April 8-19, 2026
Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival 2026 - 45th Anniversary
The Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival is back for its 45th year, running April 8-19 at The Main Cinema, Edina Theatre, and screens across the Twin Cities. Over 200 films from around the world. Twelve days of discovery. And if you know, you know: MSPIFF is the crown jewel of the Minnesota film calendar, and it is not to be missed.
What follows is my personal watchlist for MSPIFF45 — the films I’m most excited to see, the ones I think deserve your attention, and a few I’ve already caught that I can vouch for. These are presented in no particular order or ranking. This is not a comprehensive guide. This is the tip of a very large, very diverse iceberg that MSPIFF is thawing for us this April. I encourage you to become a member of MSP Film Society today. The benefits start right away with the festival and go all year long. Non-member tickets go on sale March 20 at 11 AM.
Before we get to the films, a couple of beyond-the-screen highlights worth flagging. First, there’s an industry conversation with legendary cinematographer Dean Cundey, the man behind the camera on Halloween, Back to the Future, and Apollo 13, among many others, with screenings of films he shot including Escape from New York and Jurassic Park. Second, and this is a big one, there’s a screening of the shattering Ordinary People, with Judith Guest, the Minnesota author of the novel it is based on, attending. Circle those.
Now, let’s get to it.
Everybody to Kenmure Street - Opening Night Film
On the first morning of Eid in 2021 Glasgow, immigration enforcement detained two men in a largely Muslim neighborhood. What happened next brought a city to its feet and a government to its knees.
Dir. Felipe Bustos Sierra | United Kingdom | 2026 | 98 min. | In English, Urdu, Punjabi
MSPIFF Opening Film | Felipe Bustos Sierra Attending
Why it should be on your radar: If you’ve been watching news footage of ICE operations in American communities and wondering what people can actually do, Everybody to Kenmure Street is your film. Described as a stunning, not-without-humor documentary in the great tradition of anti-fascist filmmaking, its depiction of everyday citizens standing up to institutional power could not be more timely. The film reportedly uses a patchwork of crowd-sourced cell phone footage and clever re-enactments to build a portrait of collective resistance that sounds both exhilarating and deeply moving. Executive produced by Emma Thompson. MSPIFF could not have chosen a more relevant opening night film for this particular moment, and the fact that director Felipe Bustos Sierra will be in attendance makes it an event unto itself.
Hokum
A reclusive novelist (Adam Scott) retreats to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes. The staff warns him about an ancient witch haunting the honeymoon suite. He probably should have listened.
Dir. Damian McCarthy | Ireland, USA | 2026 | 101 min. | In English
Why it should be on your radar: Damian McCarthy’s Oddity was one of the best horror films of the last few years, and Hokum looks like it could be even more ambitious. McCarthy has a gift for building dread out of atmosphere and stillness, letting the horror creep in around the edges until it overwhelms you completely. Adam Scott (yes, from Severance) seems like the perfect fit for the role, which is exactly the kind of casting that elevates a good horror film into a great one. This is a perfect late-night MSPIFF screening. You will absolutely be watching from between your fingers. If horror is your thing, do not wait for this one to hit streaming. See it with an audience. That’s an order.
A Sad and Beautiful World
Born on the same day, in the same Beirut hospital, Nino and Yasmina are destined to be in love. The universe itself seems to push them together. But how do you sustain a love story when the world around you is falling apart?
Dir. Cyril Aris | Lebanon, USA, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar | 2025 | 109 min. | In Arabic
Why it should be on your radar: Cyril Aris appears to have made something genuinely rare: a love story that is also challenging cinema. The magical-realist touches promise to be more than gimmicks, serving as extensions of the emotional landscape — a way of externalizing the impossible feelings that come with loving someone in a place as volatile as contemporary Lebanon. By all accounts, the film is funny when you don’t expect it and devastating when you do. It promises to take you to otherworldly places and offer hope in a moment when that can be difficult to find. The partnership with Mizna ensures a rich context for its presentation, and this is the kind of film that rewards conversation afterward. Bring someone you love.
