The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce “Bathtubs Over Broadway” as the opening night showcase, with special guests Dava Whisenant and Steve Young in attendance.

This highly acclaimed, crowd-pleasing documentary won awards at both the Tribeca and Palm Springs Film Festivals. It also recently took home the Writers Guild of America’s Award for Best Documentary Screenplay.

Synopsis:
In this musical documentary, comedy writer Steve Young’s assignment to scour bargain-bin vinyl for a “Late Night” segment becomes an unexpected, decades-spanning obsession when he stumbles upon the strange and hilarious world of corporate musicals.

Bizarre cast recordings – marked “internal use only” – revealed Broadway-style musical shows about some of the most recognizable corporations in America. These productions frequently featured writers and performers that would become legends, such as Chita Rivera, Kander and Ebb, Florence Henderson, and Bob Fosse.

“Bathtubs Over Broadway” follows Young on his quest to uncover all he can about this fascinating hidden world. The movie features David Letterman, Martin Short, Chita Rivera, Susan Stroman, Florence Henderson, and more.

Steve Young (Featured Subject)
Steve Young is a New York-based comedy writer, author, songwriter, and lecturer. His writing credits include “Late Night” and “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Simpsons,” “Maya and Marty,” and the animated holiday special “Olive the Other Reindeer,” which also featured his song lyrics. He is the co-author of “Everything’s Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals.” Young is also an instructor at New York University, teaching television history.

Dava Whisenant (Director/Producer/Co-Writer/Editor)
Dava Whisenant is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker making her directorial debut with “Bathtubs Over Broadway.” She was the co-
producer and editor of “Two Trains Runnin,” a Grammy-nominated blues and civil rights documentary. Dava was also an editor for the 3D documentary “Under the Electric Sky” (Sundance 2014). Her diverse experience includes serving as supervising producer for
BBC Worldwide, an editing assistant to Steven Soderbergh, and several years as an editor at “The Late Show With David
Letterman.” Dava is a 2016 Sundance Fellow.

“Bathtubs Over Broadway” will screen at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19 at the Fargo Theatre.

Director Dava Whisenant and star Steve Young will participate in a Q and A following the screening.

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce the screening schedule for 2019. We look forward to sharing the incredible work of so many brilliant filmmakers and storytellers with you March 19-23.

FFF 2019 Screening Schedule

TUESDAY, MARCH 19

Afternoon Session Theatre 1
1:30 You Are the Captain
1:40 Rosewood Ledge
2:05  Midnight Girl
2:20  Amal
2:35  Small Talk
3:05  Ablution
3:20  A Craftsman
3:30 Break
3:40  The Liar
4:00  Wild Honey

Afternoon Session Theatre 2
1:30  Are You Glad I’m Here
2:55 Break
3:05  One Small Step
3:20 Resilient
3:35 Don’t Get Trouble in Your Mind

Evening Session Theatre 1
7:00  Bathtubs Over Broadway

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20

Morning Session Theatre 1
10:00 Pygmalion
10:35 Maj Doris

Morning Session Theatre 2
10:00  Tuesday Crowd
10:20  Isabelle

Afternoon Session Theatre 1
1:30  Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn?
3:05  Break
3:15  Medium Rare
3:20  The Equatorial Calms
3:25  Public Domain
3:30  I Never Really Left
3:35  Water Lily
3:55  Egg
4:05  Coyote
4:15  Divulge
4:25  Practice
4:35  Letters from Eniwetok
4:50  The Suitor

Afternoon Session Theatre 2
1:30  Ask for Jane
3:20  Break
3:30  Chroma
4:00  Prussia

Evening Session Theatre 1
7:00  My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes
7:15  Riplist

+++++

THURSDAY, MARCH 21

Morning Session Theatre 1
10:00  Dulce
10:10  We Are Still Here
11:00  Hoan Alone
11:15  bOObs: The War on Women’s Breasts

Morning Session Theatre 2
10:00  Between the Lines
10:05  Bristled
10:10  The Dancing Dogs of Dombrova

Afternoon Session Theatre 1
1:30  Ada
2:15  Echoes
2:30  Shadow Animals
2:50  Knock at the Door
3:00  Hair Wolf
3:15  Ghost Light

Afternoon Session Theatre 2
1:30 An Acceptable Loss
3:30  Seder-Masochism

Evening Session Theatre 1
7:00  Napoleon Dynamite:  A Conversation with Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez

