For the first time since COVID-19, the Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF) is back and bigger than ever with a total of 70+ films being screened. This event will be held on October 20-23 and 27-28 at the West End in St. Louis Park, at the Showplace Icon Theater.

With such a large event, the TCFF reached out to high school students to apply for internships within the festival and many of those interns lie within the BSM student body.

The interns within BSM have been split into three teams. The business team consists of Sophie Corneliuson, McKenzie McMoore, and Mel Peacock; the marketing team consists of Ania Cooper, Annabelle Nicholson, and Carson Ray; the creative team consists of Ben Watts, Izzy Steinbring, and Milly Valadez Rodriguez.

Each team helps with different aspects of the TCFF. The creative team helps with social media outreach and encouraging people to buy tickets. “We’re helping with creating the stuff that they’re putting on TikTok, Instagram, and reaching out to more people,” Watts said.

The business team specializes in finding companies in the Twin Cities area that might have an interest in the subject matters of the films and encouraging them to come. “So far, we’ve found companies in the Twin Cities area. So then we can reach out to them and see if they can come to it. So it’s just like community outreach, trying to spread the word,” Corneliuson said.

Similar to the creative team, the marketing team also will help with social media posts, especially while the festival is going on. They also will be interviewing people at the festival. “During the festival, we’re going to make TikToks and we’re going to be the ones doing interviews and you know, just kind of like social media and getting the word out there because not a lot of people know about the film festival,” Cooper said.

Aside from the internships, the TCFF is different from most film festivals in the way that the films they show are very much focused on diversity. With subject matters spanning from LGBTQ+ awareness with films like My Policeman to films describing racial oppression like TILL. “They try to bring awareness to topics that usually aren’t brought up more like sensitive topics,” Corneliuson said.

One thing that all the interns seem to agree on, is that this internship is a great opportunity to learn how to work with others and to develop their skills in their own specific specialties. “My favorite part about contributing to this is that I get to be part of something special. And just this whole, community feeling and bringing everybody together,” Corneliuson said.