American Dream
Workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota walked out for better pay and conditions, defying both the company and the national union. The strike lasted nearly a year. Barbara Kopple embedded herself in the community for six years and made a film that won the Oscar
Dir. Barbara Kopple | USA | 1990 | 98 min. | In English
Why it should be on your radar: This is Minnesota’s story. Austin, Minnesota. The Hormel plant. A community torn apart by a labor dispute that still resonates today. If you’ve never seen American Dream, this stunning 4K restoration is the definitive way to experience it, and if you have seen it, you already know why you should see it again. In a moment when conversations about labor, corporate accountability, and the working class are more charged than ever, Kopple’s film hasn’t aged a day. It’s one of the great American documentaries, period, and the fact that it happened right here in our state makes it personal. This screening is an event.
Colors of Time
Four estranged cousins inherit an abandoned house in Normandy and discover a mysterious shared past that leads them back to 1890s Paris, the dawn of Impressionism, and a young woman named Adèle who left everything behind in search of her mother.
Dir. Cédric Klapisch | France | 2025 | 124 min. | In French
Why it should be on your radar: This looks like the feel-good, Francophile-friendly crowd-pleaser of the festival, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Klapisch (L’Auberge Espagnole, Paris) has always had a gift for ensemble comedies with heart, and Colors of Time promises exactly that: warm, funny, and visually gorgeous. The dual-timeline structure should make 19th-century Paris feel alive and thrilling, while the modern-day cousins provide humor and grounding. It premiered out of competition at Cannes and was a genuine hit with French audiences, drawing nearly a million admissions. If you’re the kind of person who daydreams about a countryside house in Normandy, a glass of wine, and art on the walls, this is your movie. It’s pure cinema comfort food, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Uncle Roy
A filmmaker discovers that her beloved Uncle Roy, a renowned figure skater, Broadway headshot photographer, and obsessive collector, was also known as the “forefather of gay photography.” Now she’s racing to preserve his legacy before dementia takes him.
Dir. Keri Pickett | USA | 2026 | 87 min. | In English
Why it should be on your radar: This is a Minnesota story through and through, and it’s one of the films I’m most anticipating at the entire festival. Keri Pickett’s previous documentaries First Daughter and the Black Snake and Finding Her Beat were MSPIFF favorites, and Uncle Roy looks like her most personal and ambitious work yet. What promises to be an affectionate portrait of an eccentric uncle also sounds like a powerful excavation of queer history, artistic legacy, and the things we discover about the people we thought we knew when we start opening their boxes. The North American premiere with Pickett and producer Dawn Mikkelson in attendance makes this a true festival event, and its Minneapolis roots give it a sense of place that MSPIFF audiences will feel in their bones. This is the kind of film that will have the lobby buzzing.
Broken English
A genre-defying documentary about Marianne Faithfull — singer, songwriter, artist, icon. Tilda Swinton and George MacKay guide you through a fictional museum of her life, mixing never-before-seen footage with tributes from friends and luminaries. The project began before Faithfull died.
Dir. Jane Pollard, Iain Forsyth | United Kingdom | 2025 | 99 min. | In English
Why it should be on your radar: Marianne Faithfull lived one of the great lives in popular music and art, and this documentary refuses to give you the standard rock-doc treatment. That alone makes it worth the ticket. The fictional framing device of “The Ministry of Not Forgetting,” with Tilda Swinton as your tour guide, is the kind of bold creative swing that most documentaries wouldn’t dare attempt. Everything about this project suggests a film as unconventional and fearless as its subject. If you love music, if you love women who refused to be defined by the men in their orbit, and if you believe documentaries should be more than talking heads and archival footage, Broken English sounds like it’s going to absolutely thrill you.
