Martin McDonagh's "Wild Horse Nine" with John Malkovich to open 2026 Twin Cities Film Fest

A new Martin McDonagh film starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell will open the Twin Cities Film Fest next month, as the festival unveiled a 2026 lineup of more than 110 movies.

The festival's 17th year runs Oct. 15-24 at the Marcus West End Cinema at The Shops at West End and the Edina Mann 4 Theatre at 50th and France. 

Opening night on Oct. 15 is Searchlight Pictures' "Wild Horse Nine," from Oscar-winning writer-director McDonagh. Malkovich and Rockwell play CIA agents sent on a trust-testing mission from Santiago to Easter Island in 1973 Chile. Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey also star. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, where Malkovich won the Volpi Cup for best actor.

Opening night also includes a screening of "You Belong Here," which features chef Ouita of Lexington, Kentucky. She and actor Steve Zahn will take part in a discussion about food and community afterward.

The closing night gala on Oct. 24 is "Not Dead Yet," about a veteran ad man pushed out of his agency by a youth-obsessed industry who teams up with a rebellious Hamptons senior breakfast club to start over. Richard Kind, Paul Raci and Tovah Feldshuh star. Raci will attend for a discussion after the screening.

Other titles in this year's program include:

• "Josephine," starring Channing Tatum (Oct. 16)
• "Give Me The Ball!," starring Billie Jean King (Oct. 17)
• "Moonlight," a 10th anniversary 4K restoration with post-credit insights from director Barry Jenkins and composer Nicholas Britell (Oct. 18)
• "Elsinore," starring Andrew Scott (Oct. 22)
• "I Play Rocky," starring Anthony Ippolito (Oct. 23)

Nearly half of this year's features and shorts fall under the festival's "HER Series" of films by, for and about women, and more than 40% highlight BIPOC voices. More than a third of the selections have Minnesota connections, in both narrative and documentary form.

The festival's Changemaker Series this year focuses on the refugee experience. And two programs are aimed at filmmakers' next projects. A new competition called "Make The Cut," presented with the Raymond J. Christensen Foundation, will fully fund post-production for one documentary filmmaker. Denver-based SeriesFest also returns with a "Pitch-a-Thon," where local creators pitch TV series concepts to a panel of Los Angeles executives.

"Whether it's through the return of our 'Series Fest Pitch-a-Thon,' the launch of the 'Make The Cut' competition or simply putting an emerging filmmaker in front of an audience for the first time, this year is about what comes next," TCFF Executive Director Jatin Setia said.

Tickets are $10 online and $15 in person. Opening, centerpiece, closing and spotlight events are $30, and a handful of films will screen for free. Full schedule and ticket information is on the festival's website.