FARGO-This month's Fargo Film Festival was a box office success for the Fargo Theatre, says Executive Director Emily Beck.
The festival, which ran March 15-19 , is the Fargo Theatre's biggest annual fundraiser. This year's event netted more than $64,000, or about $7,000 more than last year's fest.
That amount is on top of the endowment that was recently started for the 90-year-old venue. Beck said the endowment raised more than $12,000 during the five-day fest and now sits at more than $56,500. Overall attendance was down slightly from 2015's event, but Beck chalks that up to a separately ticketed appearance by filmmaker John Waters that closed out last year's show. This year's fest didn't feature a marquee guest.
The two best-attended films this year were the documentary "Welcome to Leith" and the narrative feature "Supermoto." Each sold more than 700 tickets. Beck says there was also more interest in morning and afternoon screenings, and that student attendance was up from last year.
"I was so happy with how things went. I really couldn't be happier, honestly," Beck says, adding she heard great feedback from visiting filmmakers.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I find these numbers very encouraging as we move forward with planning for FFF 2017," she wrote in an e-mail. "Of course we'll always endeavor to bring in high-profile guests, but Fargo audiences keep proving to us that they support the festival and our independent artists/programming with enthusiasm."
