The Twin Cities Film Fest turns seventeen this October, and the 2026 edition is the biggest kind of film weekend a city can offer: more than 110 features and shorts over ten days, red-carpet opening and closing nights, a festival lounge between screenings, and a lineup that starts with a new Martin McDonagh film three weeks before it reaches regular theaters. If you are coming in from out of town for a few of those nights, the question is where to sleep between movies. Our answer is a Georgian Revival mansion in Loring Park with its own soundproof movie lounge in the basement — which is a very good place to keep the festival going after the last credits roll.
When and where the 2026 Twin Cities Film Fest happens
The festival’s headline dates are Thursday, October 15 through Saturday, October 24, 2026. (One caution: the festival’s own page summary still describes the run as October 14–23, while its headline schedule and the press announcement say October 15–24 — so confirm the date on your ticket before you plan a night around it.) In-person screenings are split between two suburban cinemas rather than downtown: the Marcus West End Cinema at The Shops at West End in St. Louis Park (1625 West End Blvd) and the Edina Mann Theatre at 50th & France (3911 W 50th St). Both are a short drive west or south-west of Loring Park, and West End in particular is an easy hop out I-394 from the neighborhood. A selection of titles also streams online through the festival’s own site for those who want to fill a rainy afternoon back at the mansion.
Tickets, per the 2026 pass page, run $15 for a general screening, $30 for a Spotlight film, and $10 for an online title; in-person passes go from Silver ($60) up through Gold ($85), Platinum ($115) and Spotlight ($130), and a $60 Streams Pass covers fifty-plus films from home. A handful of screenings are free.
What’s on the 2026 lineup
According to the festival’s announcement, as reported by CBS Minnesota, opening night on October 15 is Wild Horse Nine, Martin McDonagh’s 1973-set CIA drama with John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell — Malkovich took the best-actor Volpi Cup for it at Venice this month, and Minnesota audiences see it three weeks before its theatrical release. The same night pairs You Belong Here with a post-film conversation about food and community with actor Steve Zahn. From there the calendar runs through Josephine with Channing Tatum (October 16), Give Me the Ball! with Billie Jean King (October 17), a tenth-anniversary 4K restoration of Moonlight with recorded insights from Barry Jenkins and Nicholas Britell (October 18), Elsinore with Andrew Scott (October 22) and I Play Rocky (October 23), before the closing-night gala on October 24, Not Dead Yet, with Richard Kind, Paul Raci and Tovah Feldshuh — Raci is scheduled to stay for a discussion afterward.
Beyond the marquee titles, the festival groups its program into series — a HER Series of films by and about women that makes up nearly half the slate, a Changemaker Series on the refugee experience this year, and an MN-Connected Series for the third or more of selections with a Minnesota tie. Two live events are worth building a day around: the SeriesFest Pitch-A-Thon on Saturday, October 17 at 2:15 PM, where local creators pitch television series to industry executives, and the new Make the Cut documentary pitch competition on Saturday, October 24 at the Edina Mann, ahead of the feature Come Talk to Me. Browse the full slate on the festival’s 2026 films page.
Why a film-festival weekend belongs at 300 Clifton
Most festival-goers come home from a double feature wanting one more. This is the rare place to stay that can oblige. Beneath the mansion is Gertrude’s Cistern, a fully soundproofed movie lounge with leather stadium seats that recline, heat, and offer three massage settings — with armrests that lift for cuddling — in front of a very large screen, attached to a private lounge where you can mix a drink, make popcorn or a pizza, and argue about what you just saw. It is a private, bookable add-on to any stay, and during festival week it is the obvious way to screen the online titles you could not fit into the theater schedule. Upstairs the house is the historic Eugene J. Carpenter Mansion: hand-painted murals, carved fireplaces, English gardens with a reflecting fountain, and eight distinct room types from the grand Crystal Mansion and Georgian rooms in the main house to the Hayloft and Blacksmith’s Forge in the carriage house.
Late October in Minneapolis is hot-tub weather, and the four-season garden hot tub is another private booking, tucked under the trees behind the house — the right ending to a night that began with a red carpet. Check-in is from 3:00 PM and check-out by 10:00 AM (early or late can be added for $25 each, subject to availability); breakfast is not served on site, but complimentary coffee waits in the common area before you head out to a morning screening. Guest parking is available, children are welcome, and pets are not — the whole list is on our FAQ.
Book early: the festival lands on two of fall’s busiest weekends
Both festival weekends collide with something else big. The opening weekend, October 15–18, is MEA weekend, when Minnesota families travel on the school break; the closing weekend runs into the busiest weekend of the fall downtown, with Zac Brown Band, Gophers–Iowa, the Vikings and the Timberwolves home opener stacked on October 23–25. A boutique mansion with a handful of rooms fills faster than a hotel tower, so if the festival is the reason for your trip, book the room before you buy the pass. Midweek nights — the festival runs Monday through Thursday too — are the quieter, more romantic choice, and the film schedule is just as full.
Getting to West End from Loring Park is simple: Hennepin or Lyndale to I-394 westbound, and The Shops at West End sit just off the highway a few minutes past the Walker Art Center. If you would rather not drive, the Metro Transit trip planner will give you the current bus options from the neighborhood, and a rideshare is short. Downtown itself — the Walker, Orchestra Hall, Hennepin Avenue’s theaters, the restaurants of Eat Street — is a walk from the front door for the hours between films.
Plan your Twin Cities Film Fest stay
Book direct and your stay includes a $20 dining voucher for the Pillsbury Club and a $20 voucher toward a Minneapolis Trolley ride (details on our vouchers page) — a mansion dinner and a candlelit ghost trolley are both excellent between-screening plans in late October. Pick a room, add the movie lounge and the hot tub, and come see what the festival brought to town this year. Reserve your October nights at 300 Clifton.
Keep reading: Which Twin Cities holiday lights experience is right for you? Drive-through, walk-through or a heated BYOB trolley