Imogene Hughes Scholarship available for film students
BY LINDSEY BARK Feb 27, 2024
SANTA FE, N.M. – The Santa Fe Film Institute introduced the Imogene Hughes Scholarship in 2023 for college students pursuing film.
Hughes, a Cherokee Nation citizen, helped establish a film location on her property on Bonanza Creek Ranch that has hosted several major film projects since the 1950s.
Known as a premier filming location, Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe has hosted more than 150 movies, as well as videos, commercials and catalog shoots, for more than 70 years since its inception as a film location. Movies such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Young Guns,” the “Lonesome Dove” television series,” and more recently the “Dark Winds” television series have filmed at the site in northern New Mexico.
Hughes, born in Oklahoma, lived in Colorado where she raised three children, and then moved to New Mexico when she turned 50 where she ran a cattle ranch with her second husband, Glenn Hughes. After his passing, she took it upon herself to establish the ranch as a film location in the state of New Mexico.
“Once he passed away, she really went full bore with the film industry and really worked with legislators to establish an incentive there in New Mexico for film and to make it more enticing for filmmakers to come and do movies,” Denise Spaccamonti, Hughes’ daughter, said.
Hughes made a name for herself in the film industry and was dubbed “The First Lady of New Mexico Film” by the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival. In 2018, she was inducted into the New Mexico Film Hall of Fame.
“She loved helping people. She let students and schools come on the ranch and take photos, shoot movies, you know, budding film artists. She just really loved helping people and wouldn't charge them a lot of times so she could help them get their start,” Spaccamonti said.
Spaccamonti’s brother and wife currently own and continue to operate the ranch and its film obligations.
Hughes passed on Oct. 4, 2021, and her family set up the scholarship in her honor, taking donations in lieu of flowers or food during that time.
Around $14,000 was given in scholarships in the last year to area film students.
The Imogene Hughes scholarship is geared toward students enrolled in college in the state of New Mexico who are obtaining a major or minor in film studies or have an interest in film that can be demonstrated. The scholarship is not limited to Cherokee Nation citizens or other tribal citizens.
Spaccamonti said though Hughes was not from the film industry, and was at one time a cosmetologist and then a real estate agent, but “she figured it out.”
“She was self taught, which I think is a real testament to her because she did other things during our lifetime,” Spaccamonti said. “Every couple of decades she recreated herself. I guess for somebody in that era, she was pretty independent. She taught us all to be to be that way, which I’m super grateful for.”
Spaccamonti said donations are always welcome and accepted through the Santa Fe Film Institute PayPal or sending a check or money order to 418 Montezuma Ave. Ste. 21 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501.
For more information visit santafefilminstitute.org/imogene-hughes-scholarship and bonanzacreekranch.com.