“News of the World,” which was nominated for multiple Oscars on Sunday night, was filmed in New Mexico.

It stars award winning actor Tom Hanks and follows the journey of a civil war veteran who moves from town to town reading articles from newspapers from across the nation. An encounter with a young girl sets him on a dangerous journey through the wilderness to return her to her family.

The film, which came out in December, was shot at El Rancho de Las Golondrinas in Santa Fe just months before the pandemic hit.

“It’s a very big production, sometimes over two, 300 people at one time,” said Vic Macias, special events and site rental manager at El rancho de Las Golondrinas.

Macias took us around the living history museum to where some of the scenes were shot.

“It was a working farm so they had a lot of different extras working out in the field, plowing the field and doing your regular farm work,” said Macias.

The historic home doubled as a movie set. It was built in the late 1800s in Raton.
In the film, it’s the home the captain brings the girl back to. We took a look inside. It’s now setup as an old classroom. The old-fashioned stove was an original and made it in the movie.

Tom Hanks and everyone was in this room,” said Macias. “It was really awesome to see him walking around, talking and telling stories between scenes and all of that. He’s a really nice guy.”

Macias said he met hanks in person, since he gets to works on set to help guide film crews to different locations.

“Five hundred acres, kike as far as you can see looking around, that’s all the property,” said
Daniel Goodman, the museum director, said the living history museum has been around for almost 50 years now. and focuses on the Spanish, Mexican and Territorial periods of the Southwest.
He believes films like “News of the World” build interest in the historic sites and New Mexico’s history.

“If someone can watch a movie say like news of the world and say, hey, where’s that filmed, maybe when we take that, we finally get around to taking that trip out to the southwest I’d kind of like to take a look at that and see that landscape and then they learn that it’s a living history museum, and then, then they might learn something while they’re out here,” said Goodman.

Macias said more than 100 productions have taken place at the property, and there are plans for more from companies like Netflix, and NBC Universal.