ALEXANDER PAYNE’S ACCLAIMED COMEDY ‘THE HOLDOVERS’ TO KICK OFF TWIN CITIES FILM FEST NEXT MONTH

More than 140 movies set to screen and stream in St. Louis Park Oct. 19-28. ‘Downtown Owl,’ partially filmed in St. Paul, named official Closing Night Selection. Oscar nominee Terrence Howard to appear final weekend for special spotlight conversation. All weekday matinees to be free during the festival as TCFF organizers promote accessibility.

Minneapolis (September 21, 2023) — Today, the Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF) unveils its complete 2023 film catalog, revealing more than 140 movies (features and shorts) that will screen Oct. 19-28 in a hybrid format. Now in its 14th year, the festival returns to the Showplace ICON Theaters and Kitchen at The Shops at West End, programming over 90 screening opportunities to engage with the world of film today. More than 50 films will simultaneously debut online via the TCFF STREAMS platform at twincitiesfilmfest.org.

Widely known for balancing awards contenders and audience favorites from top festivals and movie studios with new breakthrough visions from Minnesota and National filmmakers, TCFF
organizers said the nonprofit approached programming this year with a renewed focus on representation and inclusion. This year’s audiences will experience an eclectic and critically
acclaimed mix of independent features, short films and provocative documentaries, a majority of which align with special TCFF sidebars (“Empower,” “Black on Screen,” “LGBTQ+,” “Her”) showcasing diverse filmmakers, characters, and points of view.

This year’s “Changemaker Series” will spotlight projects confronting the urgent issue of healthcare disparities in America; the 2023 Changemaker Award will be bestowed to Dr. Yeng Yang – MD, a
practitioner at HealthPartners who has dedicated herself to closing health care disparity gaps, and teaching colleagues how to recognize and reduce unconscious or implicit bias.

“It’s been a decade now, since we lost Roger Ebert, but he said it best — that ‘film is an empathy machine, empowering a viewer to walk in another’s shoes,’” said TCFF Executive Director Jatin Setia. “Our 2023 program was constructed explicitly with that empathy in mind, to showcase as many different kinds of characters, perspectives, worldviews, challenges and realities as possible.

To use the raw power of cinema to help audiences see, connect with, and relate to others who they might not otherwise fully understand.”

Focus Features’ comedy, The Holdovers, starring Paul Giamatti and directed by Alexander Payne, opens the festival on Thursday, Oct. 19, telling the story of a cantankerous prep schoolteacher who forges a bond with a troubled student who remains on campus during the Christmas break. The film will be preceded by a MN film spotlighting local chefs in Stories Behind The Menu.

This year’s closing night gala will be held on Saturday, Oct. 28, and will celebrate Sony Pictures’ Downtown Owl, a drama based on the 2008 Chuck Klosterman novel and partially filmed in St. Paul,
directed by Lily Rabe and starring Ed Harris and Vanessa Hudgens, telling the story of three citizens in a fictional North Dakota city as they navigate small-town life leading up to a massive blizzard.

Between those tentpoles, TCFF’s 2023 Centerpiece will be Amazon Studios’ Foe, a new science- fiction psychological thriller set to screen Oct. 23 that stars Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal and is
directed by Garth Davis.

Oscar nominee Terrence Howard will be the recipient of this year’s TCFF Indie Vision Legacy Award and will appear during the festival’s final weekend, with his new film ‘Showdown at the Grand,’ (Oct 27), as well as a special “In Conversation” spotlight event on Saturday, Oct. 28.

Other widely hailed entries in this year’s program: A Little Prayer (Oct. 24), All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Oct. 21), All of Us Strangers (Oct. 21), Fingernails (Oct. 20), The First Class (Oct. 21), Housekeeping For Beginners (Oct. 25), The Stones and Brian Jones (Oct. 22), Suitable Flesh (Oct. 21), The Taste of Things (Oct. 22), The Teachers’ Lounge (Oct. 23) and V/H/S 85 (Oct. 20).

TICKETS
Festival passes are now available for purchase online at twincitiesfilmfest.org. A Streaming Pass is available for $55, Silver Pass for $55, Gold Pass for $80, and a Hybrid Pass for $165.
Tickets to individual screenings will become available on Friday, Sept. 29. Having inclusion top of mind, all weekday matinee films (25+), along with a few non-matinee films, will be available to view for free.
Ticket prices range from $9 online to $12 in-person. Opening and Closing films will be $20.

INFORMATION
To learn more about the lineup, please visit twincitiesfilmfest.org.

ABOUT TWIN CITIES FILM FEST
Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF) is a Minneapolis-based 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization founded by Executive Director, Jatin Setia. We change perspectives, transform lives, and strengthen our communities by supporting and spurring on the art of filmmaking. TCFF’s vision is to cultivate immersive experiences that amplify communities of creation, celebration, and change. To learn more about TCFF, events, film submissions or to donate, visit twincitiesfilmfest.org.

ABOUT KERASOTES SHOWPLACE ICON THEATRE & KITCHEN
With its rich 114-year legacy of innovating and enhancing the cinema experience, ShowPlace ICON Theatre & Kitchen continues to redefine state-of-the-art entertainment offering restaurant-quality food and beverage, a full bar, industry-leading consumer technologies, and fully immersive audio/visual movie presentations, including their exclusive premium large format ICONX experience. St. Louis Park ShowPlace ICON Theatre & Kitchen is an entertainment
destination that includes all reserved seating which includes two upper-level VIP seating sections, wall-to-wall screens, Dolby Atmos sound and all-laser projection.

