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 launches Thursday with its trademark mix of big Hollywood blockbusters and local features and shorts. This year the festival is maintaining its hybrid of live events and streaming — and not just because of the pandemic.

The fest opens with the biopic "The Electrical Life of Louis Wain," starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy as Victorian eccentrics clambering their way towards falling in love.

"Eh, good evening," says the somewhat awkward Louis Wain as he pushed the door into the bedroom of the governess he has just hired to educate the younger three of his five sisters.

"Eh - NO!" Miss Richardson responds in horror seeing him standing in the doorway. 

"Go away. Go away," states the governess.

"Yes. What?" stammers Wain, unsure of what he has done. "Why?"

"I don't... Yes! Of course! Sorry," he says backing away hesitantly, clearly confused.

"What are you doing, Mr. Wain?" she asks, her eye wide open in panic.

"What do you want me to... I don't understand..."

"Get OUT!" she yells. Finally, he gets it. 

“Right! Yes! Sorry! Of course. Sorry. I apologize!" he gasps as she slams the door in his face.

The film explores the power of love, Wain's unlikely theories about electricity and the international impact of his hugely popular drawings of anthropomorphized cats that brought felines being seen purely as agents of mouse control to family pets. It also delves into Victorian attitudes to mental health.

And Jatin Setia says the Twin Cities Film Fest rolls on from there. 

"We have 50 screenings in person at the ICON theatres and around 90 films online, including shorts and features," he said. 

As Fest founder and executive director, Setia can rattle off the stats.

"Some will exclusively be in theaters — a lot of the studio films, obviously. Some will exclusively be online. But a majority of them will be both: in-person and online."

The pandemic brought about this hybrid approach last year. But Setia says it really worked well, especially for filmmakers. 

"We had 30 different states participate in our festival in 2020, which was incredible. And these are all filmmakers coming in from across the country," he said.

So the festival will remain a hybrid into the future. Setia says he hopes film fans will take a break and that instead of binging a show on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon, they will binge stream the Twin Cities Film Fest during its run.

And he also hopes to get people in the seats at the ShowPlace ICON in St Louis Park. Setia says his programming staff work hard to convince studios to let them screen movies that will be Oscar contenders in a few months’ time. 

"Our audiences are very smart. So when we say our audiences are going to watch this movie, the studios know, 'Hey, the Minneapolis audience kind of know who is going to be up there from a nomination and winning standpoint.' So that's why we get the content."

This year, that includes the much anticipated new Wes Anderson comedy "The French Dispatch," featuring a slew of stars like Frances McDormand and Timothée Chalamet, whose characters meet in a hotel bathroom.

"Tear gas," she responds. "Also I suppose I'm sad."

"Please turn away," he responds. "I feel shy about my new muscles." 

The TCFF was first in Minnesota to screen best picture winners 

 This year Setia is betting on director Kenneth Branagh's drama “Belfast,” based on his own childhood growing up during the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, known as The Troubles.

"My Ma says if we went across the water, they wouldn't understand the way we talk," says the film's young protagonist.

"If they can't understand you," replies his grandfather, "Then they are not listening. You know who you are, don't you? You're Buddy from Belfast, where everybody knows you." 

"So that's our closing night film,” Setia said. "If you were to say, ‘Which one are you rolling the dice on?’ [“Belfast”] would be the one for me. We did that last year with 'Nomadland,' and 'Nomadland' of course won the best picture.”

Setia argues after the struggles of the last couple of years, film festivals are more important than ever as a place where people can gather, share an experience and then talk about it, sometimes with the film's director. He challenges people to watch just one of the fest's movies because, if they do, he believes they will certainly watch two and three and four. 

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The 12th iteration of the festival launches Thursday and combines pandemic lessons with established crowd-pleasers. 

The 12th Annual Twin Cities Film Fest launches Thursday with its trademark mix of big Hollywood blockbusters and local features and shorts. This year the festival is maintaining its hybrid of live events and streaming -- and not just because of the pandemic.



Twin Cities Film Fest 2021 takes on the hybrid mantle permanently

Rob Youngson/Focus Features

black and white. three actors on a movie set.

Courtesy Searchlight Pictures

Claire Foy and Benedict Cumberbatch outside with cats and an umbrella

Twin Cities Film Fest 2021 takes on the hybrid mantle permanently

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