MSP Film Society will turn St. Anthony Main multiplex into a center for world cinema

It's taking over the 5-screen theater on the downtown Minneapolis riverfront.

December 22, 2021 at 12:00PM
Susan Smoluchowski, executive director of MSP Film Society, at the St. Anthony Main Theater in Minneapolis. (Renee Jones Schneider, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Think of it as the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF) all year-round, instead of just a few weeks each spring.

MSP Film Society, which currently programs one or two of the five auditoriums at St. Anthony Main Theatre in downtown Minneapolis, will take over the whole place next year. Programming, currently including "Nightmare Alley," will continue through Jan. 3, when the theater will close for several months of "refreshing and relaunching."

The Mississippi River-adjacent multiplex will reopen as MSP Film at The Main in time for the 41st annual MSPIFF, March 31-April 14. After MSPIFF ends, the plan is to continue with the best in international cinema on all five screens.

"We have dreamed of becoming even more of a cultural magnet by creating a year-round community cinema," said Susan Smoluchowski, executive director of 60-year-old MSP Film.

about the writer

Chris Hewitt

Critic / Editor

Interim books editor Chris Hewitt previously worked at the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, where he wrote about movies and theater.

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