New Mexico has gone movie crazy in the past few years, what with tax breaks and financial incentives drawing filmmakers from around the globe to shoot their projects here.

But Santa Fe has been stricken with movie madness for at least a decade, since Jon Bowman and a group of dedicated cinephiles started The Santa Fe Film Festival — five days of films, workshops, panel talks and parties, all celebrating the independent cinematic spirit.

The 10th festival kicks off today with a 7 p.m. screening of Everybody's Fine, Kirk Jones' drama about a widower (Robert DeNiro) who journeys cross country to reconnect with his grown children; at the Regal DeVargas theater DeVargas Center. Several other screenings take place at other venues this evening, too, and the festival hosts its usual opening-night parties.

This year's event is a bit scaled down because of financial restraints, and it marks the 10th and final year that Bowman will serve as executive director. He's retiring, to be replaced by festival operations director Karen RedHawk Dallet. Dallet has already announced plans to move next year's festival to October rather than December.

Bowman, found checking out ticket sales at the film festival's box-office headquarters on Old Santa Fe Trail (in the old Fraser's Pharmacy site), said business was healthy and even a tad better than it was this time last year.

A popcorn machine churned out the kernels — an appropriate treat for visitors — as Bowman spoke, and movie posters for various festival entries covered the walls. ("Some of life's greatest journeys begin at the end," reads the tag line for the locally shot Spoken Word poster.) Bowman said the fest usually attracts 5,000 to 7,000 patrons, roughly 15 percent of whom come from out of state.

A film fanatic and self-professed insomniac, Bowman said he expects to make the usual rounds during this weekend's fest. It will be bittersweet to step away.

"A part of me will be sad, because so many good memories are tired to this festival," he said. "Half the people I know in town are attached to this festival. But at the same time, it's good to move on. It's time to step back and let the younger Turks rule."

Speaking by phone from the festival's business office downtown, Dallet said she expects at least 130 filmmakers will be here this weekend. (The fest is screening about 130 films).

"Filmmakers are calling here one after the other, excited to be part of the new spirit of film in New Mexico," she said. "They're all Twittering and connecting with one another."

That group includes filmmaker Stephanie Argy, who, along with partner Alec Boehm, co-wrote and co-directed the 1930s-era suspense drama The Red Machine, a throwback to the type of film Warner Bros. would have made with George Raft and John Garfield 70 years ago. The film screens twice this weekend.

Speaking by phone as they crossed from California into Arizona via automobile on their way to Santa Fe, the duo said this is the second festival for The Red Machine. But the film's accompanying short subject, the goofy comedy Gandhi at the Bat (which covers a little-known historical incident in which Gandhi played for The New York Yankees) has already played more than 30 festivals.

"It's so thrilling to be there with the audience, because as a filmmaker you are so isolated from effect of your work, that to be at a festival reminds you of why you do it," Argy explained. The couple are bringing period items from the film to the fest. They'll give away Depression-era type door prizes at the two screenings as well.

Seattle-based filmmaker Kevin Tomlinson was preparing to fly out for the fest with his film Back to the Garden: Flower Power Comes Full Circle, which covers a band of off-the-grid hippies in Washington state. The picture had already played about 10 festivals, Tomlinson said.

"Every filmmaker loves to see how a film touches an audience and get that raw feedback," he said, adding that he felt the picture would particularly resonate in Santa Fe. "I hope that it draws the counterculture community from the Santa Fe and Taos area out there."

Though it has never courted celebrities like the Sundance Film Festival, the Santa Fe Film Festival does pay tribute to film artists via the annual Milagro Awards Ceremony, which will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at the National Dance Institute's Dance Barns on Alto Street. This year's tributees are actors Wes Studi and Tommy Lee Jones, director/actor Mark Rydell and cinematographer Ellen Kuras.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.


COMING FRIDAY

See Friday's issue of Pasatiempo for more in-depth coverage of this year's Santa Fe Film Festival and its tributees.