Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival

MSPIFF returns April 2-13 to The Main Cinema and other venues around the Twin Cities. As the largest annual celebration of international cinema in the region, MSPIFF44 promises another exciting lineup of 200+ films from around the world, plus an exciting array of parties, panels, visiting filmmakers, and special guests.

Film Schedule

April 6, 2025

Ang Lee in Conversation – MSPIFF44 Milgrom Tribute

90 min

Ang Lee in Conversation - MSPIFF44 Milgrom Tribute

Sunday, April 6

Doors: 3pm • Conversation: 4pm

DeLaSalle High School, 1 DeLaSalle Drive, Minneapolis

Join us for a conversation with filmmaker Ang Lee, recipient of the MSPIFF44 Milgrom Tribute, on his decades-spanning career and mastery of the craft of directing.

This in-person conversation will be moderated by Deirdre Haj, MSPIFF Advisory Council Member and Vice President of Art House Convergence.

The MSPIFF44 Milgrom Tribute, named in honor of MSP Film Society founder Al Milgrom, showcases artists whose talents put a distinctive stamp on every one of their films, who have been instrumental in promoting a higher regard for the art of cinema, and who have consistently made and continue to make critical waves at a global level. Taiwanese-born director Ang Lee, personifies this description.

Time: 4:00 pm

Venue: DeLaSalle High School

Brokeback Mountain

Dir. Ang Lee

134 min

20th Anniversary screening as part of the Milgrom Tribute to Ang Lee

Director Ang Lee will give an introduction to the film.

Celebrating 20 years in 2025 and winner of three Academy Awards®, including Best Director for Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain is a sweeping epic that explores the lives of two young men, a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy, who meet in the summer of 1963 and unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection. The complications, joys and heartbreak they experience provide a testament to the endurance and power of love. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal deliver emotionally charged, remarkably moving performances.

Time: 7:30 pm

Venue: The Main 1

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Dir. Ang Lee

120 min

Named one of the 10 best movies of the millennium by Time Magazine! Two master warriors (Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh) are faced with their greatest challenge when the treasured Green Destiny sword is stolen. A young aristocrat (Zhang Ziyi) prepares for an arranged marriage, but soon reveals her superior fighting talents and her deeply romantic past. As each warrior battles for justice, they come face to face with their worst enemy - and the inescapable, enduring power of love. Set against 19th-century China's breathtaking landscape, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the action-packed, box office smash from acclaimed director Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm) featuring stunning martial arts choreography by Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix). Winner of Four Academy Awards® including Best International Feature.

Time: 11:30 am

Venue: The Main 3

Everybody Loves Touda

Dir. Nabil Ayouch

102 min

Fiery and capricious, small-town chanteuse Touda (a tour-de-force performance by Nisrin Erradi, who made a striking debut in co-writer Maryam Touzani’s Adam) dreams of only one thing: being a Sheikha, a respected traditional Moroccan performer empowered by the lyrics of the fierce female poets who came before her, with their songs of resistance, love and emancipation. Tired of performing every evening in provincial bars under the lustful gaze of the watching men, Touda sets her sights on leaving her small village for the bright lights of Casablanca where she hopes to be recognized as a true artist and also secure a better future for her hearing-impaired son. Amidst a hypnotic soundscape of Moroccan music, newcomer Erradi portrays a vibrant woman and mother in a narrative pitched between musical and social issue drama. Despite their broken wings, Nabil Ayouch’s heroines always aspire to fly and to find freedom. –AS

Time: 5:00 pm

Venue: The Main 3

The Exiles

Dir. Belén Funes

110 min

Delia is a Chilean immigrant in Spain, whose sudden loss of her husband, Julian, has left her alone to raise her teenage daughter. When they face eviction, mother and daughter find themselves on different paths, in Belén Funes' moving sophomore feature about the contours of identity, loss and love.

