From April 4 to April 11, the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF) was back in Minnesota for its 44th year as the region’s largest annual celebration of international cinema. This year, more than 200 films were shown with several notable events, including parties, panels, visits from filmmakers, and appearances from other special guests.

Behind the scenes, a significant amount of work goes into putting together an event with a large turnout. One of the organizers is ​​MSPIFF Media Manager Ethan Vander Broek. “I program all the short films… I whittle it down to 40 or 50 of them, and then I email the shorts filmmakers, and then I finally get to meet them and tell them how much I love their film when they come to visit,” he said.

“People seeing movies should be fun, you know? This is the joy of getting to go to the movies and seeing an audience in the crowd and people loving all the things going on,” Festival Operations Manager Nathan Hollis said.

Part of the allure of the festival is the sense of community it brings. “I love tagging along with people and seeing what people are interested in,” festival attendee Uditi Chandrashekhar said.

The festival also boasts films of many varieties. “[The film festival has] films with a different take than the typical Hollywood film, [like] the ending and the pace of the films… One of the first films I’ve ever seen was a Korean film where I didn’t really notice it, but it wasn’t until the last minute that there was speaking,” another festival attendee, Aaron Colhapp said. “It was just something fairly different.”

This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on May 8, 2025