The Blue Trail
In a near-future Brazil, seniors are forced into retirement and disappeared. A 77-year-old woman loses her job, refuses to go quietly, and hires a boat down the Amazon to chase a lifelong dream.
Dir. Gabriel Mascaro | Brazil, Mexico, Netherlands, Chile | 2025 | 86 min. | In Portuguese
Winner, Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize — 75th Berlin International Film Festival
Why it should be on your radar: Gabriel Mascaro’s Silver Bear-winning film sounds like the kind of movie that works on multiple levels simultaneously. On the surface, it’s a gorgeous adventure about a woman who won’t be told her time is up. Underneath, it’s reportedly a biting dystopian satire that hits uncomfortably close to real conversations happening right now about how society treats its elders. And woven through it all is what promises to be a deeply humane reflection on autonomy, dignity, and the power of subtle resistance. Think of it as the film your book club would devour and then argue about for weeks. The premise is provocative, the Berlin jury clearly agreed, and the Amazon cinematography alone should be worth the price of admission. Political filmmaking wrapped in a gorgeous adventure. Don’t sleep on this one.
Vanilla
Eight-year-old Roberta shares a house in 1980s Mexico with six women — mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, cousin, aunt, and a beloved housekeeper. When debts threaten to take their home, Roberta steps up to help.
Dir. Mayra Hermosillo | Mexico | 2025 | 99 min. | In Spanish
Audience Award Winner, Morelia Film Festival
Why it should be on your radar: There is nothing quite like discovering a debut film that just radiates warmth, life, and generosity of spirit, and Vanilla looks like exactly that. Mayra Hermosillo has crafted a multi-generational portrait of women and family that feels both specific to its setting and universally recognizable to anyone who grew up in a house full of strong women with strong opinions. By all accounts, Aurora Dávila’s performance as young Roberta lights up the screen, and the ensemble around her is remarkable. The audience award at the prestigious Morelia Film Festival tells you everything you need to know about its crowd appeal. This sounds like comfort cinema at its finest, the kind of film that sends you home feeling like the world might be OK after all. MSPIFF audiences are going to fall hard for it.
Ask E. Jean
E. Jean Carroll’s advice column in Elle was famous for its honesty. Then she went public with a story that changed everything, sued when she was called a liar, and won. This documentary goes beyond the headlines.
Dir. Ivy Meeropol | USA | 2025 | 91 min. | In English
Why it should be on your radar: Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, E. Jean Carroll’s story is one of extraordinary tenacity and conviction, and Ivy Meeropol’s documentary has the good sense to let Carroll be a full, complicated, fascinating person rather than reducing her to a symbol. The film goes beyond the courtroom victories and the cable-news clips to show who Carroll really is, and what it reportedly costs a person to tell the truth when powerful forces want them silent This is essential viewing at a time when the conversation around truth-telling, accountability, and courage feels more important than ever. Expect it to generate the kind of electric post-screening lobby conversation that MSPIFF is famous for. Bring your thoughts. And your friends.
Primavera
Antonio Vivaldi. Venice. A charitable home for orphaned girls whose musical performances attract high-society benefactors. And a young violin virtuoso with no intention of becoming anyone’s bride.
Dir. Damiano Michieletto | Italy | 2025 | 110 min. | In Italian, French
Why it should be on your radar: Lush period filmmaking about music, power, and a young woman’s fight for autonomy in 18th-century Venice. Primavera looks like the kind of sumptuous, intelligent historical drama that festival audiences devour, and from everything I’ve read, it earns its gorgeous production design. The story of Cecilia, an orphan whose talent places her directly in the crosshairs of the institution that shelters her, should resonate well beyond its historical setting. If you love music, if you love films that take you inside a world you’ve never seen, and if you appreciate a story about a woman who refuses to accept the role she’s been assigned, this is one to prioritize. It promises to be a feast for the eyes and the mind.
Power Ballad
A past-his-prime wedding singer (Paul Rudd) and a fading boy-band star (Nick Jonas) bond over music and a late-night jam session. Then one of them steals the other’s song and everything gets complicated.