Time: 7:20 pm

Venue: The Main 5

From Hilde, With Love

Dir. Andreas Dresen

124 min

A drama based on the lives of real members of the Red Orchestra, a band of young resisters to the Nazi regime, this stirring, poignant story of love during a time of war focuses on Hilde Coppi (Babylon Berlin star Liv Lisa Fries). In a fresh approach, director Andreas Dresen portrays the group as a bunch of attractive young people who hang out in parks in the summer, smoking and sitting around a fire, some dabbling in polyamory, almost as occupied with their own romantic lives as they are engaged with activism. Given the agonizing futility of most of their actions, the film plays as a memorial to their courage rather than their achievements, suggesting that it’s possible for legacy to lie in the attempt, rather than the outcome. From Hilde, With Love might be set almost 80 years ago, but the themes explored seem destined to remain eternally urgent and relevant. –AS

Time: 1:40 pm

Venue: The Main 5

The Fun-Raiser

Dir. Wyatt McDill

82 min

Filmmakers attending.

Carson and Crystal run a performing arts school where nothing seems to go right. Desperate to save the school and ensure their students have a creative future, they throw a fund-raiser to save the school, even flying in a celebrity from Hollywood to lure in the high-level donors. Despite everything going wrong, including fire, flood, and food poisoning, everyone is still going to have a great time… right?

Time: 7:35 pm

Venue: The Main 4

The Last Journey

Dir. Filip Hammar, Fredrik Wikingsson

91 min

Unfolding as a humorous and heartbreaking road movie, this highly relatable documentary is a tender portrait of the love that filmmaker Filip Hammar bears for his ailing 80-year-old father Lars. Hoping to rekindle the older man’s zest for life, Filip and his best friend/co-director Fredrik Wikingsson drive him to the French coastal town where they used to spend their holidays, but in the end, it’s the in-denial Filip who must come to grips with the indignities that aging brings and what time makes inevitable. Even if Lars will never again be the lively and energetic father that Filip idealizes, he still comes off as a wise and pragmatic soul. He’s a modest man with a good sense of humor whose sincere love for France and some of that country’s craziest foibles shines through. The film also serves as a tribute to teachers and an affirmation of how inspirational and memorable the good ones can be. –AS

Time: 4:30 pm

Venue: The Main 5

Mistura

Dir. Ricardo de Montreuil

97 min

In 1960’s Peru, Norma, a privileged French-Peruvian, finds her life unraveling after her husband’s betrayal ostracizes her from elite society. A journey of self-reflection and discovery leads her to embrace people from the very communities that she was raised to disregard. Alongside newfound alliances, she opens a restaurant in her home with a Nikkei chef, an indigenous cook, and an Afro-Peruvian driver. Together they reveal Peru’s authentic identity through a daring culinary venture that celebrates the country’s remarkably diverse cuisine and peoples.

Time: 4:40 pm

Venue: The Main 4

The Pinchers’ High Voltage Heist

Dir. Leif Lindbloom

90 min

Ture is a young misfit in a family of notorious thieves. With a burning desire to follow the law, the boy tries his best to convince his parents and sister to stop their shenanigans. Although the Pinchers prove that they can straighten up and follow the ‘right path’, they soon become bored and can’t seem to stop themselves from planning an elaborate museum heist. Caught in the middle is the family dog, who might not even be legit. What will it take to get his family to do the right thing? It appears that it might take 20,000 volts to get their attention. With fantastical and whimsical art direction and good-hearted characters, this fast-paced comedic crime thriller is an entertaining romp for audiences young and old. Based on a popular Swedish children’s book by Anders Sparring and Per Gustavsson. –DG

Age 8+

Time: 11:20 am

Venue: The Main 5

Samia

Dir. Yasemin Samdereli, Deka Mohamed

102 min

A biopic about Samia Yusuf Omar, the Somalian teenager who was determined to become an Olympic sprinter. Having lost her father and uncle to violence, and struggling against an oppressive society that didn’t believe women should be athletes, she trained in the ruins of Mogadishu and went to the 2008 Olympics at age 17.

Time: 4:45 pm

Venue: Edina Theatre

Shorts: The Company We Keep

92 min

Filmmakers attending.

