The ninth annual Fargo Film Festival is ready for launch, with dozens of excellent movies, exciting special guests, informative panels, award announcements, and great conversations awaiting each and everyone. Whether you plan to come for a single session or the whole festival, we welcome you.

Please take some time to explore the schedule, investigate some of the movies that will be showing, and prepare for the top-notch programming the Fargo Film Festival provides. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call the box office at 701.239.8385. We’ll see you at the festival!

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce its collection of invited movies for 2009.

African Soul, American Heart (Deb Dawson, Fargo, North Dakota)

American Herro (Kirk Roos, Fargo, North Dakota)

Come Back to Sudan (Patti Bonnet & Daniel Junge, Louisville, Colorado)

A Different Kind of Gun (Peter Jordan, San Francisco, California)

The Fargo Theatre (Nikki Willhoit, Moorhead, Minnesota)

575 Castro St. (Jenni Olson, San Francisco, California)

Ice People (Anne Aghion, New York, New York)

In Rwanda we say…The family that does not speak dies (Anne Aghion, New York, New York)

Mr. Brown (Tom Brandau, Moorhead, Minnesota)

Old Dog (Tyler Schwanke, Moorhead, Minnesota)

If you are planning to attend the Fargo Film Festival and are traveling from out of town, one excellent and affordable option is the Howard Johnson Inn, located at 301 3rd Avenue North in Fargo, just a short walk from the Fargo Theatre.

The festival has arranged for a discounted rate of $68 dollars per night at the Howard Johnson Inn, which includes a hot breakfast. Be sure to mention the Fargo Film Festival when you make your reservation.

You can contact the Howard Johnson Inn by phone at either 888.407.4656 or 701.232.8850 or online here with direct link to their website which is also available under the CONTACT tab above.

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce its official program of animation for 2009. Congratulations to our outstanding group of moviemakers.

WINNER BEST ANIMATION:

* I Am So Proud of You (Don Hertzfeldt, Goleta, California)

HONORABLE MENTION:

* Rabbit (Run Wrake, London, United Kingdom)

HONORABLE MENTION:

* Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Paley, Urbana, Illinois)

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS:

* The Circle of Life (Ilias Sounas, Athens, Greece)

* Crank Balls (Devin Bell, Santa Monica, California)

* Dear Fatty (Hsin-I Tseng, Los Angeles, California)

* Doxology (Michael Langan, San Francisco, California)

* Flute Babies (Gretta Johnson, Chicago, Illinois)

* Hot Dog (Bill Plympton, New York, New York)

* Idiots and Angels (Bill Plympton, New York, New York)

* I Met the Walrus (Josh Raskin, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

* Kanizsa Hill (Evelyn Lee, Los Angeles, California)

* The Painter of Skies (Jorge Morais Valle, Vigo, Spain)

* Seeking You (Jean-Julien Pous, Paris, France)

* Space Alone (Ilias Sounas, Athens, Greece)

* Swimming Moon (Nahomi Maki, Los Angeles, California)

* Tyger (Guilherme Marcondes, New York, New York)

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce its official program of documentary features for 2009. Congratulations to our outstanding group of moviemakers.

WINNER BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:

* Abel Raises Cain (Jenny Abel & Jeff Hockett, Los Angeles, California)

HONORABLE MENTION:

* One Water (Sanjeev Chatterjee, Coral Gables, Florida)

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS:

* Alaska Far Away (Paul Hill & Joan Juster, San Francisco, California)

* Fritz: The Walter Mondale Story (Melody Gilbert, St. Paul, Minnesota)

* Indestructible (Ben Byer, Winston Salem, North Carolina)

* Small Town Silver Screen (Bryce Jarrett, Sioux Falls, South Dakota)

* This American Gothic (Sasha Waters, Iowa City, Iowa)

* When the Landscape Is Quiet Again: The Legacy of Art Link (Clay Jenkinson & David Swenson, Washburn, North Dakota)

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce its official program of documentary shorts for 2009. Congratulations to our outstanding group of moviemakers.

WINNER BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT:

* A Day Late in Oakland (Zachary Stauffer, Oakland, California)

HONORABLE MENTION:

* Raw (Shelly Roby, San Francisco, California)

HONORABLE MENTION:

* Richart (Dawn Smallman, Vanessa Renwick & Greg Snider, Portland, Oregon)

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS:

* Beholder (Eric Daniel Metzgar, Brooklyn, New York)

* Bloodsucker (Meghan O’Hara, Stanford, California)

* Click Whoosh (Reid Kuennen & Mandy Hubbard, Seattle, Washington)

* I Can See Everything (Kristine Samuelson & John Haptas, Palo Alto, California)

* Just Add Water (Jeffrey Mead, Rochester, New York)

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce its official program of experimental films for 2009. Congratulations to our outstanding group of moviemakers.

WINNER BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM:

* Themes + Variations for the Naked Eye (Caitlin Horsmon, Kansas City, Missouri)

HONORABLE MENTION:

* Double Thunder (Potter-Belmar Labs, San Antonio, Texas)

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS:

* Automatic (Sharon A. Mooney, Chicago, Illinois)

* 4 Minutes on an Abandoned Bridge (Todd Tinkham, Durham, North Carolina)

* Random Access Memory (Gavin Rehder, Fargo, North Dakota)

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce its official program of music videos for 2009. Congratulations to our outstanding group of moviemakers.

WINNER BEST MUSIC VIDEO:

* Parson Brown: Mexican Standoff (Bill Plympton, New York, New York)

HONORABLE MENTION:

* Leela Gilday: One Drum (Helen Haig-Brown, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

OFFICIAL SELECTION:

* M’Girl: Eyes Wide Open (Renae Morriseau, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce its official program of narrative features for 2009. Congratulations to our outstanding group of moviemakers.

WINNER BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE:

* River (Mark Wihak, Regina, Canada)

HONORABLE MENTION:

* …And on the 7th Day, God Rocked (Jason Page, Duluth, Minnesota)

OFFICIAL SELECTION:

* Come Hell or High Water (Wayne Shipley, Jessup, Maryland)

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce its official program of narrative shorts for 2009. Congratulations to our outstanding group of moviemakers.

WINNER BEST NARRATIVE SHORT

* Las Gafas (Alberto Garcia Martin, Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Spain)

HONORABLE MENTION:

* Butterflies Die in Snow (Karim Azimi, Ardabil, Iran)

HONORABLE MENTION

* Pim, Pam, Pum (Andoni De Carlos Yarza & Asier Urbieta, Sevilla, Spain)

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS:

* Black (Seth Anderson & Nathan Anderson, Santa Monica, California)

* 50 States (Caity Birmingham, Chicago, Illinois)

* A Helping Hand (John-Kristian Dalseth, Oslo, Norway)

* This Bus, Every Day (Todd Tinkham, Durham, North Carolina)

* Twistee Treat (John Herzog, Orlando, Florida)