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I once had the best job ever: The Gazette paid me to watch movies.

Getting a paycheck for doing something you’d do anyway for free is hard to beat.

As the paper’s film critic, one of my favorite annual gigs was covering the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival. The shorts would make me laugh until I dropped my popcorn. The documentaries would take me around the world. They introduced me to people and issues I might have read about in the New York Times or heard about on NPR, but these films made them somehow more real, tangible, impossible to ignore.

These films became antidotes or counterbalances to every bad Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steven Seagal movie I had to review and they demonstrated that substance could be profoundly entertaining.

I also appreciated that the festival was more than a passive exercise in film consumption. It was an engaging social experience. You met your friends. You immersed yourselves together in the ideas and issues, hashing them out as you would at a book group. And you actually got to meet the filmmakers. Unlike the snooty film festivals I attended, the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival brought filmmakers down to earth, and the forums and receptions became vehicles for much more personal connections with the people who create these great films.

I no longer review films for a living, but I find myself blessed with another awesome job. As an account manager at Blakely + Company, I get to work behind the scenes to support the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival.

I can’t wait for this year’s festival! Executive Director Linda Broker and her crew have assembled more films than ever, representing a staggering diversity of themes, styles and filmmakers.

A few I’m looking forward to: “How to Dance in Ohio,” about young people on the autism spectrum facing their first spring formal, “Iris,” a funny and poignant look at fashion maven Iris Apfel, and “Mavis!” a tribute to gospel legend Mavis Staples of The Staple Singers.

I hope to see you at the Red Carpet Opening Night Gala at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale Street, the after party at The Mining Exchange, 8 S. Nevada Avenue, the filmmaker roundtable and forum and the individual film programs. I expect another legendary five-star movie experience.

“The Gnomist,” a film by Sharon Liese, will be featured in the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival. Courtesy photo

“The Story of Percival Pilts,” a film by Janette Goodey and John Lewis, will be featured in the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival. Courtesy photo

“Tyke Elephant Outlaw,” a film by Susan Lambert and Stefan Moore, will be featured in the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival. Courtesy photo

“How I Got Over,” a film by Nicole Boxer, will be featured in the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival. Courtesy photo

“Duke Riley Goes to China,” a film by Kim A. Snyder, will be featured in the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival. Courtesy photo