Dir. John Carney | Ireland, USA | 2026 | 98 min. | In English
Why it should be on your radar: John Carney makes movies about music the way other directors make movies about love: with a tenderness and specificity that makes you believe in the thing all over again. If Once or Sing Street meant something to you, Power Ballad is a no-brainer. Paul Rudd looks perfectly cast as a guy who let his dream slip by, bringing what should be his effortless charm and a real melancholy to the role. And the music — always the centerpiece of a Carney film — promises to deliver. This is probably the safest bet for pure, uncomplicated entertainment at the festival, the kind of movie you’ll walk out of humming and smiling. Sometimes that’s exactly what you need. Grab a friend and go.
Echoes in the Night: The Search for Jacob Wetterling
In October 1989, eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted in St. Joseph, Minnesota. For 26 years, his family kept the light on. This film begins where you might not expect: the moment the perpetrator is finally caught.
Dir. Chris Newberry | USA | 2026 | 120 min. | In English
Chris Newberry Attending
Why it should be on your radar: Every Minnesotan of a certain age remembers where they were when Jacob Wetterling was taken. This is one of the defining stories of our state, one that shaped how we think about safety, community, and the unthinkable. Newberry’s bold structural choice to begin at the point of resolution and work outward should allow the film to focus not on the crime itself but on the family’s extraordinary resilience and the work they’ve done in Jacob’s memory to change how missing children cases are investigated and resolved. The director will be in attendance, which adds weight to what will already be one of the most emotionally charged screenings of the entire festival. This will be talked about long after the credits roll. Bring tissues.
We Are Pat
Julia Sweeney’s Saturday Night Live character Pat was a cultural lightning rod in the 1990s. Thirty-five years later, LGBTQ+ comedians and Sweeney herself unpack what Pat meant, what Pat cost, and whether Pat can be reclaimed.
Dir. Rowan Haber | USA | 2025 | 92 min. | In English
Why it should be on your radar: The conversation around Pat has evolved enormously since the mid-90s, and We Are Pat dives headfirst into that complexity with more nuance than you might expect. It’s not a takedown and it’s not a victory lap. It’s something more interesting: a genuine reckoning with how comedy, identity, and culture intersect in ways that can be simultaneously harmful and liberating. Julia Sweeney’s willingness to participate gives the film a generosity that could have easily been missing, and the LGBTQ+ comedians who share their own complicated relationship with the character bring perspectives that are funny, raw, and illuminating. In a cultural moment defined by debates over representation and humor, this documentary feels both essential and refreshingly honest. Everything about it suggests a film that trusts its audience to hold two things at once
In-I in Motion
Juliette Binoche and choreographer Akram Khan agreed to teach one another their art form, live and on stage. She would learn to dance. He would learn to act. The result was In-I in Motion, and Binoche filmed all of it.
Dir. Juliette Binoche | France | 2025 | 124 min. | In French, English
Why it should be on your radar: There is something deeply moving about watching two masters of different disciplines push each other into uncomfortable, revelatory territory. Binoche is one of the finest actors alive, and Khan is among the world’s most acclaimed dancers, and what they create together in this performance promises to be rooted in mutual vulnerability and genuine creative risk. Binoche directing a film about her own artistic exposure alongside a world-class collaborator is the kind of project that can only come from real bravery. If you have any interest in the creative process, dance, the intersection of discipline and spontaneity, or simply what happens when extraordinary people agree to be beginners again, this is a rare and extraordinary film to experience on the big screen.
100 Liters of Gold
Two middle-aged sisters are legendary sahti-makers. Sahti is a strong Finnish beer brewed the same way for 500 years. Their younger sister asks them to brew it for her wedding. They make the best batch of their lives. Then they drink all of it.
