Twin Cities Film Festival: Highlights, hidden gems, and Oscar hopefuls

As fest audiences return to theaters for the final weekend of the Twin Cities Film Fest, we are now hearing what this year's top award contenders are.

Here are the nominees for the 2022 edition:

Best Feature Film Award: The Banshees of Inisherin, directed by Martin McDonagh; Empire of Light, directed by Sam Mendes; Sanctified, directed by Nickolaus Swedlund; She Said, directed by Maria Schrader; Till, directed by Chinonye Chukwu; and Women Talking, directed by Sarah Polley

The Robert Byrd Best Documentary Film Award: Freshwater, directed by Ian Planchon and Lynn Melling; Gabi: Between the Ages of 8 and 13, directed by Engeli Broberg; Jack Has a Plan, directed by Bradley Berman; Liquor Store Dreams, directed by So Yun Um; Origami in the Garden, directed by Barbara Bentree; and Wildcat, directed by Trevor Frost and Melissa Lesh

Best Short Film Award: The Cosmopolitan West, directed by Molly Ratermann; Hope Breakfast Bar, directed by Joe Kessler; Labor of Love, directed by Hannah Rosalie Wright; Reuben the Roller Roo, directed by Will Prescott; and V.I.P., directed by Marisa Coughlan

TCFF's Indie Vision Award — Breakthrough Performance: Noah Anderson in Bitcon; Libe Barer in Disfluency; Esmeralda Camargo in Marisol; Lena Góra in Roving Woman; Jessie Scarborough-Ghent in B & E; and Dallas Dupree Young in 1-800-Hot-Nite

TCFF's Indie Vision Award — Breakthrough Achievement: Peter Callahan for the screenplay Out and About; Team of J.D. O'Brien, Brett Schnacky and Steven Hauge for post-production in After the Gunflint; Allison Otto for direction in The Thief Collector; David St-Amant for animation direction in Eternal Spring; Jamie Wede for music supervision in Valentine Crush; and Fletcher Wolfe for cinematography in Esme, My Love

Fun Is Good Bill Murray Comedy Shorts Award: Cruise, directed by Sam Rudykoff; Spoons, directed by Matthew Berger; and V.I.P., directed by Marisa Coughlan

TCFF Lifetime Achievement Award: Chris Mulkey

2022 North Star Awards: Beau Bridges and Tom Cavanagh

TCFF 'Empower' Award for Justice: Deborah Watts and Teri Watts

TCFF Changemaker Award (Climate Action: Food & Fashion): Maggie Baird and Stephanie Dillon

Sunday's lineup includes a Martin McDonagh's highly anticipated new feature, the 2022 Cannes Grand Prix winner, a free screening of a documentary on quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick and more.

"The Banshees of Inisherin"

Nearly 15 years after the beloved "In Bruges," director Martin McDonagh reunites with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. They play lifelong friends in a remote Irish village, but Gleeson's character unexpectedly and mysteriously decides to cut ties. Reviews say the reunion marks a worthy follow-up to "In Bruges" and a highlight of McDonagh's filmography.

• "The writer-director's superbly acted fourth feature is his most Irish work for the screen to date, and also one of his best." -- David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
• "'The Banshees of Inisherin' might feel a little thin if you hold it to conventional standards of comedy or drama. It's better thought of as a piece of village gossip, given a bit of literary polish and a handsome pastoral finish.," -- A.O. Scott, The New York Times
• "When its characters break and vent and hold forth, however, they do so in the ornately verbal, gruffly poetic and violently hilarious vernacular of McDonagh's best writing - regaining, after two American-set efforts, the Irish brogue of both his heritage and his splendid 2008 debut 'In Bruges,' whose stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are once more ideally paired here." -- Guy Lodge, Variety

"The Banshees of Inisherin" plays at a members only screening at 12:45 p.m.

"Close"

2022's Grand Prix winner at Cannes, "Close" explores the intimacy of a friendship between two young boys, and the attention and questions that friendship brings. Near-universal acclaim should make this one of TCFF's most hotly anticipated screenings, though reviews make it sound as if the story may not be exactly what viewers expect.

• "When listing the cast members, the credits for 'Close' run through the major players and then throw up the title card reading 'and introducing Eden Dambrine,' as if confidently announcing this young man will be making many more films after this. Let's hope that's true, because the photogenic star gives a gob-smacking performance, one that really looks like it's the product of the actor's own skill, not just the result of good direction, editing and masses of takes. " -- Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter
• "This beautifully evocative film, which hails from an openly queer director, offers as pure a portrait of innocent, innocuous same-sex affection as we've ever encountered on film. And then it becomes something incredibly, unwelcomely different." -- Peter Debruge, Variety
• "One of the strongest films to premiere in this year's Competition, 'Close' has huge potential for awards across the board." -- Damon Wise, Deadline

"Close" plays at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday is the most jam-packed day of the entire festival, with no fewer than 18 features scheduled to play to festival-goers. There are world premieres, filmmakers speaking in person, and a few movies getting rave reviews. Here are today's must-see items.

