Erica Tremblay Named Film ICON

Erica Tremblay, an award-winning filmmaker and citizen of the Seneca Cayuga Nation of Oklahoma, has been selected as the 2023 Oklahoma Film ICON by the deadCenter Film Festival. Tremblay is the writer and director of the closing night film, Fancy Dance, which will screen at the First Americans Museum at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 11, with a reception beforehand hosted by the Cherokee Nation Film Office.

will be held every Friday night May 5 through October 27 from 6 – 9 pm.

June 10 • Roller Derby Twister City Roller Derby is bringing in two fierce competitors for this thrilling June double header. The Victory All­Star Squad will take on the Kansas City Roller Warriors and Tornado Alley will take on Rocktown Roller Derby. Come on down to Arctic Edge Ice Arena Saturday, June 10. Doors will open at 5 pm and the first bout will start at 5:30 pm. However, before the first bout there will also be a special Junior scrimmage at 4:15 pm, the first of the year for the Dust Devils.

June 10 •

Weezer OKC Zoo Amphitheatre welcomes Weezer with guests Modest Mouse & Momma at 7 pm.

Erica Tremblay is a film and television writer, director, and producer who was raised in Oklahoma and now lives in upstate New York on her ancestral land on Cayuga Lake. Her short film Little Chief premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was included on IndieWire’s top-10 list of must-see short films at the festival. In 2021, her first feature film project, Fancy Dance, was accepted into the Sundance Directors & Screenwriters Labs. From there, she was hired as executive story editor on the television series Dark Winds, produced by George R.R. Martin & Robert Redford.

Tremblay’s most recent work has been in collaboration with Sterlin Harjo, the creator of the Oklahoma filmed television series Reservation Dogs and 2014 winner of the very same Oklahoma Film Icon Award. Tremblay joined

Reservation Dogs as executive story editor for season two and ended up directing her first tv episode. For season three, she will both Executive Produce and direct. Tremblay and Harjo are currently partnering to adapt the Pulitzer Prize finalist novel Yellowbird (2014) into a series for Paramount+.

Fancy Dance, Tremblay’s first feature film, is a Native drama filmed on location in Oklahoma. After her sister’s disappearance, a Native American hustler played by Lily Gladstone, star of the upcoming epic Killers of the Flower Moon kidnaps her niece from the girl’s white grandparents and sets out for a powwow in an effort to keep what is left of her family intact. Fancy Dance premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, then screened at SXSW, where it was nominated for the Audience Award. The film also won Best Narrative Feature at the Sun Valley Film Festival.

Nick Demos, the Tony and Olivier Award-winning producer of Memphis and Come From Away, and the former artistic director of Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, returns to deadCenter for the second time with the world premiere of his new documentary about body image in the LGBTQ community called The Body Electric That film screens Saturday night at 8:00pm at the OKC Museum of Art, followed by a Q&A with City Councilman and film professor James Cooper Andrew Bowser returns to deadCenter with a wild, monster filled feature called Onyx the Fortuitous and the Tailsman of Souls. Bowser won Best Narrative Feature in 2013 with his feature film WORM, filmed on location in Guthrie and produced by Oklahoma filmmakers J.D. Woods and Ian van Woods WORM was made using one continuous shot from a Go Pro camera. It is still one of the most impressive films I have ever seen. WORM screens Friday at 10:00pm and Saturday at 8:30pm, both times at Harkins Bricktown Cinemas. The 2023 deadCenter Film Festival will be held across multiple venues in downtown OKC, hosting 160+ films, nightly parties, and offering various filmmaker discussions, panels and industry events. To purchase festival passes, see the list of films, or review the schedule, please visit www.deadcenterfilm.org