Dir. Teemu Nikki | Finland, Italy, Denmark | 2024 | 88 min. | In Finnish
Why it should be on your radar: This is the kind of film that MSPIFF audiences live for, and frankly, the kind of film I live for. A raucous black comedy about sisters, tradition, obligation, and beer? That is a Friday night at the movies. The premise is deceptively simple, but Teemu Nikki mines it for every drop of comedy and heart. If you’re the type of Minnesotan who has strong opinions about home brewing and even stronger opinions about family obligations at weddings, this one has your name on it. It’s the rare festival film that feels like it was made specifically for a good time. Don’t overthink it. Just go.
Becoming Human
A ghost haunts a beloved, crumbling cinema. A journalist arrives to document the building before it’s demolished. The ghost is offered a chance at rebirth. But does she even want to be human again?
Dir. Polen Ly | Cambodia | 2025 | 99 min. | In Khmer
Why it should be on your radar: Polen Ly’s supernatural debut is one of those films that could only exist at a festival like MSPIFF. It’s not going to play at your local multiplex, and that’s precisely the point. What begins as a ghost story set in an old movie theater becomes a meditation on cinema itself, on memory, on the Cambodian genocide, and on whether the world we’re living in is worth coming back to. It’s challenging, it’s gorgeous, and it asks you to sit with something bigger than yourself. For the adventurous filmgoer who wants to go somewhere they’ve never been, both geographically and emotionally, Becoming Human is a must. This is why film festivals exist.
Hello Betty
In 1956, an advertising pioneer created a fictional character named Betty Bossi for a marketing campaign. The character became the most famous cook in Switzerland, a household name across generations. This is the true story of the woman behind the invention.
Dir. Pierre Monnard | Switzerland | 2025 | 110 min. | In Swiss German
Why it should be on your radar: If you’ve ever had a strong opinion about a cookbook, spent too long on a recipe blog, or felt a swell of pride watching someone’s clever idea take on a life of its own, Hello Betty is for you. Sarah Spale is wonderful as Emmi Creola, the real woman behind the cultural phenomenon, and the film strikes a warm balance between comedy and genuine emotional resonance. It’s a story about female ambition in an era that didn’t exactly encourage it, about the strange alchemy of marketing and culture, and about what happens when something you create outgrows you entirely. Think Joy meets Julie & Julia with a distinctly Swiss sensibility that Minnesota audiences will find completely charming. It’s the definition of a crowd-pleaser.
Renoir
In 1980s Japan, an 11-year-old girl is left largely on her own while her father dies of cancer and her mother works full-time. She writes stories, becomes obsessed with telepathy, and explores the world in ways that are equal parts wondrous and precarious.
Dir. Chie Hayakawa | Japan, France, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Qatar | 2025 | 118 min. | In Japanese
Why it should be on your radar: Chie Hayakawa’s debut Plan 75 was one of the most talked-about festival films of its year, a quietly devastating premise executed with extraordinary restraint. Renoir couldn’t be more different in setting and tone, but the same humanistic touch is there: a child navigating a world that isn’t built for her, finding beauty and wonder in the cracks while something enormous and terrible looms in the background. It’s the kind of quiet, deeply felt film that doesn’t announce itself with a trailer moment but stays with you for weeks afterward. Hayakawa has a rare gift for making everyday life feel both fragile and luminous. Come for the artistry, stay for the emotional wallop. This is what world cinema does best.
Carolina Caroline
A woman desperate to leave her small Texas town falls in with a charismatic con man, and together they weave a path of crime and passion across the American Southeast. Also starring Kyra Sedgwick, with a country music soundtrack featuring Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, and Loretta Lynn.
Dir. Adam Carter Rehmeier | USA | 2025 | 105 min. | In English
Why it should be on your radar: Sometimes you just want a movie that moves. Carolina Caroline is a romantic crime thriller with a killer soundtrack and a terrific lead performance from Samara Weaving, who has been on an absolute roll between Ready or Not and Borderline. It’s fun, it’s stylish, and it’s the kind of date-night movie that leaves you wanting to go for a long drive with the windows down and the music up. Kyle Gallner is magnetic as the con man, and the country soundtrack is not just background but practically a character in its own right. Country music fans, in particular, are going to eat this one up. It’s pure entertainment, and there’s a place for that at every festival.
