The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce that the documentary feature “JessZilla” will screen as the Opening Night Showcase on Tuesday, March 21st at 7 p.m. at the Fargo Theatre. Director Emily Sheskin and producer Ben Kainz will both attend the Festival as special guests; they will appear live on stage for a Q&A immediately following the film. Fargo Film Festival passes are currently on sale. Individual tickets for Opening Night go on sale later in February.
“JessZilla” premieres at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in February before continuing its festival run in Fargo. Emily Sheskin previously attended the 2018 Fargo Film Festival with her documentary short about Jesselyn Silva.
About JessZilla: Jesselyn Silva is a fighter. Known as JessZilla, the young athlete has climbed the national ranks in youth boxing. With her eyes set on joining the US Olympic team, Silva is determined to compete in the world’s biggest rings. However, she is forced to take on a very different fight when an unthinkable diagnosis changes everything. Visit the film’s website: https://www.jesszillathefilm.com/
Emily Sheskin is a director and editor who has worked on award-winning documentaries, TV specials and advertising campaigns. Her work has been featured in numerous publications such as (but not limited to) The New York Times, National Geographic, and The Atlantic. She holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a member of New York Women in Film & Television, and IFP.
Ben Kainz is a producer based in New York City. He’s produced several short films, directed by Emily Sheskin, which have been featured as a New York Times Op-Doc and screened at festivals like the Hamptons International Film Festival, DOC NYC, and IFF Boston. Currently, Ben is producing a feature-length documentary about Jesselyn Silva, a young boxing phenom who has dreams of becoming an Olympic Boxer.
Each year, the Fargo Film Festival commissions an original piece of art from a local or regional artist. The Fargo Film Festival is excited to share the official cover art for the 2023 program guide designed by artist Emma Hagemeier.
Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel will participate in an on-stage conversation as part of the Fargo Film Festival’s Closing Night showcase at 7:00pm on Saturday, March 25. Seating is reserved for An Evening with Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel. Tickets on the floor are $35 and tickets in the balcony are $25. Click the button below to purchase your tickets.
The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce the slate of movies selected for the 2023 event. The Festival will be held March 21-25 at the Fargo Theatre. Congratulations to all the filmmakers; we look forward to sharing your talents with our audiences.
Selections for the 2-Minute Movie Contest will be announced in the coming weeks.
Animation
Winner: Black Slide (Uri Lotan)
Honorable Mention: Period Drama (Anushka Tina Nair and Lauren Anthony) Honorable Mention: The Record (Jonathan Lasker)
Official Selections Beware of Trains (Emma Calder) A Bite of Bone (Homani Yano) The Color of Life (Preston Owen) Ed’s Last Will (Lisa Wen Dou and John Wang) Hey Toby Hey Owen: This Is Not Sponsored by Valvoline (Owen Dennis) How Small! (Charlene Xu) I’m Late (Sawako Kabuki) Luce and the Rock (Britt Raes) Night of the Living Dread (Ida Melum) The Queen of the Foxes (Marina Rosset) Runelight (Matt O’Donnell) Steakhouse (Spela Cadez)
Documentary Feature
Winner: Jesszilla (Emily Sheskin)
Honorable Mention: Big Crow (Kris Kaczor)
Official Selections Dear Audrey (Jeremiah Hayes) Iron Opera (Mike Scholtz and Marius Anderson) Jack Has a Plan (Bradley Berman) The Long Rider (Sean Cisterna) Oyate (Brandon Jackson and Emil Benjamin) Queen of Hearts (Chema Ramos)
Documentary Short
Winner: Stranger at the Gate (Joshua Seftel)
Honorable Mention: Eco-Hack! (Josh Izenberg and Brett Marty) Honorable Mention: Free to Care (Chris Temple and Owen Dubeck)
Official Selections Bring Back the Whistle Dog (Bob Simpson) CANS Can’t Stand (Matt Nadel and Megan Plotka) Freedom Swimmer (Olivia Martin-McGuire) In Search of Boozers and Schmucks (Hrag Yedalian) Kylie (Sterling Hampton IV) Long Line of Ladies (Shaandiin Tome and Rayka Zehtabchi) The Merry Widow (Jason Jakaitis) The Panola Project (Rachael DeCruz and Jeremy S. Levine) Rockin’ Baker (Ringo Jones) You’ll Be Happier (Daniel Lombroso)
Experimental
Winner: Light Leak (Nate Dorr)
Honorable Mention: Demi-Gods (Martin Gerigk) Honorable Mention: House of the Unholy (Daniel Merlot)
Official Selections blk (Na Forest Lim) Country Roads (Ryan Clancy) Every Diaspora Poem Is About Mangos (Eden Sabolboro) Lii Bufloo Aen Loo Kishkishiw (Dianne Ouellette) Ouroboros (Toko Shiiki) Tear (Krzysztof Chodorowski) 2:26 p.m. (Arnaud Feret) 13th Ave Fargo Mine Cart (Raymond Rea)
Invited Films
AJ Goes to the Dog Park: Part One (Toby Jones) Blue Room (Merete Mueller) Liquid Gold: From the Midwest to the Mediterranean (Derek Chirstopher Fletcher and Tracy Briggs) My Hatton (David Kuznicki) The Thief Collector (Allison Otto)
*Additional titles may be added to this list in the coming weeks.
