Desert Cactus Films

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Desert Cactus Films A new production company specializing in Music Videos and Live Events, with a strong focus on Visual FX.

Here’s a look at some partial set builds for “Margaret the Brave”. In preparation for our VFX shoots at we spent months...
12/11/2025

Here’s a look at some partial set builds for “Margaret the Brave”. In preparation for our VFX shoots at we spent months constructing various elements that would help blend the green screen footage of our actors with their fairytale environments.

Our Art Directors .art and oversaw the building of walls, tables, chairs, beds, a horse bust and so much more! There will most certainly be a part 2 of this post so stay tuned for that!

Here’s a look at some partial set builds for “Margaret the Brave”. In preparation for our VFX shoots at we spent months...
12/11/2025

Here’s a look at some partial set builds for “Margaret the Brave”. In preparation for our VFX shoots at we spent months constructing various elements that would help blend the green screen footage of our actors with their fairytale environments.

Our Art Directors .art and oversaw the building of walls, tables, chairs, beds, a horse bust and so much more! There will most certainly be a part 2 of this post so stay tuned for that!

We’re happy to announce that Margaret the Brave has won Best Costumes at the 2025 FilmQuest Film Festival ! We want to ...
05/11/2025

We’re happy to announce that Margaret the Brave has won Best Costumes at the 2025 FilmQuest Film Festival ! We want to give a huge thanks our to our costume designer Nancy Foster , for her incredible work in bringing our fairytale world to life. It was a great experience working with you and we can’t wait to collaborate again!

The fact that we won anything at FilmQuest 2025 is insane to us. It was such an incredible lineup of films, that to be a...
03/11/2025

The fact that we won anything at FilmQuest 2025 is insane to us. It was such an incredible lineup of films, that to be accepted- let alone nominated in 10 categories- was incredibly humbling and a huge honor.

The connections we’ve made in the past week are more valuable than any award we could ever receive, and we hope they will lead to many future collaborations! 💯

We want to give a big thanks to for the chance to screen alongside so many talented filmmakers we’ve come to admire, and can’t wait to come back again!

BIG NEWS! “Margaret the Brave” will be available to watch online as part of the 2025 Malibu Film Festival!!!It will be s...
27/10/2025

BIG NEWS! “Margaret the Brave” will be available to watch online as part of the 2025 Malibu Film Festival!!!

It will be streaming on Xolo.tv from Nov 1st - 8th! If you haven’t seen it yet, this is a great opportunity to watch it from the comforts of your own home. Stay tuned because we’ll be posting the screening link once it goes live!

We’re so honored to have been selected for such a prestigious festival- and there’s gonna be a ton of great films streaming you won’t want to miss, so be sure to check it out!!

For Margaret’s cabin scene, we used partial set builds and combined them with matte paintings by Yashaswi Karthik and t...
25/10/2025

For Margaret’s cabin scene, we used partial set builds and combined them with matte paintings by Yashaswi Karthik and to create an environment that would feel as seamless as possible.

The great part about doing this was that we were able to reuse pieces of wood for the walls and rearrange them to create both the interior and exterior of the cabin. Thanks to our Art Directors and .art for helping create these detailed elements.

Also want to give a shout out to our costume designer for her excellent work creating the wardrobe for Margaret and the Farmer. A lot of thought went into the fabric and textures for both of them.

Two projects in the same festival! “Margaret the Brave” is an official selection of the 2025 Anchorage International Fil...
23/10/2025

Two projects in the same festival! “Margaret the Brave” is an official selection of the 2025 Anchorage International Film Festival in Alaska!! Screening dates and times will be posted online soon. We’re honored to be included in such a wonderful lineup!! See you in December!

Stay tuned right here for more exciting festival news!!!

Here’s a good example of how much work went into just three shots from “Margaret the Brave”, and mind you- there were ov...
22/10/2025

Here’s a good example of how much work went into just three shots from “Margaret the Brave”, and mind you- there were over 150 VFX shots in the fairytale!

Thanks to for providing us the studio space to do this. Also want to mention our matte painter Yashaswi Karthik (India) who made all the incredible backgrounds for this scene, .creatures (Hungary) who made our beautiful stop motion horse puppet, and (UK) who animated it!

So many people from the Las Vegas film community and around the world came together to make this happen, so please check the credits in our trailer post (pinned 📌) and give everyone a follow!

We’re so excited to watch this soon at an actual genre festival- where we’re nominated in 10 categories! 🤯

We’re excited to announce that “Ideal Distance” has received its first official selection! Better dress warm- we’ll be s...
20/10/2025

We’re excited to announce that “Ideal Distance” has received its first official selection! Better dress warm- we’ll be screening at the Anchorage International Film Festival in Alaska this December!

Thank you Sam for trusting in our vision- this project was a long time coming, and we’re so happy to start showing it to audiences around the country! Stay tuned for more film festival news coming soon!!!

FLASHBACK FRIDAY - Today we’re taking a look back at our award winning music video “Violent Water” (2019).It was made on...
17/10/2025

FLASHBACK FRIDAY - Today we’re taking a look back at our award winning music video “Violent Water” (2019).

It was made on a $1,000 budget raised through a Kickstarter campaign. Writer & performer Sonia Barcelona came to us with the idea of becoming a Mermaid for the video, which offered us the opportunity to build an entire underwater world around her. The style of the video pays tribute to the legendary silent film director, Georges Méliès.

The crew was quite small- just myself and producer Rachel Johnson on set, but we also had help from our wonderful matte painter Matte Murphy who hand painted all the backgrounds in the video.

We were able to complete all the filming at Spckrft Studios over the course of a few days. Many of the sailors and ghosts you see also went on to appear in our next project, “Margaret the Brave”.

From concept to completion the video took about six months to make, and went on to show at over 10 film festivals across the country including- The Atlanta Film Festival, Denver Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival, Breckenridge Film Festival (Winner, Best Music Video), Austin Music Video Festival (Winner, Best VFX), Dam Short Film Festival (Winner, Best Music Video), Portland Film Festival, and more!

All of our music videos including this one are available to watch on the Desert Cactus Films YouTube channel!

Stay tuned for more festival announcements coming soon!!

We’re excited to announce that “Margaret the Brave” has won Best Short Film at the Desert Waves Film Festival!Thanks to ...
15/10/2025

We’re excited to announce that “Margaret the Brave” has won Best Short Film at the Desert Waves Film Festival!

Thanks to for this wonderful honor and congratulations to all the other winners! Stay tuned for more festival announcements coming soon!!!

Such an honor! “Margaret the Brave” won the special jury prize at the yesterday!!! On top of the lovely recognition, th...
26/09/2025

Such an honor! “Margaret the Brave” won the special jury prize at the yesterday!!! On top of the lovely recognition, the film had a great screening as well!

It’s always gratifying to hear from parents who connect with the film, and the audience in El Paso was no exception. 😌

Thanks again to Carlos and the wonderful team for facilitating this festival and creating a fantastic experience for everyone! We hope to be back soon!!!

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