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FRIDAY, MARCH 22

Morning Session Theatre 1
10:00  Bernie Langille Wants to Know… Who Killed Bernie Langille
10:15  Behind the Curve

Morning Session Theatre 2
10:00 Qwerty
10:10  Zoo

Afternoon Session Theatre 1
1:30  Puppet Master
1:35  Sitting Shiva
2:05  End of the Line
2:20  Papa
2:45  Hula Girl
2:55  Happy Animals
3:20  Break
3:30  My Country No More

Afternoon Session Theatre 2
1:30  Double Date
1:55  The Night of All Nights
3:30  Carlotta’s Face
3:35 Bloeistraat 11
3:45  Matria
4:05  A Gentle Night
4:20  This Is Your Cuba
4:40  Elsewhere

Evening Session Theatre 1
7:00  An Evening with Richard Edlund
9:00  2-Minute Movie Contest

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SATURDAY, MARCH 23

Morning Session Theatre 1
10:00  Lost and Found
10:10  Beebox
10:25  Your Call Is Important to Us
10:40  Sac de Merde
11:05  Mickey’s Pets
11:20  Fragments 83

Morning Session Theatre 2
10:00  Hybrids
10:10  Prospect

Afternoon Session Theatre 1
1:30  Aeternitas
2:00  Three Pages
2:15  Weekends
2:30  Fauve
2:45  Break
3:00 To the Stars

Afternoon Session Theatre 2
1:30  Silicone Soul
3:15  Badlands Girl
3:40  Ham
4:05  Dissection of a Rose
4:30  To Ana
4:45  Magic Alps
5:00  Mammoth

Evening Session Theatre 1
7:00 Presentation of the Margie Bailly Volunteer Spirit Award
7:10  2-Minute Movie Contest Winner
7:12  The Driver Is Red
7:40  Beneath the Ink
8:05  Caroline
8:15  Little Woods

Jade Presents and the Fargo Film Festival are proud to bring Napoleon Dynamite: A Conversation with Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez to the stage of the Historic Fargo Theatre on March 21, 2019.

This unique “bring your own tots” event includes a full screening of the classic film followed by a lively, freewheeling, moderated discussion with stars Heder (Napoleon) and Ramirez (Pedro).

6 p.m. Doors
7 p.m. Show
All Ages Welcome
Reserved Seating

Tickets are on sale now for this special Fargo Film Festival event offered by Jade Presents.

Reserved seating: $35

VIP seating: $89.50 – includes premium seating and meet-and-greet with Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez. Additional fees may apply.

Admission to this event is also included as part of the Fargo Film Festival All Access Pass.

MORE INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE AT: https://jadepresents.com/event/2019-napoleon-dynamite-fargo/

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce Richard Edlund as the 2019 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. Mr. Edlund will receive the award during the session An Evening with Richard Edlund, a live, on-stage conversation about his remarkable life, career, and artistic achievements that will take place on Friday, March 22, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. at the Historic Fargo Theatre.

Richard Edlund, ASC
Edlund was born in Fargo, North Dakota. After a Naval tour, USC Film School brought him to Los Angeles. In 1975, fellow VFX enthusiast John Dykstra assembled the team for a startup called Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). Edlund was one of the first to join the group whose mission was to go where no filmmaker had gone before – with visual effects for a movie called Star Wars. When the new technology clicked, Edlund moved to Marin County to supervise visual effects for the next two episodes of Star Wars, as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Poltergeist.

Looking for an even greater challenge, Edlund returned to Los Angeles where his company Boss Films became a star in the visual effects world. Boss’s pioneering VFX technology went on to create stunning imagery for over 40 features, including Ghostbusters, Die Hard, Ghost, Poltergeist 2, Alien 3, Species, Multiplicity, Air Force One, Cliffhanger, Batman Returns, Starship Troopers and many other high-profile projects. The company achieved ten Academy Award nominations over a fourteen-year period.

Edlund is a four-time Academy Award visual effects winner – for Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Return of the Jedi, and was nominated for Poltergeist, 2010, Ghostbusters, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, Die Hard, and Alien 3. He’s won three Academy Technical Awards and the British Academy Award for Poltergeist and Return of the Jedi.

