Marfa Film Festival

Tickets for McMurtry Dinner on Sale!

2009-04-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

Steak dinner catered by the Gage - check. Open bar with Patron Tequila, Barefoot Champagne/Wine and Alamo Beer - check. Larry McMurtry receiving first ever "Texas Screen Legend" award - check. Tickets 100.00. See EVENTS.

Steak Dinner with Larry McMurtry!

2009-04-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

Would you like to join Pulitzer prize and Oscar-winner Larry McMurtry -- writer of Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, Horseman Pass By (aka: HUD) and Terms of Endearment -- for a steak dinner from the great and famous Gage Hotel while Larry is presented the first ever Texas Screen Legend award? Oh and would you like an open bar of Patron Tequila, Champagne, Wine and Beer along with that? Check the site soon for tickets!

2009 LINEUP ANNOUNCED!

2009-04-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

How-do friends, Marfa year two arrives with an even more diverse and selective lineup of new films, new-old films and great classics for the cineaste in you.

Opening the festival is the World Premiere of “80 Blocks from Tiffany’s” a rarely seen gem from 1979 (30 year anniversary!) about street gangs in the Bronx. Director Gary Weiss, who made a handful of legendary shorts for Saturday Night Live during the same period, will be on hand to introduce and discuss the film.

During the fest, Wendell B. Harris will be present to screen the 20 year anniversary of his classic “Chameleon Street” for the first time in the state of Texas. Harris’s legendary and rarely seen film, based on a true story about an African-American con-man, won the Special Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1989.

Other highlights include a searing new feature “Viscious Kind” starring Adam Scott, a sweet-hearted, border-crossing adventure from South Texas, called “Cruzando,” and a wonderfully eclectic doc called “God is American,” about a South Pacific island that still worships an American GI.

The outdoor lineup projected by the great Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow includes “The Last Picture Show” (presented in person by writer Larry McMurtry!), a 40th anniversery screening of “Midnight Cowboy,” and the great Powell and Pressburger classic, “The Red Shoes” in glorious technicolor.

Closing the festival will be “William Kunstller: Disturbing the Universe” a riveting account of the famous civil rights lawyer directed by his two daughters.

If that's not enough to wet your appetite we'll be announcing a few more choice additions to the lineup in the coming days!

Some MFF facts ...

2009-04-06T16:18:00.000-07:00

Marfa, a town of two-thousand people in the remote Big Bend region of West Texas, is perhaps known best as the location for films like “There Will Be Blood,” “No Country for Old Men” and “Giant.” It is also a world famous high-art destination with dozens of galleries and home to permanent exhibitions of Donald Judd, Dann Flavin and John Chamberlain.

After its inaugural year, Marfa Film Festival has quickly become a must-stop on the film festival circuit. Variety deemed the festival a new corner of the “Texas Fest Triangle,” and Randall Roberts of the LA Weekly called Marfa “the best little festival I’ve ever attended.”

Marfa Film Festival Headquarters is the famous Paisano Hotel where James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson lived during the filming of “Giant.” The Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow will return to project the 35mm classic prints on their incredible 40 foot outdoor screen. Indoor screenings are at the state-of-the-art Crowley Theater in downtown Marfa.

Passes are on sale at the website: marfafilmfestival.org.

2nd Annual Marfa Film Festival, April 29 - May, 2009!

2009-02-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

This year Marfa Film Festival returns for another great event. See you there!

Bring Warm Clothes!

2008-04-20T08:50:00.001-07:00

We're in the high desert out here which means it gets chilly at night. If you're coming to one (or more) of our five outdoor screening events, be sure to dress accordingly. You can bring chairs and blankets if you want, though chairs will be available to rent for three bucks (really comfortable chairs I should add). Still, there's lots of room on the good Earth, so don't be shy about bringing what you need to make a nest to watch the movie from. We'll also have food and beverages, including beer and possibly margaritas for sale.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD - ON THE SET!

2008-04-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

Marfa Film Festival is opening with a screening of THERE WILL BE BLOOD on the set where it was filmed. Though some small parts of the set will remain after the festival, the town set (where the screening will take place) must soon be torn down, as the West Texas winds are already taking their toll on the scenic construction.

So if you want to see something you'll never get the chance to see again, that is, THERE WILL BE BLOOD projected 35mm on a gigantic blow up screen on the set where it was made, come to Marfa, May 1st.

Hotels in Marfa are fairly booked, but Fort Davis and Alpine have rooms and are a short and beautiful drive away. Check (LODGING) for more information.

Hopper in Marfa

2008-04-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

Dennis Hopper makes his first visit to Marfa since filming "Giant" here over fifty years ago with a screening of his rare and legendary western "The Last Movie," winner of the Venice Film Festival in 1971.

If you didn't know it, the Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow is coming with their 35mm projector system and 40 x 20 foot blow up screen, that means movies out under the crazy stars of Marfa, home of the famous McDonald Observatory nearby in the Davis Mountains.

All together, there'll be five nights of movies outside, and all but one on the Marfa Golf Course driving range ("the highest golf course in Texas") with a remarkable sunset view of the Marfa Plateau.

The other night screening will be announced soon ... be prepared for somethin' else awfully cool.

Welcome to the 2008 Marfa Film Festival

2008-04-07T11:18:00.001-07:00

For the intrepid, Far West Texas is an unforgettable place, far from the world, urging visitors back time and again to its awe-inspiring wildness and serenity. Particularly, there is Marfa, home to Marfa Film Festival, coming May 1-5, 2008.

Marfa is a small town alone on a high plateau, a place defined by a history of separation, where life proceeds at its own distinct pace as a harmony of antithesis: cowboy culture and high-art. Designed as a gasp of fresh air, Marfa Film Festival is a retreat far away from the chaotic and competitive environments found on the festival circuit. It's a get-a-way that is truly WAY out there.

For five magical days we will screen films that transcend time with indelible images and engaging storytelling, reminding us that the art of cinema can change our lives and renew the world.