2023 Plaza Classic Film Festival starts earlier, features more family films

This year, the Plaza Classic Film Festival will have more family-centered films and start earlier to accommodate children going back to school, organizers said.

The Plaza Classic Film Festival, with 11 days of film screenings, special appearances and events, will be July 20-30 at the historic Plaza Theatre.

Tickets for all festival screenings are available at the Plaza Theatre Box Office (no service charges) and Ticketmaster.com. Festival passes are available at plazaclassic.com/tickets or by calling 915-533-4020. For more information, including the complete schedule and ticket prices, visit plazaclassic.com.

Plaza Classic Film Festival movie themes

Festival program director Doug Pullen says the 16th year of the Plaza Classic Film Festival has two main themes this year, one bigger than the other.

"The bigger of the two is called Dysfunction Junction. These are films centered around the notion of family dysfunction. The idea was to approach it from different angles, so we’ve got dramas about families that have been disrupted by divorce ("Kramer vs. Kramer," "Mrs. Doubtfire"), tragedy ("Ordinary People"), mental illness ("Psycho"), money and power ("Written on the Wind"), or the inability to evolve as a family ("The Magnificent Ambersons").

"We also have comedies that deal with it as well, such as Austin Powers in "Goldmember" (pointing out that Austin and Dr. Evil are related), "Step Brothers" (Will Farrell and John C. O’Reilly as deadbeat stepbrothers) and "Little Miss Sunshine," in which a dysfunctional family must pull together.

Children's and family films return in greater numbers

Complementary to that is the return of children’s and family films in greater numbers to this year’s film festival, Pullen said.

"During the pandemic, local school districts went to year-round academic calendars and moved the start of the school year up to early August or late July. We moved our dates up a week this year to avoid the start of school on July 31. This at the behest of many teachers and parents," Pullen said.

"In addition to three such movies we’re showing in the Plaza Theater — "Ponyo," "Peter Pan" (1953) and "Finding Nemo" (2003) — we have more than 12 such movies in the smaller Philanthropy Theatre, including "The Muppet Movie," "Babe," "Dr. Dolittle," "The Sandlot," "Willow" and two from El Paso native Don Bluth, "The Land Before Time" and "Anastasia."

Plaza Classic Film Festival to show mockumentaries

"Our secondary theme is Mock Docs, a handful of mockumentaries that begins with one of the definitive documentaries, Rob Reiner’s "This Is Spinal Tap," plus Christopher Guest’s "Best in Show," "Drop Dead Gorgeous," and a mockumentary short, "Ep. 00: Pilot," from El Paso’s Subharmonic City Productions, who have their own showcase in this year’s festival.

The short won last year’s 48 Hour film competition, run by the El Paso Film Project and the Creative Industries Commission.

"It’s one of four local showcases this year, the others being the Gila Film School Showcase (students from NMSU’s Creative Media Institute backpacked the Gila Wilderness in 2022 and made documentaries), the 7th annual Femme Frontera Showcase, and this year’s annual Local Flavor Showcase and Awards, which includes two features, 'On Guard: A Story of American Youth' and 'Entre Fronteras,' showing at the El Paso Museum of Art, and a program of short film selections showing in the Plaza Theatre, immediately before we announce the awards ($3,500 in prize money this year) and host a reception for local filmmakers," Pullen said in an email.

Films fans want to see include 'Casablanca,' 'When Harry Met Sally'

"We open with 'Casablanca,' (July 20) for which we always get requests. We last showed it in 2020 on the side of a hangar at the El Paso International Airport (when we did drive-ins during the lockdown), so we wanted to bring it back under more ideal circumstances. We’ve never shown 'The Silence of the Lambs,' (July 21) a superb psychological thriller.

"We get requests every year to show 'When Harry Met Sally,' which we are doing this year July 24 and preceding it with a dinner in the Foundation Room with a menu inspired by the film, called the I’ll Have What She’s Having Dinner," Pullen said.

"The film festival also is showing a version of 'Psycho' (July 23) that had not been available for viewing until two years ago.

"It's the original theatrical cut that restores some sequences that had been eliminated by squeamish studio heads in 1960," Pullen said. "We last showed 'Psycho' in 2017, but this version is slightly different and only has been available for a couple of years."

This is also the first year organizers have programmed a Harry Potter film in so-called prime time, with "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth in the eight-film series. The film will show July 27 in the Kendall Kidd Performance Hall.

"And, of course, our films with special guests are going to be big draws, especially 'Stand and Deliver' with Edward James Olmos and 'As Good As It Gets' and 'Twister' with Helen Hunt, Pullen said. They had been trying to get Olmos since 2018.

And ever popular will be the showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" on July 22 on Oregon Street. Be sure to look up what to bring if you've never attended or don't search and be pleasantly surprised.

Films you may want to try even if unfamiliar

"Look to the weekday matinees in the Plaza Theatre and weekend matinees in the Philanthropy Theater for some of those, including 'Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and the Wolf Man' (July 22) (restored by the late Peter Hamilton, brother of El Paso journalist Angela Kocherga)," Pullen said.

Also set for the screen are "Written on the Wind," a 70^th anniversary restoration of the ‘50s sci-fi classic "Invaders from Mars," "Hello, Dolly!" (July 21), "The Magnificent Ambersons" (Orson Welles’ second movie, chopped up by the studio), and Woody Allen’s "Play It Again, Sam," which ties back to "Casablanca" (as does "When Harry Met Sally").

In the Philanthropy, three that come to mind are Japan’s "Harakiri," Baz Luhrman’s first movie, "Strictly Ballroom," and Cantinflas’ "El Gendarme Esconocido."

Special guests: Helen Hunt, Edward James Olmos

Helen Hunt, the Academy and Emmy Award-winning actor, director, writer and producer, will appear at the Plaza Theatre. Hunt will be on-stage during prescreening interviews ahead of 1997’s “As Good As It Gets,” for which she won the Oscar for Best Actress, at 7 p.m. July 29 and the 1996 blockbuster “Twister” at 1 p.m. July 30, both in the historic Plaza Theatre.

Hunt’s career started as a child actor. She appeared on shows including TV’s “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bionic Woman,” “The Swiss Family Robinson” and others before branching into movies as a teenager. Her early career credits include stints on TV’s “St. Elsewhere” and roles in movies, including “Peggy Sue Got Married” and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”

Hunt joins Edward James Olmos as this year’s Plaza Classic special guests.

Olmos will be interviewed before two of his films: 1988’s “Stand and Deliver,” for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, at 7 p.m. July 28 and 1982's “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez,” which was the first film produced by his Olmos Productions, at 1 p.m. July 29, both in the Plaza Theatre, according to a news release from the El Paso Community Foundation.

Individual tickets are on sale Friday at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster.com. Passes are on sale at plazaclassic.com/tickets.

More: Western Playland amusement park has dinosaurs immersive journey Jurassic Giants for summer

María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150, mcortes@elpasotimes.com and @EPTMaria on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Here's what to know about the 2023 Plaza Classic Film Festival