Whether a future Bergman, Cuarón (Alfonso or Carlos), Tarantino, or even quasi-Hype Williams, there’s a place for up-and-coming filmmakers in the first annual El Paso On Demand Film Exhibition. The competition is the brainchild of media consultant and film professor Joseph Villescas, who wanted to create incentive for locals to create films through collaboration with Time Warner Cable.

The competition is intended to give exposure to the El Paso On Demand channel available for current subscribers who are under-utilizing the feature, as well as to local filmmakers who submit their work to be judged by On Demand subscribers. The work will be categorized by feature films, documentaries, short films (20 minutes or less), student film (created by anyone currently enrolled) and music videos.

Knowing that the creative class had traditionally been on the back burner in his hometown, former expat Villescas returned home from Austin three years ago to make some kind of impact. Since then, some El Pasoans know him from his stints as an aspiring politician, his time as a film studies and Chicano film professor at UTEP, and running into him at the Percolator, which he calls “the perfect crossroads to get things done.”

His past ideas include converting the site of the Farah building turns into a creative media complex, an apt comparison for production between manual and creative labor, inspired by the conversion from Austin’s former airport into Austin Studios.

He has also created a sort of triumvirate with Percolator owner Bobby Smith and Blackbird Concepts filmmaker Valentin Sandoval to promote a downtown creative community. “The truth is that in El Paso we have so much creative talent,” said Villescas. He pointed to the resources for thriving film communities El Paso’s periphery, with an established program at NMSU and incentives for production companies to film in New Mexico but the noted lack of a local market. “There’s only so much of those jobs in El Paso.”

He hopes that the competition will result in bragging rights for the participants, who will be chosen by the community, but also bragging rights for the community itself. “This is a way to show off what we’re doing in El Paso.”