He earned an Emmy for creating the visual effects for the original television miniseries Battlestar Galactica and received another nomination for Mike Nichols’ Angels in America. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored him with their John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation in recognition of his contributions to the Academy. The ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) presented him with their esteemed Presidents Award in 2008. He has also received top accolades from the Visual Effects Society, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, and numerous other organizations.

Tickets for An Evening with Richard Edlund go on sale at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, March 4, 2019 at the Fargo Theatre box office. General admission seating.

The 2-Minute Movie Contest returns to the Fargo Film Festival on Friday, March 22, 2019.

Admission to the screening is two dollars.

Submissions to the 2-Minute Movie Contest remain open until Thursday, February 14, 2019. There is no cost to enter.

Moviemakers may submit only one film for consideration, and there is no guarantee of exhibition.

Entrants can email a link to a downloadable Vimeo file with “FFF19 2-Minute Movie Contest” to gregcarlson1[at]gmail[dot]com by 5 p.m. on Thursday, February 14, 2019.

Total running time for entries may not exceed 120 seconds, including any credits, and all moviemakers must provide a title for their movie.

The Fargo Radisson is offering discounted rooms for film festival guests again this year.

To book a room in the Fargo Film Festival discount block, guests can use one of the following methods:

1. Call the hotel directly at 701.232.7363 and ask for the Fargo Film Festival rate.
2. Go to www.radissonfargo.com and enter FFILMF in the promotional code field after selecting the appropriate dates.

Guests need to book by March 1, 2019 to get the promotional rate.

Animation
Winner: The Driver Is Red (Randall Christopher)

Honorable Mention: Hybrids (Florian Brauch, Matthieu Pujol, Kim Tailhades, Yohan Thireau, Romain Thirion)

Honorable Mention: Weekends (Trevor Jimenez)

Official Selections
Beebox (Cable Hardin)
Between the Lines (Maria Koneva)
Bloeistraat 11 (Nienke Deutz)
Bristled (Scott Farrell)
Carlotta’s Face (Valentin Riedl, Frédéric Schuld)
Coyote (Lorenz Wunderle)
Egg (Martina Scarpelli)
Qwerty (John McAmis)
Seder-Masochism (Nina Paley)

Documentary Feature
Winner: Bathtubs Over Broadway (Dava Whisenant)

Honorable Mention: Behind the Curve (Daniel J. Clark)

Honorable Mention: Silicone Soul (Melody Gilbert)

Official Selections
Don’t Get Trouble in Your Mind (John Whitehead)
Maj Doris (Jon Blahed)
My Country No More (Rita Baghdadi, Jeremiah Hammerling)
The Night of All Nights (Yasemin Samdereli)
Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn? (Zachary Stauffer)

Documentary Short
Winner: Beneath the Ink (Cy Dodson)

Honorable Mention: Bernie Langille Wants to Know… Who Killed Bernie Langille (Jackie Torrens)

Honorable Mention: Happy Animals (David Freid)

Official Selections
bOObs: The War on Women’s Breasts (Megan S. Smith)
Dulce (Guille Isa, Angello Faccini)
Hoan Alone: Personal Stories from the Bridge (Aaron Johnson)
Hula Girl (Amy Hill, Chris Riess)
My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes (Charlie Tyrell)
We Are Still Here (Lizbeth Chappell)

Experimental
Winner: Fragments 83 (Richard Millen, Corentin Koskas)

Honorable Mention: Dissection of a Rose (Austin Page)

Honorable Mention: Medium Rare (Luca Cioci)

Official Selections
Ada (Christine Margaret)
Divulge (Haven Nutt)
The Equatorial Calms (Derek Taylor)
Letters from Eniwetok (Ed Carter)
Public Domain (Jason Britski)

Invited Films
Chroma (Caren McCaleb, Mary Trunk)
I Never Really Left (Izaak Love)
Lost and Found (Andrew Goldsmith and Bradley Slabe) 
Prussia (Jim Manney, Cody Rogness)
Riplist (Mike Scholtz)
Sac de Merde (Greg Chwerchak)

Narrative Feature
Winner: Little Woods (Nia DaCosta)

Honorable Mention: Prospect (Christopher Caldwell, Zeek Earl)

Official Selections
An Acceptable Loss (Joe Chappelle)
Are You Glad I’m Here (Noor Gharzeddine)
Ask for Jane (Rachel Carey)
The Dancing Dogs of Dombrova (Zack Bernbaum)
Ghost Light (John Stimpson)
Isabelle (Rob Heydon)
Wild Honey (Francis Stokes)
Zoo (Colin McIvor)

