Ohio is home to many filmmakers. One who’s made noise in recent years is Cincinnati based R. Zoe Judd. Judd is a creative multihyphenate who has a lot going on.
"I'm the President and CEO of Frankly Zoe Productions, Executive Director of HorrorHound Film Festival, and Executive Director of F3: Frankly Film Fest. I also am a board member for SOFA - the Southern Ohio Filmmaker Association. Along with being a film festival director and board member, I executive produce, produce, direct, and write independent films. I'm also a published author, working on my second novel. The icing on the cake though, is that I'm the mother of three amazing daughters, two awesome son-in-laws, and the grandma of a phenomenal three year old grandson.”
Judd says she became a horror fan pretty early in life with some help.
"My mom was the strict parent and my dad was more lenient. When we'd go to the local grocery and rent videos, my mom limited me to G or PG only. My dad would usually let me rent whatever I wanted. Being a fan of horror novels since I snuck and read Steven King's Carrie in fifth or sixth grade, I'd grab the newest horror movie on VHS. I remember grabbing Friday the 13th and watching it with my dad. On Saturday afternoons, I'd flip through the channels until I found a B-Horror movie to watch after I'd finished my chores. When USA Up All Night premiered, I'd often stay up all night, watching it on the black and white TV that we had for our Atari. Thinking back, I can't remember NOT being a horror fan.”
Judd serves as the executive director of the HorrorHound Film Festival, which happens twice a year as part of HorrorHund Weekend. HorrorHounditself is a magazine launched in 2005 by cousins Jeremy Sheldon and Nathan Hanneman. In 2007, HorrorHound launched a convention and film festival, called HorrorHound Weekend - which has grown to be the largest horror convention in the US, with over 35,000 attendees.
When pandemic lockdowns began in March of 2020, the HorrorHound team (this was prior to Judd joining) had rethink the festival, "We switched to online virtual events for May and September, 2020. These events were livestream weekend-long ventures managed by in-house original platform programming to maintain safety for all screening films. The events expanded fan interaction with live chat and video chat features as well as filmmaker Q&As. The virtual aspect of our event was so exciting, reaching a larger fanbase than we could otherwise, and showcasing the potential growth of reaching more and more new audiences – that we will be maintaining this aspect of #H2F2 as part of the overall HorrorHound Weekend experience in the coming years.
In September of 2021, we returned to physical screenings as well as continued our virtual screenings during HorrorHound Rewind, an online event that featured film screenings, panel screenings, sneak peek of upcoming guests, and much more. This event will be part of the HorrorHound offerings for years to come."
In addition to her work with HorrorHound, Judd is also executive festival director for F3: Frankly Film Fest.
"It's a festival that embraces diversity in film, giving a showcase to films that may not fit into the typical film festival mold. It was founded in 2004 by my production company, Frankly Zoe Productions, as a one off festival meant to promote our Youth Summer Movie Project in 2005. In 2011, we started The ICE (Independent Creators Expo) film festival. In 2016, we decided to resurrect F3 and combine the two festivals. In conjunction with the Tenth Anniversary of Un-Con, an unconventional convention where all genres of fandom are welcome and accepted, we re-launched F3: Frankly Film Fest. When Covid-19 hit in 2020, we became a virtual festival and the convention disbanded. For this year, 2023, we have a hybrid festival, with preliminary rounds online with an in-person screening in June of our finalists from the online rounds. We will have an awards ceremony immediately following the screenings. In 2024, we have plans to join with a new convention, The Beyond Con.”
As for her film work, Judd recently finished producing a film in Australia, "We're gearing up for its world premiere on March 24 and distribution after that. Currently it's titled The Haunting at Saint Joseph's, but the distributor will be releasing it under the title The Hanged Girl. I have two films on my slate for later this year, a horror film and a sci-fi film. So far for next year, I'm directing a horror feature in the spring and producing a horror feature in the fall.”
Judd says that she's seen changes in the expectations for women in film throughout her career.
“When I first started making movies with my friends in high school - I was really the only girl who was interested in being behind the camera. My girl friends wanted to be in front of the camera, if they were interested in film making at all. In college, the story was very similar - I was one of very few women in film. When I'd work sets, women filled select jobs - production assistant, production accountant, craft services, wardrobe, make-up artist, or a script supervisor (or scripty - or script girl as it was called back then), Script supervisor was actually my first paying job on set. When I founded my company in 1996, I decided that I'd try to fill more positions with women - offering them 'non-traditional' positions. Nearly thirty years later, things have changed. I've worked with women in every position that exists in filmmaking. My latest film, there were more women on set than men. It wasn't planned that way, we just hired the best people for the job. I was honored to have my oldest daughter on set as continuity director - which used to be called script girl. Two of my daughters have gone into the entertainment industry and I couldn't be prouder!”
"I want to continue growing F3: Frankly Film Fest, expanding it to be a multiple day festival. I want HorrorHound Film Fest to continue being a leader in genre film festivals," says Judd. But ultimately as a filmmaker, "I want to get back into the director's chair. My focus over the last several years has been Executive Producing and Producing and I've been searching for the script I want to direct. I plan on returning to directing with either a science fiction film or another horror film, depending on which I get financed first.”
