Edward James Olmos headlines Edinburg's 12th annual film festival as 'Los Tejanos' wins Best Documentary

Edward James Olmos came to Edinburg in September to headline a film festival the city has spent twelve years building. The film that took its top documentary prize was a five-century story of the people of Edinburg's own region: Los Tejanos: A 500-Year History.

The 12th annual South Texas International Film Festival ran September 10–12 at the Edinburg Arts, Culture, and Events Center. Olmos — the face of Stand and Deliver, Selena, Blade Runner, and Battlestar Galactica — headlined the weekend.

The festival is a City of Edinburg event run by festival director Letty Leija through the city's Cultural Arts Division, with support from the Dustin M. Sekula Memorial Library and the Edinburg Arts Foundation. This year it screened 31 independent films, 22 of them regional, state, or world premieres, and admission stayed neighborly: $5 per film block, $10 for a single day, $25 for all three days, and $65 for the closing awards gala.

Olmos shared the stage with two of the Valley's own. He joined actors Valente Rodriguez and Dannie McCallum on a celebrity panel Saturday, September 12, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., with Joshua Kennedy hosting.

Mayor Omar Ochoa framed the festival as part of what Edinburg has been building for years. "We have so much talent throughout our community, in all traditional professions and skilled trades, which include film, photography, music, theatre, dance, and those fine arts not only create an amazing quality-of-life, but also generate revenue for our citizens," Ochoa said. He pointed to the recognition behind that work: "That is why Edinburg was designated a Film Friendly Texas certified community in September 2018 by the Texas Film Commission".

Five centuries of Tejano history

The winning documentary screened its Rio Grande Valley premiere Thursday, September 10, at 6:00 p.m. at the ACE Center.

Behind the film is a man with roots deep in the story it tells. Richard Stillman, a native-born Tejano and longtime rancher, serves as the production's leading historical and cultural adviser and as its executive producer. Joseph C. Stillman directed the film, and Jeri Wachter produced and narrated it.

The documentary runs 1 hour 58 minutes and traces Tejano history from 1528 to the present, built from oral histories, archival research, and interviews with historians, educators, artists, ranchers, veterans, vaqueros, and community leaders. It moves through Indigenous-Spanish intermarriage, successive colonial and political regimes, exploitation, resilience, and contemporary cultural life — and it makes the point directly that Tejanos did not immigrate to the United States; their ancestors were already in the region.

More than three years in the making, the film was selected for four 2026 festivals and was a finalist at the Mexican American Film and Television Festival. On this year's STXIFF winners' list, it sat alongside Fishman by Joe Rios Jr., which took Narrative Feature Film, and The Place I Ran From, which won the 48-Hour Film and Edinburg Film Friendly Award.

Where to see it next

The Edinburg screening has passed, but the tour is still in Texas. Los Tejanos: A 500-Year History screens next in Laredo on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at Laredo College's Kazen Student Center. From there, the tour moves to San Antonio on Saturday, November 7, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. at the Briscoe Western Art Museum, and to Corpus Christi on Sunday, November 8, 2026, hosted by the GI Forum.

For a town that spent twelve years building its own film festival, this was the year the main event was its own story.