Marfa Film Festival

It’s a big year for movies in Marfa, a remote outpost in far West Texas near Big Bend National Park. Two Oscar-winning films were shot there (THERE WILL BE BLOOD and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN), and now the first annual Marfa Film Festival arrives.
Not unlike the Coen Bros and Paul Thomas Anderson shaking up Hollywood with career defining films, Marfa Film Festival is already sending shock waves through the arts community coast to coast. They’ve just announced their innagural festival will open with a 35mm screening of THERE WILL BE BLOOD on the set where it was made, which follows a closing night announcement that Dennis Hopper will return to Marfa for the first time since making GIANT there over fifty years ago with a presentation of his rarely seen western THE LAST MOVIE, winner of the 1971 Venice Film Festival.
The Masses, an integrated film and music collective, will be premiering a series of music videos directed by Matt Amato, Shannyn Sossamon, and Jon Ramos. They will also honor the never before screened work of Heath Ledger that was created within the collective. Another Masses artist, Alex Ebert, will bring his band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, joining the musical lineup that includes Victoria, and Los Angeles DJ Collective Small Town Talk. The Masses will also be hosting an art exhibit featuring the work of wildlife photographer and filmmaker Tristan Bayer, illustrator Daniel Auber, and Icelandic photographer Borkur.
Since Marfa doesn’t have a movie theater (pop. 2000), screening THERE WILL BE BLOOD on the set where it was filmed is a very special event for locals, especially since the town (where the screening will take place) will soon be torn down because of high winds.
“We’re reaching out to the local cast and crew to come see the movie, some for the first time,” says festival director Robin Lambaria. “We’re hoping Paul Thomas Anderson is able to make it. We know he really wants to. People are already talking about Dennis Hopper coming back after so many years. This just adds to the excitement.”
The festival will be playing other classics under the starry skies – Marfa is home to the nearby McDonald Observatory -- including NIGHT OF THE HUNTER starring Robert Mitchum, THE INNOCENTS with Deborah Kerr, and a late show dance-party with David Byrne’s TRUE STORIES. All outdoor movies, including THERE WILL BE BLOOD and THE LAST MOVIE, will be projected in 35mm on a gigantic 40 x 20 foot blow up screen, courtesy of Austin’s famous Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow.
During the day, the festival will play over 40 features, docs and shorts at the Goode-Crowley theater in downtown Marfa, with several world premieres. Festival headquaters is the Paisano Hotel, where James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, George Stevens and Hopper stayed during the filming of GIANT. --- MARFA FILM FESTIVAL PRESS RELEASE