Starts April 26 - One Week Only

45th Anniversary Re-Release

In celebration of the 45th anniversary of Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror masterpiece Alien, the film returns to theaters for a limited time on April 26, known worldwide as Alien Day.

One of the most influential sci-fi/horror films of all time, Alien, which was released in June 1979 and won an Oscar® for best visual effects, stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It is the terrifying tale of a crew aboard a commercial spacecraft that lands on an alien planet to investigate a mysterious transmission of unknown origin and encounters the deadliest lifeform in the universe. Alien is directed by Ridley Scot, with a screenplay by Dan O’Bannon and a story by Ronald Shusett, and the producers are Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill.

A Brussels high school literature instructor tries to inculcate a love of reading and freedom of expression as well as a sense of cohesion amongst her diverse class, but some of the students come from a fundamentalist background. –Alissa Simon

Itto is a pregnant woman from a modest background, married to an extremely wealthy man in Morocco. When he travels for business, she’s able to stop putting on airs–but when nationwide mysterious phenomena arise, will Itto adapt or succumb?

It’s the dream of a lifetime–Sandra and Daniel are burgeoning actors making a film with a top-shelf director. But when they begin an intimate scene and Daniel crosses a line, no one will ever be the same.

Starts April 26

MSPIFF43 Official Selection

The year is 2044: artificial intelligence controls all facets of a stoic society as humans routinely "erase" their feelings. Hoping to eliminate pain caused by their past-life romances, Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) continually falls in love with different incarnations of Louis (George MacKay). Set first in Belle Époque-era Paris, Louis is a British man who woos her away from a cold husband, then in early 21st Century Los Angeles, he is a disturbed American bent on delivering violent "retribution." Will the process allow Gabrielle to fully connect with Louis in the present, or are the two doomed to repeat their previous fates? Visually audacious director Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent, Nocturama) fashions his most accomplished film to date: a sci-fi epic, inspired by Henry James’ turn-of-the-century novella, suffused with mounting dread and a haunting sense of mystery. Punctuated by a career-defini

The director of the festival favorite The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner completes his trilogy on social problems and moral ills in contemporary Bulgaria with this cautionary drama about an older woman duped by a telephone scam aimed at the country’s pensioners. –Alissa Simon

Based on the life of Mauricio Aznar, an enigmatic Spanish rock musician who, fatigued by his own music, traveled to Latin America for inspiration. There, he met Don Carlos, who rekindled his love for music with his unconventional style. 

A wacky comedy that pokes fun at the multilingual Swiss. When a referendum leaves the country with only one national language, French, it catalyzes a crisis among the German and Italian speakers. –Alissa Simon

In the 1960s and 70s, Anita Pallenberg was a style icon, actress, and muse. Using her unpublished memoir as a basis, this brilliant documentary shows her impact on The Rolling Stones, cinema, fashion, and reveals a woman ahead of her time.

Ze is a typical high-school student–confused, troubled and rebellious–but he is also the village shaman. When Ze helps a teenage girl during a ceremony, he falls in love, which threatens his shamanic path.

Claire returns to Iceland on a solo trip, intending to confront her past and tend to a difficult task. There she meets Iris, a young, irreverent, somewhat irresponsible hitchhiker, and together they forge a bond neither will soon forget. Minnesota filmmaker Lynn Lukkas’ debut feature is a moving portrait of self-discovery and healing.

Years before the first Women’s World Cup in 1991 was COPA 71: a hundred thousand people packed into Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium to watch the world’s finest female soccer players compete for the world title, an event lost to history. Until now.

Radu Jude’s bizarre and radical film sees Angela juggling two jobs: the first as a film production assistant, and the second as her infamous face-filtered, foul-mouthed, misogynistic TikTok alter ego Bobita–an act of defiance that punches with anger, poise and absurdity. 

Takumi is a single dad to his daughter, Hana. Life is hard in their village but peaceful. However, when a Tokyo company descends on the village with the intent of building a “glamping” resort, the village will never be the same, with potentially devastating results. 

Starts May 2

He’s a stuntman, and like everyone in the stunt community, he gets blown up, shot, crashed, thrown through windows and dropped from the highest of heights, all for our entertainment. And now, fresh off an almost career-ending accident, this working-class hero has to track down a missing movie star, solve a conspiracy and try to win back the love of his life while still doing his day job. What could possibly go right?

From real life stunt man and director David Leitch, the blockbuster director of Bullet Train, Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw and the producer of John Wick, Nobody and Violent Night, comes his most personal film yet. A new hilarious, hard-driving, all-star apex-action thriller and love letter to action movies and the hard-working and under-appreciated crew of people who make them: The Fall Guy.

Oscar® nominee Ryan Gosling

Known as “the Fishing Hat Bandit” when he robbed 23 banks in Minnesota over 18 months in the early 2000s, John Whitrock’s story unfolds in utterly surprising ways in director Mark Brown’s riveting documentary.

