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 11, 2025

Assembly

Dir. Rashaad Newsome, Johnny Symons

99 min

Visionary artist Rashaad Newsome has always been on the cutting edge, eluding nearly every label, as he creates incredible works of multidisciplinary art. With a group of diverse artists, performers and collaborators (including a non-binary AI named Being), he transforms a former military armory into a utopian dream.

Time: 2:20 pm

Venue: The Main 4

Folktales

Dir. Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady

106 min

Director Rachel Grady attending.

At a Norwegian Folk School located 800 miles north of the Arctic Circle, teenagers learn survival skills in one of the harshest environments on Earth. There they navigate the path to adulthood by learning survival skills while forging relationships with their teachers, peers, and the beautiful pack of sled dogs under their care.

Time: 7:00 pm

Venue: The Main 2

Predators

Dir. David Osit

96 min

Director David Osit’s scathing and empathetic investigation of the controversial show To Catch a Predator, looking at its history, its rise, and its legacy. This often bizarre and sanctimonious television show was ostensibly designed to entrap child predators, but the result was often exploitative, and culminated in tragedy.

Time: 9:35 pm

Venue: The Main 4

Ricky

Dir. Rashad Frett

112 min

30-year-old Ricky has been in prison half his life. Newly released, and having been locked up from age 15, he navigates post-incarceration back at home in East Hartford, Connecticut. Rashad Frett’s stunning and compassionate debut feature won the best directing award at the Sundance Film Festival and showcases a dynamic performance from Stephan James as Ricky.

Time: 7:00 pm

Venue: Capri Theater

Shorts: We Can Be Heroes

88 min

Filmmakers attending.

They Call Me The Tattoo Witch 15 min

dir: Lindsay Nyman

A tattoo artist uses her rare skills in covering scars to empower her clients to reclaim their bodies.

Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens 9 min

dir: Kristal Sotomayor

A striking portrait of memory and belonging for the matriarch of drag queens.

Livestreams with GrandmaPuzzles 6 min

dir: Emily Sheskin

Grandma goes viral with a lifelong hobby that soon becomes a lifeline.

How To Care 23 min

dir: Brennan Vance

A team of amazing caretakers demonstrate the joys, demands, and uncertain future of direct care work.

Get Your Line in and Pray 5 min

dir: Jackson Adams

10,000 people descend on Brainerd, MN to compete in the world’s largest charitable ice fishing competition.

My Back Pages 10 min

dir: Nick Canfield & Paul Lovelace

The world’s foremost collector of Bob Dylan memorabilia donates his life’s work to the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, OK.

dir: Adidas Owns The Reality 22 min

Keil Orion Troisi, Igor Vamos

Prankster activists The Yes Men Take on Adidas with an elaborate hoax to stage a runway show during Fashion Week.

Time: 4:30 pm

Venue: The Main 2

Sons

Dir. Gustav Möller

95 min

A superbly acted, atmospheric prison drama from the director of The Guilty. Eva (a sensational Sidse Babett Knudsen), an idealistic prison officer, is faced with the dilemma of her life when a young man from her past gets transferred to the prison where she works. Without revealing her secret, Eva asks to be moved to the young man’s ward–the toughest and most violent in the prison. Here begins an unsettling psychological thriller, where Eva’s sense of justice puts both her morality and future at stake. Sons is a tough, taut character study of a woman driven, against all better judgement, to increasingly reckless and dangerous acts. Knudsen’s performance reveals a more unpredictable side of the star, who gives an at-times feral turn fueled by rage and regret. –AS

Time: 11:45 am

Venue: The Main 4

The Village Next to Paradise

Dir. Mo Harawe

133 min

In a windy Somali village, a newly assembled family must navigate between their different aspirations and the complex world surrounding them. Mamargade is a jack-of-all-trades in Paradise, a town in the war-torn Somali countryside. With his son, Cigaal, and sister, Araweelo, he’s trying to make ends meet in a country rife with violence and uncertainty. Mo Harawe’s debut feature was the first Somali film to be an official selection at Cannes.

Time: 6:45 pm

Venue: The Main 1

Went Up the Hill

Dir. Samuel Van Grinsven

99 min

When his mother’s widow, Jill, calls Jack to attend her wake in remote New Zealand, he agrees reluctantly. Troubled that his mother, Elizabeth, abandoned him as a child, he arrives with trepidation, and when Jill tells him that she did not, in fact, call him, the pair soon realize that Elizabeth is haunting them both, literally and figuratively.

Time: 9:50 pm

Venue: The Main 2

Yen and Ai-Lee

Dir. Tom Shu-yu Lin

107 min

Yen is a young woman who murdered her abusive father. She’s back from prison and moves in with Ai-Lee, her mother, who has a new boyfriend who isn’t much better. When a mysterious little boy, the son of her dead father’s mistress, arrives on the scene, life changes for these two damaged women.

Time: 11:30 am

Venue: The Main 3

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Date: April 2 - 13, 2025