Narrative Short
Winner: Caroline (Logan George, Celine Held)

Honorable Mention: Fauve (Jeremy Comte)

Honorable Mention: Three Pages (Roger Gariepy)

Official Selections
Aeternitas (Gordie Haakstad)
The Badlands Girl (Evan Ari Kelman)
A Craftsman (Sanford Jenkins Jr.)
Double Date (Vania Smrkovski)
Echoes (Mark Kerins, Elliot Mayen)
Elsewhere (Andy Berriman)
End of the Line (Jessica Sanders)
Esta Es Tu Cuba (Brian Robau)
A Gentle Night (Qiu Yang)
Hair Wolf (Mariama Diallo)
Ham (Zachary Wentz)
Knock at the Door (Michael Constable)
Magic Alps (Andrea Brusa, Marco Scotuzzi)
Matria (Álvaro Gago)
Midnight Girl (Christina Yoon)
Papa (Christophe Switzer)
The Puppet Master (Cal Brunker)
Pygmalion (André Hoven)
Rosewood Ledge (Trey Chapman)
Shadow Animals (Jerry Carlsson)
The Suitor (Álvaro Congosto)
To Ana (Simone LeClaire)
You Are the Captain (Dan Samiljan)
Your Call Is Important to Us (TJ Power)

Student
Winner: Mammoth (Ariel Heller)

Honorable Mention: Tuesday Crowd (William Kioultzopoulos)

Official Selections
Ablution (Omar Al Dakheel)
Amal (Dilek Ince)
The Liar (Jack Salvadori)
Mickey’s Pets (Ashley S. Brandon)
One Small Step (Aqsa Altaf)
Practice (Iyabo Kwayana)
Resilient (Aloiz Krisak)
Sitting Shiva (Heather Shapiro)
Small Talk (Steven G. Warkel)
Water Lily (Sierra Obioha)

The Fargo Film Festival mourns the death of the inimitable Alan Abel, one of our all-time favorite guests and the subject of “Abel Raises Cain.”

The entire Fargo Film Festival family extends our sympathy and love to Jeanne Abel, Jenny Abel, and their entire family.

You can read about Mr. Abel’s remarkable life here.

Grindflicks and the Fargo Film Festival are proud to announce “Oh Hai, Mark,” an evening with special guest Greg Sestero.

The Friday, November 9, 2018 event will include screenings of Sestero’s latest films “BEST F(R)IENDS” volumes 1 & 2, followed by an on stage conversation with Sestero.

In 2003 writer/actor/director Tommy Wiseau released his masterpiece: an independent picture called “The Room.” Centered around best friends Johnny (Wiseau) and Mark (Sestero), the film explores love, betrayal, and heartbreak through Wiseau’s singular, peculiar lens. It would eventually become one of the most popular cult films of all time. The film’s legend continues to grow. In 2013 Sestero co-authored the best selling book “The Disaster Artist.” The book captured Wiseau and Sestero’s unique friendship and the bizarre process of producing “The Room.” In 2017, James Franco and Dave Franco portrayed Wiseau and Sestero in the highly acclaimed film adaptation “The Disaster Artist.”

Fifteen years later, Tommy and Greg return to the silver screen in “BEST F(R)IENDS.” Based on a series of true-to-life anecdotes sourced from two decades of shared experiences, “BEST F(R)IENDS” is a unique two-volume cinematic saga that interweaves mystery, intrigue, and more than a few dark laughs into the long-awaited reunion of the cult icons. Step into this surrealist tale and learn a lesson about friendship and loyalty.

“BEST F(R)IENDS: Volume 1” will screen at 5:15 p.m.

“BEST F(R)IENDS: Volume 2” will screen at 7:30 p.m. and will be immediately followed by a live, on-stage conversation and audience Q&A with Greg Sestero.

Tickets go on sale at 4:00 p.m. on October 29 at the Fargo Theatre box office (314 Broadway, Fargo, ND 58102).

General admission seating. In person sales only. 18+ only.

Tickets:
Both Volumes w/Q&A – $20
Volume 2 w/Q&A – $15

Submissions are now open for our 2019 season and we at the Fargo Film Festival are pretty dang proud to share the message we received today from FilmFreeway:

“Dear Fargo Film Festival,

Congratulations!