"Good Night Oppy"

When NASA scientists deployed the Mars Exploration Rover dubbed  Opportunity, they didn't expect it would rove for a decade and a half, like some cute real-life version of WALL-E. In fact, it was only supposed to be operational for roughly three months. As director Ryan White's incredibly heartening documentary shows, what "Oppy" gave to the world of science  The reviews are in and they are solid:

• "For large segments of its running time, 'Good Night Oppy' is more than just a documentary; it's an animated film as well — and a hugely entertaining one at that." -- Peter Debruge, Variety
• "'Good Night Oppy' is a lively celebration of unabashed nerdiness and enthusiastic problem-solving, the sort of movie that feels designed to attract Wall-E-loving children, who can then be shaped into the engineers and astrophysicists of the future." -- Dan Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter
• "Despite the film's slightness and unexplored themes, White caters to our shared wonder about the solar system and our penchant to seek connection — even if it's with our robot rovers. Those basic human drives are potent enough to make this trip worthwhile." -- Tim Grierson, ScreenDaily

"Good Night Oppy" plays at 4 p.m.

"Aftersun"

One of the best-reviewed films this fall might just be the sleeper success story of the year. Director Charlotte Wells' debut feature "Aftersun," in which a young woman looks back at DV footage of a vacation she spent with her father two decades prior and reaches an epiphany about her relationship with him, is the kind of heart-on-sleeve moment of catharsis that ought to blow away even the most jaded of viewers. Observe these raves:

• "It's a work of masterful and almost unbearable melancholy." -- Allison Willmore, Vulture
• "It's hard to find a critical language to account for the delicacy and intimacy of this movie. This is partly because Wells, with the unaffected precision of a lyric poet, is very nearly reinventing the language of film, unlocking the medium's often dormant potential to disclose inner worlds of consciousness and feeling." -- A.O. Scott, New York Times
• "Young fathers, especially the single sort, don't get a lot of love from the movies and "Aftersun" is partly an ode to that very specific, very sweet bond between father and pre-teen daughter that both kind of understand will change into something else soon." -- Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press

"Aftersun" plays at 6:15 p.m.

The Twin Cities Film Fest is here, kicking off with a trio of films screening Thursday evening.

"Till"

The official opening night film is director Chinonye Chukwu's "Till," which tells the story of Mamie Till Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till. You can see festival director Jatin Setia talk about the film in the video above, but here are examples of what the critics are saying.

• "One of the many things the civil rights movement demanded to see enacted was a federal anti-lynching law. In 2022, such a law was finally passed after decades of failed attempts. It was named after Emmett Till. That it took this long, and the idea that laws are being passed to ensure the reasons why aren't taught in school, just highlight why 'Till' feels so timely." -- Odie Henderson, RogerEbert.com
• "Some stories can seem too difficult to tell, though that doesn't seem to have crossed the mind of the director Chinonye Chukwu. In 'Till,' her haunted and haunting movie about Emmett Till, the 14-year-old whose barbaric murder in Mississippi in 1955 by white supremacists helped galvanize the civil rights movement, Chukwu revisits the past while doing something extremely difficult. She makes this grim American history insistently of the moment — and she does so by stripping the story down to its raw, harrowing emotional core." -- Manohla Dargis, New York Times
• "'Till' will go down as one of the most powerful and important films to hit the screen in 2022, Danielle Deadwyler is unforgettable, and the film has a voice that needs to be heard more. A single movie is not going to stop hate, but that isn't the intent, this is a film that challenges its audience to open their eyes even more to racial injustice." -- Nate Richard, Collider
• "Rising to challenge viewers' qualms about the movie's existence is Deadwyler, whose stirring performance may be reason enough to see the film." -- Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

"My Policeman"

The other feature film playing Thursday is the hotly-anticipated "My Policeman," which stars Harry Styles and is based on the book by Bethan Roberts. In it, Styles plays a married man in the 1950s who has an affair with another man; the story then jumps forward four decades to see where life has taken them, and the regrets they carry.

The reviews, frankly, have been mixed for this one, but there are some full-throated endorsements.

• "What's more universal are the lingering feelings of loss and wasted time, and that wondering of what could have been. It's a heartbreaking theme to reflect on both in terms of real-world consequences and for the characters at hand, and it's one that may leave you just a little teary-eyed by the film's closing moments." -- Amber Dowling, Consequence
• "'My Policeman,' as emotionally earnest and elegantly made as it is, mostly feels like a movie we've seen many times before: a pleasantly escapist two hours with pretty people in pretty clothes, madly sublimating their feelings until the final, luminous frame." -- Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
• "Styles, night and day here compared to his work in that other fall release, wonderfully inhabits a working-class man fearful of public scrutiny but unable to hide his true self." -- Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist

"Overheated"

Also screening Thursday is the brief documentary "Overheated," which sparks the conversation about climate change and how to turn anxiety into action. "Overheated" specifically highlights the impact on Indigenous people and focuses on hope for a better outcome in the future.

Because it was produced by Grammy award artist Billie Eilish and her mother Maggie Baird, there are also interview segments with noted music and fashion industry moguls like Yungblud, Girl in Red, Vivienne Westwood, and Eilish herself.

Baird appeared on "The 4" on Wednesday to discuss the film with Erin Hassanzadeh and Mike Augustyniak. You can see their chat below.