunteers and movie fans. Members are: Chris Canales, chief of staff of City Rep. Cissy Lizarraga; actor-screenwriter Camilla Carr (widow of screenwriter Edward Anhalt); El Paso film collector, film historian and Sunset Film Society Director Jay Duncan; El Paso Community College mass communications professor Lisa Elliott; Warner Bros. employee, TCM contributor and classic movie buff Jack Fields; Craig Holden, managing director of development for Texas Tech University’s Office of Institutional Advancement in El Paso; Julia Hussmann (widow of actor Pat Hingle); Jaime Mendez, film lecturer and director of the UTEP Student Services Center; Rebecca Mendez, program and engagement coordinator for the Jewish Federation of Greater El Paso; CPA Terri Rutter of Tammy Vasilatos CPA; KVIA news anchor Stephanie Valle; and El Paso Leadership Academy Founder and CEO Omar Yanar.