Happy Friday, everyone!! Autumn Equinox is coming next Tuesday 🍂 … and almost on cue, this year’s Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF) lineup just dropped!! TCFF unveiled its 2026 film slate Wednesday, with more than 110 movies set to both screen and stream October 15 – 24 in a hybrid format. The visual arts celebration, now celebrating its 17th anniversary, is set to return for in-person events and screenings at The Shops at West End’s Marcus West End Cinema and Edina Mann 4 Theatre at 50th and France. More than 60 films will simultaneously stream online via the TCFF STREAMS platform at TwinCitiesFilmFest.org.
OPENING NIGHT FILM
Opening the festival on Thursday, Oct. 15, is Searchlight Pictures’ film Wild Horse Nine, from Academy Award-winning writer/director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, The Banshees of Inisherin), starring John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey. The film tells the story of CIA agents Chris (Malkovich) and Lee (Rockwell) facing a trust-testing mission from Santiago to Easter Island during 1973 in Chile.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
This year’s closing night gala will be held on Saturday, Oct. 24, and will celebrate independent cinema with the feature Not Dead Yet. Ousted from his agency by a youth-obsessed culture, a veteran ad man teams up with a rebellious Hamptons senior breakfast club to launch a bold new venture, proving it’s never too late to rewrite your story and start a second act. The film stars a stellar cast, including Richard Kind, Paul Raci, and Tovah Fedshuh. Raci will be attending the screening for a post-film discussion.
Per Deadline, the film centers on Elliot Kelman (Kind), a 68-year-old creative director whose life is upended when he’s abruptly fired from his advertising agency. In an industry that no longer considers him hip or contemporary, Elliot refuses to fade quietly into irrelevance.
Retreating to the Hamptons with his wife Gina (Polly Draper), he joins a “Breakfast Club” of fellow seniors: Cy (Raci), a lifelong surfer and artist; soulful jazz DJ Ned Wednesday (Ed German); Mike (Bill Smitrovich), a blunt and hardworking local; and Paulette (Feldshuh), a spirited veteran actress. Together, they launch a business created by seniors for seniors, along with an unlikely viral advertising campaign that proves experience, ingenuity, and bold ideas never go out of style.
Other acclaimed entries in this year’s program:
MOVIES
- I Play Rocky, starring Anthony Ippolito, Matt Dillon, and Tracy Letts (Oct. 23, Amazon MGM Studios)
- Elsinore starring Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman (Oct. 22, Focus Features)
- La Bola Negra, starring Guitarricadelafuente (Oct. 23, Netflix)
- A Talent For Murder, starring Helen Mirren and Olivia Cooke (Oct. 24, Bleeker Street)
- Give Me The Ball!, starring Billie Jean King (Oct. 17, ESPN)
- Clarissa, starring David Oyelowo and Sophie Okonedo (Oct. 20, Neon)
- Josephine, starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan (Oct. 16, Sumerian Pictures)
- Hurricanna, starring Sylvia Hoeks, Holly Hunter, and Mark Duplass (Oct. 17, Magenta Light)
- Queen at Sea, starring Juliette Binoche and Tom Courtenay (Oct. 24, Greenwich Entertainment)
- Out of the Woods, starring Frances Fischer (Oct. 21)
SPECIAL SCREENINGS + CELEBRITIES IN ATTENDANCE
This year’s “TCFF Changemaker Series” will spotlight the “Refugee Experience” as the festival’s key social issue, featuring several screenings, including one of the spotlight films, “One in a Million,” directed by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes, on October 17. The film will be followed by an in-depth discussion featuring a local community partner organization: Alight.
Moonlight‘s 10th Anniversary 4k restored release with exclusive post-credit, behind-the-scenes insights from filmmaker Barry Jenkins and composer Nicholas Britell (Oct. 18, A24).
I had the privilege of seeing Moonlight at TCFF back in 2016, which ended up winning the Oscar for Best Picture the following year.✨
Actor Jeremy Swift (Ted Lasso), actress Natalie Gold (Succession), and filmmaker Sheryl Glubok will walk the red carpet for the indie-hit, Welcome To The Fishbowl (Oct 18).
Stay tuned for my list of must-see TCFF movies you can’t miss!