ABOUT THE SHOPS AT WEST END
The Shops at West End is an exciting mixed-use development located in the highly affluent suburb of St. Louis Park, just minutes from downtown Minneapolis. Located at the intersection of I-394 & 100, The Shops at West End features restaurants such as CRAVE and THE LOCAL, and various retailers. For a complete list of West End tenants, please visit TheShopsAtWestEnd.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS
Chad Olson, Nemer Fieger, colson@nemerfieger.com, 952-240-4982
Molly Mulvehill Steinke, Nemer Fieger, molly@nemerfieger.com, 612-309-1677

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2023 Twin Cities Film Festival

Film + Director(s)
2020 Chaos and Hope, June Beallor
A Binding Truth, Louise Woehrle
A Crack in the Mountain, Alastair Evans
A Disturbance in the Force, Jeremy Coon & Steve Kozak
A Little Prayer, Angus MacLachlan
A View of the World from Fifth Avenue, Fiona Robert
A Winter Love, Rhiana Yazzie
A Woman on the Outside, Zara Katz & Lisa Riordan Seville
Abroad, Giovanni Fumu
Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun, Banchi Hanuse
Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out, Jake Van Wagoner
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Raven Jackson
All of Us Strangers, Andrew Haigh
Arise Firebird, Jimi Okubanjo
Art + Medicine: Speaking of Race, Brittany Shrimpton
Big Boys, Corey Sherman

Birthing Justice, Monique N. Matthews
Black Barbie, Lagueria Davis
Boys at Twenty, Isaac Dell
Break the Game, Jane M. Wagner
Category: Woman, Phyllis Ellis
Chestnut, Jac Cron
Covid Confessions, Alec Fischer
Culture Quest: Ukraine, Ian Grant
DancingDADS, Oliver Oertel
Daruma, Alexander Yellen
Dealing With Dad, Tom Huang
Deep Rising, Matthieu Rytz
Downtown Owl, Lily Rabe, Hamish Linklater
Edge of insanity, Barry Andersson
Escaping Ohio, Jessica Michael Davis
Fingernails, Christos Nikou
FOE, Garth Davis
Ghosts of the Void, Jason Miller
Golden Delicious, Jason Karman
Greener Pastures, Samuel-Ali Mirpoorian
Hello in Here, Casey McAdams
Hiding Places, Brad Barnes
Housekeeping For Beginners, Goran Stolevski
Hundreds of Beavers, Mike Cheslik
I Like Movies, Chandler Levack
I Lost My Mom, Denys Desjardins
Imagining The Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting, Ben West (Cheyenne) and Aviva Kempner
In Our Own Hands: How Patients Are Reinventing Medicine, Elizabeth Horn

Incompleteness, Part 2, Dave Ash
InHospitable, Sandra C. Alvarez
Jess Plus None, Mandy Fabian
Jonah, Ben Van Kleek
King Coal, Elaine McMillion Sheldon
Know Your Place, Zia Mohajerjasbi
Locked Out, Kate Davis, Luchina Fisher
Loren & Rose, Russell Brown
Losing Grip, Steven Nye
Mariposas del Campo, Bill Yahraus
Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory, Justinsuperstar
Money & Medicine, Roger Weisberg
Mosaic, Michelle Falcon Fontanez
My Indian Name, Abraham Cote
My Partner, Keli’i Grace
No Right Way, Chelsea Bo
Oyate, Brandon Jackson, Emil Benjamin
Patrick and the Whale, Mark Fletcher
Plan C, Tracy Droz Tragos
Playing Sam, Ramon Pesante
Power To Heal, Charles Burnett & Daniel Loewenthal
Powerlands, Ivey-Camille Manybeads Tso
Rustic Oracle, Sonia Bonspille Boileau
Scrap, Vivian Kerr
Show Her The Money, Ky Dickens
Showdown at the Grand, Orson Oblowitz
Skilled, Julio Palacio
Still working 9 to 5, Gary Lane and Camille Hardman

Stories Behind the Menu, Amanda Brinkman & Matt Naylor
Suitable Flesh, Joe Lynch
Summer Solstice, Noah Schamus
The Cure for Hate, Peter Hutchison
The First Class, Lee Hirsch
The Holdovers, Alexander Payne
The Juneteenth Story: From Galveston, TX to Minnesota, Monique Linder
The Last Movie Ever Made, Nathan Blackwell
The Nana Project, Robin Givens
The Oil Machine, Emma Davie
The Only Doctor, Matthew Hashiguchi
The Stones and Brian Jones, Nick Broomfield
The Taste of Things, Anh Hung Tran
The Teachers’ Lounge, Ilker Catak
The Waiting Room, Peter Nicks
The Wind & The Reckoning, David L. Cunningham
This Time, Sebastien Tobler
This World is Not My Own, Petter Ringbom and Marquise Stillwe
TikTok, Boom, Shalini Kantayya
Translators, Rudy Valdez
VHS/85, Mike P. Nelson + Others
Voice of Shadows, Nick Bain
We Are Still Here, Multiple Directors
Who Cares: A Nurse’s Fight for Equity, Jordan Fein
Year of the Fox, Megan Griffiths
ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak), ᎤᎶᎩᎳ / Schon Duncan & Michael McDermit