​2026 Fargo Film Festival Arrives on the Centennial of the Fargo Theatre

By Reagan Mueller

Movie theaters have always been a place for people to take time out of their busy lives to watch the latest releases on the silver screen. In such a bustling world, it can be difficult to find the motivation to make it out to the theater when streaming services have monopolized our living rooms. Movies, however, are not the only commodity a good theater can offer.

In the cold of the winter surrounding the Fargo-Moorhead area, the 26th edition of the Fargo Film Festival provides a beacon of warmth for the FM community and beyond. Beginning March 17 and concluding March 21, the Fargo Theatre — celebrating its 100th year — will host the popular event.

The Fargo Film Festival offers an impressive array of movie experiences for filmmakers, passionate moviegoers and any curiosity-seekers looking for a good time. The festival features films in eight competitive categories that are reviewed by juries that evaluate submissions and select award winners. The categories include Animation, Experimental, Documentary Short/Feature, Narrative Short/Feature, Student, and Northern Plains Voices.

Over the now more than quarter century of the Fargo Film Festival, the number of moviemakers attending to support their films being shown at the festival has reached a peak. In 2025, more than 30 moviemakers traveled to Fargo. The Fargo Film Festival prides itself as a festival for filmmakers to be welcomed with open arms and feel the strength of the community. After fifteen years of being involved with the festival, veteran Experimental Jury Chair Janet Brandau has a good idea about the reasons the Fargo Film Festival stands out in comparison to other film festivals out there.

“Our [success comes from the] strong focus on our filmmakers,” Brandau states. “They interact with our audiences via Q&A sessions and lunch panels, enriching the filmgoing experience for everyone.”

Fargo Theatre Executive Director Emily Beck — who is also the director and programmer of the Fargo Film Festival — adds, “It is so rewarding to give independent filmmakers a theatrical exhibition experience and to celebrate their artistry.”

In an artistic community so full of life, the Fargo Film Festival provides attendees with meaningful exchanges. “The diversity of voices throughout the region and beyond creates meaningful connections between artists and audiences,” says Animation Jury Chair Kari Arntson.

Those connections between filmmakers and audiences are fundamental to the overall experience available to everyone throughout the festival’s duration. Dominic Erickson, Narrative Short Jury Chair, loves “seeing the filmmakers fall in love with Fargo and the passion of Fargo Film Festival-goers.”

The Fargo Film Festival is a place for artists to display their art — art that is different from any other form of expression. Documentary Short Jury Chair Kyle Iverson describes cinema as “a medium that allows you to escape reality, experience an artist's story, and feel every human emotion.”

Film has the ability to take the “diverse voices” the Fargo Film Festival features and “communicate ideas and human experiences like no other [art form],” according to Narrative Feature Jury Chair and twenty-year festival volunteer Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson.

The world of film is accessible for everyone to enjoy. Brandau fell in love with film because of its ability to take someone out of their “small-town movie palace” by “entering other worlds and being part of them for a time.”

Beck is enthralled by all things cinema. “I love that it is a collaborative art form that blends many different disciplines,” she states. “I love the collective experience of seeing a film in a theater with an audience. And most of all, I love storytelling.”

The special kind of storytelling only found in cinema thrives in a community made up of those who make art and those who appreciate that art. Film is unique, in that an audience of people can truly experience emotions together while remaining separate.

“There is nothing like seeing a film in a theater and sharing a visceral experience with your fellow viewers,” Iverson says.

Film is a link between everyone in the theater. And that link remains long after the final credits roll.

The Fargo Film Festival offers five days to watch movies, connect with filmmakers and filmgoers, and admire what makes film special. With so many titles available over the span of the festival, it can be difficult to decide what to see. A handful of jury chairs have picked their own “must-sees” from the categories they led.

Animation

For nineteen-year volunteer Kari Arntson, animation represents freedom. “Animation can create entire worlds from imagination alone,” Arntson says.

Arntson highlighted a few of her highly anticipated films in the category. Anastasiia Falileieva’s “I Died in Irpin” is “a brave, first-person story of traveling from Kyiv to Irpin during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and facing unexpected dangers.” Arntson believes Falileieva uses animation to powerfully tell the heavy, complex and very personal story.

She also acknowledges category honorable mention “The Night Boots” by Pierre-Luc Granjon. “This excellent short uses 1930s pinscreen-style animation to realize a dreamlike, magical quality,” Arntson says, adding that the film features characters that everyone will find charming.

Arntson makes one final must-see suggestion: the winner of the category, “The Gnawer of Rocks.” Directed by Louise Flaherty, the film uses stop-motion animation, one of Arntson’s favorite animation styles, to “deliver a captivating horror-fantasy-thriller story, highlighting the exciting range of work represented in the category.” “The Gnawer of Rocks” recently screened at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and tells the story of two young women trapped in the lair of the title creature, known in the Inuktitut language as Mangittatuarjuk. The teachings of their elders will help them as they try to defeat the monster.

Documentary short

Serving his first year as a jury chair after many years as a volunteer and juror, Kyle Iverson cites all of the short documentary films as must-sees, but his personal favorite is “We Were the Scenery,” directed by Christopher Radcliff. The film tells the story of “a couple that fled the Vietnam War in 1975 by boat. When they docked in the Philippines, they were cast as extras in Francis Ford Coppola's ‘Apocalypse Now.’”

