Santa Fe International Film Festival

By: Sophia Peaslee

We are so incredibly grateful to every film festival who have selected our projects, every opportunity to get our films in front of audiences is a blessing. For Black Dog our big strech goal was getting into the 2025 Santa Fe International Film Festival. Local for us, Santa Fe International Film Festival is an Oscar qualifiying film festival that attracts some of the best of the best in film every year, and it puts a lot of effort into highlighting and supporting local and indigenous filmmakers. It is a highly competitve festival and we were beyond ecstatic to be among the few showcased in the New Mexico Shorts block. Running from Oc 15-19 2025 every day of the festival was jam packed with activities for everyone. Opening night started strong with a screening of Del Toro’s Frankenstein at the Railyard and the Opening Night Party at SITE Santa Fe.The following days were packed with screenings, panels, and always capped off with incredible parties. Variety’s 10 Screenwriters to Watch gave an incredible talk about their very different ways of telling stories, and Edward James Olmos was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The New Mexico and Santa Fe Film offices put in so much work to showcase some why Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Las Cruzes topped the lists of best places for Filmmakers to Live. We especially loved the opportunity to visit the different sound stages and western sets around the city.

Our big day was Saturday October 18th. Our showing was sold out and it was the first time I was able to see my work on the big screen. While I have been able to share and receive great feedback on The Black Dog before, it was amazing to have an audience of strangers gasp, laugh, and startle at the parts that they were supposed to. It was also amazing to see the talent of so many other local filmmakers included in our block, and getting to connect with them during a quick Q&A after the show.

After the festival wrapped on the 19th the fun was ready to stop, our shorts block had an encore showing down in Albuquerque.

We had such a fun time this year at SFIFF and we can’t wait to be back with a new project soon!