When Vera was young, she gave up her baby for adoption. Now, years later, she navigates Spain’s callous bureaucracy trying to find her biological son. Víctor Iriarte's visionary debut feature is a mysterious neo-noir experience.

Closing Night Film. When melancholic construction worker Dan finds himself drifting from his wife and daughter, he unwittingly joins a local theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet, where he discovers community and purpose. As the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life, he and his family are forced to confront a personal loss.

Mira is a star student at a strict boarding school who falls in love with a charming new boy. As the two start spending more time together, Mira’s mother, herself a bit repressed and jealous of the warm friendship the two have, also falls for the boy’s charisma. 

In fashion circles, the name John Galliano is fraught with contrasts: one of the highest profile fashion designers, an icon of British culture, and a man whose antisemitic outburst brought it all down. 

Holly skips high school on the day a fire breaks out, killing classmates. When she attends a support group and almost magically helps the grieving, the townspeople begin to demand more and more, driving her to the edge of madness.

Starts May 16

Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack. 

Based on the acclaimed, contemporary love story of the same name, The Idea of You centers on Solène (Anne Hathaway), a 40-year-old single mom who begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet. 

Opens April 26

About the film

Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means redemption from work and the dream of easy wealth. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. To find her, Arthur challenges the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth - in search of the door to the afterlife of which myths speak.

In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of these characters unfold, all in search of the Chimera.

The origin story of Lady Camden, the drag persona of Rex Wheeler, as they navigate the fame of being on RuPaul’s Drag Race and confront the ghosts of childhood trauma.

Ray is a sad sack whose wife is having an affair. So, he decides to kill himself, but he’s confused for a hitman. OK, he’ll do the job. Soon, bodies pile up, accusations fly, and Ray is in deep trouble.

When she was young, Brenda was taken from her Aboriginal family and placed in a white one, where she lived, and was loved, for five years. Then, just as suddenly, she was returned, but the emotional toll resonates for years.

Laurel Massé, founding member of The Manhattan Transfer, dedicated her life to her music in an industry that saw her as a product to be discarded. Yet she has endured to craft a decades-long career that has delighted millions.

When a well-meaning doctor is chosen as an interim mayor in a Parisian suburb, and finds himself confronting a brave activist fighting for immigration rights (and herself running for mayor), his overreaction may destroy lives in Ladj Ly’s incendiary film.

This taut 19th century thriller, crackling with tension, pits smart but stubborn young heiress Maud against her scheming guardian Uncle Silas, his odious son, spoiled daughter and daughter’s sinister governess. –Alissa Simon

Starts April 26

MSPIFF43 Official Selection

Jaded police detective Travis (Simon Baker) arrives in the remote Australian Outback town of Limbo to investigate the cold case murder of a local Indigenous girl 20 years ago. As truths about the crime begin to unfold, Travis gains new insight into the unsolved case from the victim’s fractured family, the surviving witnesses, and the reclusive brother of the chief suspect. Shot in starkly beautiful black and white, Limbo is a penetrating modern noir and a poignant, intimate journey into the complexities of loss. Writer-director Ivan Sen, one of Australia’s foremost Indigenous filmmakers, deftly wields the police procedural to chart the impact of the justice system on Indigenous families in Australia.

The Mahroofs are Pakistani émigrés to East Oslo who don’t quite fit in. Based on the popular novel by Gulraiz Sharif, it’s bold and angry, charming and generous, and always full of love. –Alissa Simon

Emiliano is obsessed with finding his missing mother–an activist who vanished while protesting a local mine. When Emiliano starts digging to get to the bottom of this mystery, he finds a wealthy family that he thinks holds the key to his mother’s disappearance. His revenge, misguided or not, is exacted with plenty of collateral damage.

This social-issues thriller asks the question “What price, survival?” as Eritrean fugitive Almaz (Meninet Abraha Teferi) arrives in Italy on a boat of refugees. As in director Espinosa’s best films, Madame Luna finds the humanity in morally compromised characters. –Alissa Simon

In the heart of Riyadh, Fahad Algadaani's gripping journey from a struggling delivery man to the depths of a city's underworld, as he battles to save his father amidst desperation and opportunity.

Midnight Mayhem: Saturday, June 1 at 10:00 PM | The Main Cinema

Based on the best-selling adult comic by Germany's Ralf König and featuring special effects by notorious splatter master Jörg Buttgereit and creative consulting from the legendary H. R. Giger, Martin Walz's Killer Condom is a delirious queer horror comedy, newly restored to its unseen original director's cut.

Midnight Mayhem: Saturday, May 4 at 10:00 PM | The Main Cinema

Dalton (Patrick Swayze) is a true gentleman with a degree in philosophy from NYU. He also has a flip side - he's the best bar bouncer in the business. When Dalton's brought in to clean up a popular establishment that become particularly rowdy, his calm is put to the test by the town bully, in this throwback to the great westerns of the 40's and 50's.