Blue Check 19 min

dir: Nickolaus Swedlund, Robert Henry

After Elliot, an eighteen-year-old obsessed fan sneaks into his idol Lil Gouda's latest concert, he soon finds himself in over his head as he is pulled into Gouda's orbit. Elliot soon discovers Gouda's true colors, and he wants more.

Memory Mule 14 min

dir: Luis Adam Garcia

In the near future, the drug of choice is memories, or MEMS. Groomed to deal people’s memories, Mel pushes back against her, Hippo, who pressures her to sell the last good mems she has of her absent mother.

Such a Pretty Girl 6 min

dir: Deborah Puette

Meg has returned to her childhood home to help her aging father. But when her twelve-year-old discovers a long-forgotten relic from her past, Meg must decide in a matter of moments who she'll protect: her parent or her child.

Gorgeous 14 min

dir: Morgan Gould

Beth, a fat woman, is getting married in 36 hours and her mother hasn’t seen her dress. This might sound low stakes but honestly...weddings never are.

Belief 14 min 

dir: Christian Loubek

Alongside his wife and daughter, Lennox joyously unpacks their new home but is left speechless when he finds a letter in a moving box labelled 'mom' that predestines a different life for him – it’s not as he remembers.

Suzuki 24 min

dir: Jung-min Ahn

In the summer of 2009, the first Jisan Valley Rock Festival was held, and Blur reunited and Oasis disbanded. For Su-min, a middle school student living in the countryside, all this seems far away. And that summer, Suzuki disappeared.

Time: 11:10 am

Venue: The Main 2

Shorts: Youth Media Showcase

60 min

Experience the powerful voices and creative talents of high school youth in our community. Presented in partnership with the Twin Cities Youth Media Network (TCYMN), this screening of short films and videos represents young artists involved with In Progress, MIGIZI, Perpich Center for Arts Education, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), SPEAK MPLS, Studio Thirteen at FilmNorth, and other youth media arts programs.

The screening is followed by a Q&A with youth media makers and a reception celebrating the 25th anniversary of TCYMN.

The Star in the Cottonwood Tree

Diamond Valencia-Wiyaka

(MIGIZI)

A traditional Dakota story retold in multiple animated mediums.

Mirror Image

Zero McCoy

(FilmNorth)

A high school girl becomes obsessed writing a play for her senior year show.

Lunging Lily’s Rampage

Eli Mau and Emma Fuller

(SPNN/Focus Beyond Transitions)

An unsuspecting educator encounters a chilling fright in a youth lab.

Sk8

Margot McCabe

(Perpich Center for Arts Education)

The story of a teen and her love for her local skate park.

Blankspace

Thomas Edmund Thro

(Perpich Center for Arts Education)

Finding a Playstation in the woods brings a man to an entire new reality.

Grandiose Abstractus

Sebastian Roberto Marquez

(Perpich Center for Arts Education)

Experimentation with abstract graphics, cinematography, and music.

Where’d Johnny Go?

Milo Crane

(Perpich Center for Arts Education)

A music video about the misadventures of a bounty hunter named Johnny.

Who Took My Sandwich?

Daniel Kevin Short

(Mahtomedi High School)

When a grizzled detective must locate his missing lunch, a stylish film noir unfolds.

pooling all the memories together

Ty Vue

(In Progress)

Collected memories of a youthful summer at a public swimming pool, as shared by the filmmaker’s father.

The Game Dev’s Guide to Procrastination

Henry Jennings

(SPEAK MPLS)

Experience the suspenseful ups and downs of designing and creating a game under pressure.

Youth for Blue

Kate Mandujano, Debra Gbidi, Ciana Bates

(SPEAK MPLS)

Leading up to the election, a point-in-time portrait captures the growing political awareness and importance of young and future voters of 2024.

A Love Letter To The Human Spirit

Halimah Abdullah

(SPEAK MPLS)

A personal and transcendent exploration of the human spirit and what is created when a community comes together.

Time: 12:45 pm

Venue: The Main 1

Buy Tickets

Date: April 2 - 13, 2025