Category winner “Planetwalker,” directed by Nadia Gill and Dominic Gill, follows Dr. John Francis, who took a vow of silence after witnessing a massive oil spill. He travels around the country for 17 years hoping to inform others about environmental issues.

Longtime festival volunteer and Fargo Film Festival Projects Producer Greg Carlson urges viewers to make time to see the documentary short “I Wanted to Hear Your Voice” from filmmaker James Pellerito. “I very much look forward to meeting Pellerito, whose deeply personal film is a raw, intimate and unflinching portrait of dementia and the journey of the caregiver and the cared-for,” Carlson says. “It illustrates the powerful way sound and image can combine to alter our preconceptions. In this way, the movie reminded me of ‘My Favorite Picture of You,’ one of my all-time favorite documentaries.”

Carlson and Beck are also among many in the community who cannot wait to share Mike Scholtz’s invited short documentary, “Fargo Theatre: The First 100 Years.” “Mike’s movies have been such a treasured part of the Fargo Film Festival,” Carlson says. “It made perfect sense for the Fargo Theatre’s board of directors to commission a visual ‘history lesson’ after Emily came up with the idea to celebrate the centennial. When Mike’s class is in session, every pupil earns an A+.”

Experimental

Janet Brandau, a filmmaker herself, loves experimental films for the “non-linear, creative approach to storytelling that abounds in the category.” She emphasizes real-life stories such as Mary Trunk’s “Geography of Memory” and the category winner “Purgatorio,” a “flight of fantasy” directed by Auden Lincoln-Vogel, Stephanie Miracle, and Philip Rabalais.

“Audiences,” Brandau says, “will find experimental films a kind of palate-cleanser between more standard narrative and documentary films.” She encourages all festivalgoers to make an effort to explore the experimental category.

Narrative feature

As a long-time professor of film at Minnesota State University Moorhead and a filmmaker herself, Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson has had an interest in movies and moviemaking for decades. Some of the stand-out films she hopes you will see include “What We Dreamed of Then,” written and directed by Taylor Olson. The film is “a dramatic narrative that shines a light on invisible homelessness.” Gideon, played by Olson, is a swim coach and father now living in his van. Kristjansson-Nelson describes Olson’s performance as “complex and touching […] humanizing hidden homelessness.”

Another noteworthy selection is “Silent Rebellion,” directed by Marie-Elsa Sgualdo. The winning film of the category tells the story of a fifteen-year-old girl named Emma who is growing up in 1940s Switzerland during a tumultuous time in Europe. Becoming unwillingly pregnant forces her to navigate a life for which she wasn’t prepared. Kristjansson-Nelson applauds Lila Gueneau's portrayal of Emma, saying she “carries the film and will linger in the minds of the audience long after the film's final scene.”

After selections are made in each category, Beck watches every movie selected for the festival, a number that reaches more than 100. One of Beck’s recommendations is to check out “Brooklyn, Minnesota,” directed by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. The film is a dramedy set in Minnesota lakes country. “It has a huge heart,” Beck states. The film features Oscar-nominee Amy Madigan, who recently starred in “Weapons.” Both directors will be in attendance when “Brooklyn, Minnesota” screens at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 20.

Narrative short

Narrative Short Jury Chair Dominic Erickson is serving his second year as chair and has been involved in the Fargo Film Festival since 2020. As someone who’s always been considered “the movie guy” by his friends and family, Erickson points to two films from the narrative short category that he’s excited for audiences to see.

The first is Andy Reid’s “Brief Somebodies,” a film Erickson describes as “a thought-provoking short about painful lived experiences and art.” It shows two actors who form an emotional connection while rehearsing and filming a sexual assault scene.

Erickson’s second suggestion is the honorable mention “Check Please,” directed by Shane Chung. The movie is a hilarious homage to classic martial arts cinema in which two men can’t agree on who will pay for dinner. Tensions escalate into a full-on battle. Erickson calls the film an “action-packed short comedy.”

More to offer

As the big day approaches, the Fargo Film Festival also prepares to feature the presentation of special recognitions. They include the Ted M. Larson Award (the festival’s highest honor), Q&A sessions with visiting moviemakers and the popular 2-Minute Movie Contest, produced each year by Greg Carlson. Admission to the 2-Minute Movie Contest has always been just two dollars, a Fargo Film Festival tradition still going strong.

“The 2-Minute Movie Contest is always one of my favorite parts of the festival,” says Carlson. “Seeing around 50 very short movies back-to-back is the best kind of sensory overload. And I love the blend of stuff made by professionals alongside do-it-yourself kids trying moviemaking for the first time.”

In such a short span of time, the Fargo Film Festival offers the greater Fargo-Moorhead community and filmmakers everywhere a chance to connect beyond the screen at the Fargo Theatre and throughout downtown Fargo. The festival continues to promote the art of filmmaking by highlighting filmmakers and their hard work. The Fargo Film Festival is, as Arntson states, “a festival that stays rooted in community and love for film.”

IF YOU GO:

Fargo Film Festival

March 17-21

Fargo Theatre, 314 Broadway N.

fargofilmfestival.org