The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce Tom Brandau as the 2020 recipient of the Ted M. Larson Award.
Given in recognition of an outstanding career in film production, film preservation, and/or film education, the Ted M. Larson Award is the festival’s highest honor.
Tom Brandau is a graduate of the American Film Institute (Directing Fellow) and holds an MFA in theatre from Towson University in Baltimore. He has won numerous awards as an independent filmmaker, including a Regional Student Academy Award for his documentary “Whales, Ltd.”
Tom has more than 25 years of experience as a commercial writer, producer, director, and professor in Baltimore. His dramatic short “Sonny and Cornblatt” won several awards, including the Retirement Research National Media Award, the Barry Levinson Arts Award, the Rosebud Award, and a national Telly Award.
In 2003, Tom wrote, produced and directed the award-winning “Cold Harbor,” a dramatic feature film about four brothers coming to terms with the suicide of their estranged father.
Since moving to Moorhead, Minnesota, films by Brandau that have enjoyed heavy festival distribution include “Heavenly Sight,” a short drama that deals with a young boy’s first experience with death; the documentary short “Mr. Brown,” which took top honors in the Minnesota Historical Society’s 2008 Moving Pictures competition; “The Cleaning Lady,” a short drama which deals with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King; and “Home Delivery,” a short drama focusing on the relationship between two paper boys working in the same newly integrated Baltimore neighborhood.
His latest project, “Sadie Breaks the Silents,” explores a woman’s attempt to rise in the ranks of the silent film industry, and is currently in post-production.
Brandau has served as a member of the Fargo Theatre Board of Directors. He also served as a committee member of the Fargo Film Festival for nine years, including three years as festival co-chair.
Tom is Professor Emeritus of Film Production at Minnesota State University Moorhead where he taught for fifteen years. While there he not only educated but engaged students in many initiatives, such as filming the Moorhead Public Access TV show “Underexposures,” which featured student productions; hosting Alumni Summits; encouraging study abroad to the Lincoln University School of Media in England and the Eurospring program, which he led; creating service-learning coursework; advising the Cinethusiasts student organization; and hiring students as crew and cast members on his productions. He continues to actively support and connect with his former students who work in the industry and create art around the world.
Tom lives in Moorhead with his wife and creative partner Janet, their non-ironically-named cats Noir and Orson, and his perfect stepchildren Kate and Daniel Aarness.
The Fargo Film Festival will congratulate Tom Brandau with the presentation of the Ted M. Larson Award on Saturday, March 21, 2020, at 1:30 p.m.