Academy Awards: State hopes to draw on Oscar exposure

Film Office staffers eager to tout success of big winner shot in New Mexico

Kate Nash | The New Mexican

2/25/2008 - 2/26/08

The Academy Awards are all about Hollywood. But in a way, Sunday's awards were also about New Mexico.

Four films that were made at least partly in the state were nominated for awards, and one — No Country for Old Men — won big.

"The scream that came out of our collective mouths was pretty stunning," said the state's Film Office director, Lisa Strout. "We were on pins and needles."

The movie, scenes of which were shot in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Vegas, N.M., scooped up awards for best film, best director, best adapted screen play and best supporting actor. George Adelo, a Pecos resident, played a small role in the film.

Strout said the movie's success attracts attention to the state and its filmmaking incentives.

"It certainly puts us on people's radar again," she said. "It sends the message that not only do we make a lot of movies here, but that we make really great movies."

While the state has drawn movies to New Mexico in recent years using loans to help pay for projects, No Country wasn't a loan recipient, said Eric Witt, director of Gov. Bill Richardson's Media Industry Development Initiative.

However, the directors — brothers Joel and Ethan Coen — intend to apply for the state's 25 percent rebate, Witt said.

Under that program, for every dollar spent on qualifying production expenses, the state will give 25 cents back. Qualifying expenses include purchasing lumber for building a movie set in New Mexico instead of bringing it in from out of state, Witt said. He said he didn't yet know how much was spent on the film.

The film's popularity is something Witt and others can't wait to tout. "Absolutely we'll be promoting that," he said. "It says at the end of the film, (that it was) shot in New Mexico.

"That helps us when we are able to go out to the industry and say we just had four award nominees. We've proven certainly that we can make world-class films in New Mexico," Witt said.

Witt, Strout and others in the industry are hoping that trend continues. They are looking warily at a possible upcoming strike by members of the Screen Actors Guild.

Hollywood stars are pushing the guild's members to start negotiating to avert a strike.

In New Mexico, that means some film productions are being rushed so they can be done before a strike, which could take place this summer and leave television and movies here without actors.

"The phones have been just ringing off hook with people trying to determine where things are going," Strout said.

"People are hopeful that it will be settled, but you can't count on it," she said. "A lot of production is trying to be done by June 30."

Production on five or six films is under way, Strout said, with representatives from another 20 expressing interest in working in the state. In the meantime, the office is "kind of in flux until people figure out what they are doing," she said.

If there is a strike, the office plans to ramp up training for film crew members, taking advantage of a time that might be slow for veterans.

The other movies filmed at least partly in New Mexico that were nominated for Sunday's awards were 3:10 to Yuma, In the Valley of Elah and Transformers.

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com.