Narrative Feature
Winner: Northern Shade (Christopher Rucinski)
Honorable Mention: Everybody Wants to Be Loved (Katharina Woll) Honorable Mention: La Corriente (Jesús Lloveras)
Official Selections All Is Vanity (Marcos Mereles) Amerikatsi (Michael Goorjian) Brutal Season (Gavin Fields) Loren & Rose (Russell Brown) Menina Casilda (Eric du Bellay)
Narrative Short
Winner: The Voice Actress (Anna J. Takayama)
Honorable Mention: A Dire Strait (Liang-Chun Lin) Honorable Mention: Kassandra (Ivar Wigan)
Official Selections Aaron With 2 A’s (Michael Goldburg) Act of God (Spencer Cook and Parker Smith) All That Glitters (Dan Bronzite) Babel (Alejandro San Martín) Brutal (Sam McConnell) Can’t Stop Me (Scott Piggott) Chaperone (Sam Max) Cruise (Sam Rudykoff) The Diamond (Vedran Rupic) Eating the Silence (Joël Jent and Ali Al-Fatlawi) Escape (Oren Brimer) The Ever Hours (Ella Vance) The Family We Chose (Justin Schaack and Kristin Schaack) The Hunt (Yann Reuzeau) I’m Lina (Juli Suàrez) Legs (Celine Cotran) A Mind Cannot Touch (Geoffrey Prather) Murder Tongue (Ali Sohail Jaura) A Night in the Cósmico (Luis De Val and Diego Herrero) Past Life (Rose O’Shea) A Peculiar and Unfortunate Birth (S.J. Sánchez) Red Line (Jake Bistrong) Rerouted (Kelsey Andries and Noah Fallis) Rips (Major Dorfman) SONAR (James Hughes) Stalking the Bogeyman (Markus Potter and Jack Dorfman) Sunshine State (Kate Enge) Triggered (Tara Westwood) An Umbrella in Case It Rains (Andrew Howell) Warsha (Dania Bdeir) Western Exit (Scott Ballard) Wild Card (Tipper Newton) You Forgot Your Wallet? (Brandon Blackmon)
Student
Winner: The Boy Who Couldn’t Feel Pain (Eugen Merher)
Honorable Mention: Living All of Life (Marlén Ríos-Farjat) Honorable Mention: Wei Lai (Robin Wang)
Official Selections Aperio (Patrick Hanser) Black (Moritz Geraldo Scherzer) The Concubine (Maks Michorczyk) Dismay (Joanna Helena Szymańska) Moles (Vanja Victor Kabir Tognola) Negatives (Thomas Broadbent) Sparrow Song (Christina Yoon)
Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel will be welcomed as guests of honor for the 2023 Fargo Film Festival. An on-stage conversation with the artists will serve as the Festival’s Closing Night showcase at 7:00pm on Saturday, March 25. This will be Siegel’s first visit to the FFF. Flanagan attended in 2011 to premiere his debut feature Absentia.
Writer/director/producer Mike Flanagan is one of modern horror’s preeminent creators. With acclaimed feature films and episodic series, Flanagan has developed a signature artistic style and devoted fan base. His Netflix “Flanaverse” series include The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass. Flanagan has directed many popular horror/thriller features including Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Hush, and Oculus. In 2021, Flanagan received the Visionary Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.
Writer/actor Kate Siegel has been dubbed the “Queen of Netflix Horror” (Collider, Oct 2021), but her filmography is impressively diverse. Several of Siegel’s most celebrated performances are featured in collaborations with husband Mike Flanagan. Their shared projects include The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass, for which Siegel received a Critics Choice Award nomination. Siegel co-wrote and starred in the Netflix thriller Hush, for which she received multiple genre award nominations.
Tickets for “An Evening with Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel” will go on sale at 12:30pm on Thursday, January 19. Seating is reserved for this special event. Tickets on the floor are $35 and tickets in the balcony are $25. Tickets will be available for purchase at FargoTheatre.org or in-person at the Fargo Theatre box office. The box office is open in-person from 12:30pm-7pm Tuesday to Sunday.
