42nd Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival - APRIL 13-27, 2023COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Updates
MSPIFF Updates Regarding COVID-19
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Press Release - MSP FILM SOCIETY POSTPONES THE 2020 MINNEAPOLIS ST. PAUL INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
The MSP Film Society announces the postponement of the 2020 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival - MSPIFF - until further notice. MSP Film Society has also suspended all screenings and events in Screen 3 at St. Anthony Main.
To read the full press release CLICK HERE
Friday, March 13, 2020
Update - 2020 MSPIFF Plans Resulting from New COVID-19 Developments
Dear friends and patrons of the MSP Film Society and MSP International Film Festival,
It is with great sadness, but with assurance that this is right decision, that the MSP Film Society announces the postponement of the 2020 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival until further notice.
We are also suspending all screenings and events in Screen 3 at St Anthony Main as of tomorrow.
We are committed as an arts organization to helping contain COVID-19, in the interest of the safety and health of our community, patrons and staff. This decision is made to safeguard us all from any possible risk of infection and per today’s recommendations from the office of the Governor of Minnesota.
We will be posting an official announcement and further updates on on this webpage. Details on future programming and rescheduling will be forthcoming.
Please call me directly with any concerns or questions you may have.
Susan Smoluchowski
Executive Director
MSP Film Society
MSP International Film Festival
O: 612-331-7563
C: 612-889-2978
Thursday, March 12, 2020
A Statement to our Patrons on behalf of the MSP Film Society Board of Directors
With news circulating around the coronavirus (COVID-19), we expect that you may be wondering about plans for the upcoming 2020 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, currently scheduled for April 9-25.
We want you to know that we are doing our due diligence, carefully monitoring the situation and ready to take action when and if necessary. We are in communication with the office of the Mayor of Minneapolis and other government agencies including the Minnesota Department of Health with regard to recommendations to limit or cancel community gatherings. See more here
As things stand today, we plan for the show to go on and for the 2020 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival to proceed.
Should this change, and we determine the need to delay or cancel, we will of course let you know. Please be assured that we will err on the side of caution.
As always, we have your health, welfare and security in mind. We will update our website on this page with more detail about steps and precautions we are taking, and will ask you to consider taking as well, to ensure the safeguarding of all attendees at our films.
Please feel free to give me a call directly with any questions or concerns you may have: 612 331-7563
With our thanks for your patronage and confidence.

Susan Smoluchowski
Executive Director
MSP Film Society
MSP International Film Festival
O: 612-331-7563
C: 612-889-2978
SAFEGUARDS
We have instructed staff and are kindly asking patrons to:
- Continue to use basic preventative health measures including and especially hand washing.
- Stay home if you have flu-like symptoms, fever or cough. If a patron has purchased tickets, and needs to stay home, we will reimburse the cost of the tickets.
- Not attend, if you have had known potential exposure to someone with COVID-19 or if you have traveled in a country during the time which the CDC has placed it on an alert level 3 designation, unless/until medical professionals have told you that it is acceptable to do so.
- Minimize contact and handling of others’ phones, credit cards or tickets.
General precautions that we are taking internally:
- We are being extra-vigilant about cleaning and sanitizing and have plans to hire dedicated staff to sanitize venues throughout the Festival.
- We will prepare cleaning checklists for before, between and after shows.
- As always we will stagger screenings to allow more time for cleaning.
- We will make hand sanitizer, tissues and soap available.
- We will make trash cans readily available and change trash regularly.
- We will post hand-washing instructions in all restrooms.