Two Prosecutors
In the Soviet Union of the late 1930s, a young and idealistic prosecutor receives a letter written in blood on cardboaTrd from a detainee. He believes the man. That decision will cost him everything.
Dir. Sergei Loznitsa | France, Germany, Netherlands, Latvia, Ukraine, Romania, Lithuania | 2025 | 117 min. | In Russian
Why it should be on your radar: Sergei Loznitsa is one of the most important filmmakers working today, and Two Prosecutors is the kind of slow-burn political thriller that doubles as a parable for our times. The Kafkaesque atmosphere builds methodically, and the moral complexity of its central character — a true believer who discovers that believing is the most dangerous thing you can do — is riveting. If you’ve ever loved a film about systems grinding down the individual, from The Lives of Others to The Trial, this is essential viewing. The performances are brilliant, the tension is unrelenting, and the questions it raises about complicity, silence, and survival under authoritarian rule will follow you out of the theater and into your daily life. That’s not an accident.
ALREADY SEEN, ALREADY VOUCHING
I’ve had the privilege of catching several films on this year’s lineup already, and I can personally vouch for all of them.
Obsession is genuinely scary, the kind of horror film that gets under your skin and stays there.
Marama is spooky, moody, and very well done. Mary Stevens is a Maori teacher brought from New Zealand to the moors of 19th-century North Yorkshire. When her employer dies suddenly, she accepts what seems like a generous offer to work at a remote manor, only to uncover her host’s ulterior motives that threaten her very existence and expose the darkest sides of colonialism. Taratoa Stappard’s gothic horror debut is at once a terrifying ride and a razor-sharp critique of the British Empire’s underlying evil.
Nino features a striking lead performance from Théodore Pellerin in a Paris-set feature that packs an emotional punch.
The Last Viking is Oscar-winning director Anders Thomas Jensen’s newest black comedy, and it features Mads Mikkelsen in a tour-de-force comic performance. Anker is a robber freshly out of the slammer with a secret: he gave the loot to his brother Manfred to hide. One problem: Manfred has dissociative identity disorder, thinks he’s John Lennon, and doesn’t have a clue what Anker is talking about. It’s as wild as it sounds. [Review link]
The Travel Companion reminded me of one of those quirky NYC comedies from the late ’90s and early 2000s in the best way. Simon is an early-30s filmmaker living in New York with his roommate Bruce, who works for an airline. As Bruce’s dedicated “travel companion,” Simon gets to fly standby for free — an incredible perk for his sprawling, unfinished documentary about humanity. When Bruce falls for a fellow filmmaker named Beatrice, Simon begins to fear he’ll lose the flights, and his increasingly desperate attempts to hold onto them start to compromise the friendship itself. It’s sharp, funny, and surprisingly poignant.
And how could I forget? I’ve seen the new Steven Soderbergh film, The Christophers, starring Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel. It sort of fizzled at TIFF, but I think audiences in Minnesota will enjoy its appreciation of art and how human emotion changes our perspective when love and admiration cloud our vision one way or another.
Speaking of packing a punch, please consider checking out Robert Aramayo’s BAFTA-winning performance as Tourette’s Syndrome advocate John Davidson in I Swear. All of these are worth your time.
THE BOTTOM LINE
This list represents films I’m excited to see, but they are only a fraction of what MSPIFF45 has to offer. With over 200 films across twelve days, plus filmmaker Q&As, panels, and community events, the festival is the single best opportunity Minnesotans have all year to engage with world cinema in a communal setting. And the closing night film is one for the ages: Prince & The New Power Generation: Live at Glam Slam. Become a member of MSP Film Society today at mspfilm.org. The benefits start immediately and extend all year long. I’ll see you at The Main.