As Minnesotans, it's in our DNA to appreciate a good potluck. Everything tastes just a little better when a community comes together to prepare a meal, one that encourages everyone to both contribute and consume something that speaks to them. That sentiment directly applies to that of a film festival, with eclectic flavors from all over the country (and world) coming together for a lively, unpredictable feast for the senses. Now celebrating its seventeenth year, the Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF) offers that to Minnesota cinephiles as it showcases over 100 feature films October 15th-24th.

Speaking of food, the festival kicks off with You Belong Here, featuring Chef Ouita Michel as she delves into universal human themes while celebrating the food, people, and places that are the fundamental ingredients of her community. Michel, as well as actor /producer Steve Zahn, will be in attendance for a pre-screening food tasting and post-screening conversation. Also screening on Opening Night is Wild Horse Nine, the newest dark comedy from writer/director Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, The Banshees of Inisherin). Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich star as a pair of CIA agents dispatched to Easter Island as they stage the 1973 Chilean coup.

Several other big studio dishes will make their Minnesota premieres, such as the Spotlight Film: Elsinore. Andrew Scott is a heavyweight Oscar contender for his performance of Ian Charleson in the tearjerker drama, which begins its theatrical rollout on Thanksgiving. Other awards hopefuls screening at the festival include La Bola Negra, the generation-spanning wartime gay romance from Los Javis; I Play Rocky, the biopic of how Sylvester Stallone poured his heart and soul into the making of Rocky; Club Kid, Jordan Firstman's Gen-Z comedy about a party promoter who unexpectedly finds out he has a son; and A Talent for Murder, a twisty thriller about a book editor who travels to Switzerland to convince famed author Patricia Highsmith to write another Ripley novel.

A good potluck always needs some local delicacies. More than one third of this year's selected films feature Minnesota-connected stories and filmmakers. One such film is A Month in Minnesota, a documentary about the fatal shootings by ICE agents earlier this year. Talent will be in attendance for nearly all of these screenings, offering audiences the chance to interact with their community in person and up on the big screen.

The festival also features HER Series, Changemaker Series, Black on Screen, and OUT Series. These sections put spotlights on often underrepresented demographics, with over 40% of the total festival selection featuring BIPOC voices. Overlapping in many of those sections is One In A Million, a PBS Frontline Features documentary chronicling one girl’s epic journey from Syria to Germany and back again. Alight, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian support for refugees, will be sponsoring the screening and conducting conversations afterwards.

All in-person screenings will take place at the Marcus West End Cinema and Edina Mann 4 Theatre, with a select number of films available to stream through the online festival platform. Tickets are still available for a number of screenings, which can be found at twincitiesfilmfest.org.