Comedian and disruptor-extraordinaire Lizz Winstead is angry–and she’s got good reason to be. With the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, she and her group Abortion Access Front are rolling up their sleeves and taking the fight to the streets to secure abortion freedoms across the US.

Starts April 26

MSPIFF43 Official Selection

The Old Oak is the last pub standing in a once thriving mining village in northern England, a gathering space for a community that has fallen on hard times. There is growing anger, resentment, and a lack of hope among the residents, but the pub and its proprietor TJ are a fond presence to their customers. When a group of Syrian refugees move into the floundering village, a decisive rift fueled by prejudices develops between the community and its newest inhabitants. The formation of an unexpected friendship between TJ and a young Syrian woman named Yara opens up new possibilities for the divided village in this deeply moving drama about loss, fear, and the difficulty of finding hope.

The release of The Old Oak reunites legendary British director Ken Loach with Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber following our 2020 release of his film Sorry We Missed You. Loach, who is 87 years old,

Screening + Discussion • May 14 at 7:00pm

Post Film Discussion Speakers:
Rev. Leonard Freeman: Leonard Freeman, a veteran religious journalist, parish priest, and former head of communications for Washington National Cathedral and Trinity Church Wall Street, was the primary national church reporter for the Philadelphia 11 ordinations. He was also part of the national church communications team covering the 1976 General Convention that approved women’s ordination to the priesthood. He and Allison Cheek were classmates at Virginia Seminary.

Rev. Katherine Lewis: Katherine was ordained in 1996 and has served congregations in the Diocese of Southern Ohio and the Episcopal Church in Minnesota. She is currently the rector of St. David's in Minnetonka and is the Regional Dean for the Central and West Twin Cities metro areas. A vivid childhood memory of Katherine's was witnessing the protest of the ordination of a

Teresa lives in terrified seclusion. Needing a change, she retreats to her family’s rural estate, driving there in an armored car. When the exploited farm workers are pushed too far, they rise up, and she’s trapped in the vehicle. 

Azra is constantly at odds with her conservative mother. A lesbian, Azra just tries to get along, but when her beloved father suddenly dies, her grief plunges her into a Bollywood-style examination of her family’s past and present. 

Maria is a midwife, who finds herself on the wrong side of the law in Franco’s Spain, so she flees to Portugal by boat and on foot. Risking her life she makes a decision that will change her life forever.

Special Screening with Director Margreth Olin Sunday, May 19 • Opens May 31

MSPIFF43 Official Selection

About the film

With the dizzyingly beautiful mountain landscapes of Western Norway’s Oldedalen Valley as a monumental backdrop, documentary maker Margareth Olin’s 84-year-old father is our guide to the place where his family has lived side-by-side with nature for generations. Olin’s goal is to spend time with her father, walking in his footsteps and trying to understand him. It’s an exercise that he tells her will require a full year, making the four seasons a convenient structuring element for the documentary. As they walk, he tells his daughter stories of deadly avalanches, multiple weddings and his 55-year marriage to her mother. Meanwhile, the camera soars over fjords and frozen lakes, tree-lined hills and ancient glaciers. Made for the big screen, the film, like a zen koan, is an experiential meditation that washes over its view

Starts May 3

25th Anniversary Re-Release

Experience the heroic action and unforgettable adventures of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. See the first fateful steps in the journey of Anakin Skywalker. Stranded on the desert planet Tatooine after rescuing young Queen Amidala from the impending invasion of Naboo, Jedi apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn discover nine-year-old Anakin, who is unusually strong in the Force. Anakin wins a thrilling Podrace and with it his freedom as he leaves his home to be trained as a Jedi. The heroes return to Naboo where Anakin and the Queen face massive invasion forces while the two Jedi contend with a deadly foe named Darth Maul. Only then do they realize the invasion is merely the first step in a sinister scheme by the re- emergent forces of darkness known as the Sith.

An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve. A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life – Sugarcane, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie – is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning.

Inspired by ghazal, a style of Persian poetry, Terrestrial Verses collects interviews with people from Iran as they navigate the perplexing bureaucracy that penetrates everyday life. From birth to death, these citizens try desperately, often with humor, to endure. 

Ana Bauch is a literature teacher in a small (and repressed) Hungarian town. When one of her students is caught watching a film she recommended, about the love affair between Rimbaud and Verlaine, the repercussions are calamitous.

Starts May 3

Screenings include a post-film recorded Q&A with Jeanie Finlay and Aubrey Gordon.

Acclaimed director Jeanie Finlay charts the rise of Aubrey Gordon. Shot over six years we see Aubrey go from anonymous blogger Yrfatfriend to NY Times bestseller and beloved podcaster with an audience of millions.

Her aim? A paradigm shift in the way that we view fat people and the fat on our own bodies. The world may be listening but her family have a way to go in understanding her work.

A film about fatness, family, the complexities of change and the messy feelings we hold about our bodies.