Cinema International brings a diverse line-up of foreign films, from the South Korean Academy Award winning film “Parasite” to the Spanish film “Alegría.”

Cinema International is a program that showcases a handful of films often from foreign countries, contextualizing and discussing the themes and messages highlighted in the film. 

The program began with the acclaimed film “Parasite,” utilizing its widespread popularity to bring in more film buffs to one of its two showings. The film follows two wealthy families as greed and discrimination threaten to bring dark secrets to the surface. Co-Director of Cinema International, Tamara Feinstein said strategy led her and the other Co-Director Ben Post, to begin the spring line-up with “Parasite.”

“We chose Parasite, which was the very first foreign language movie to win an Academy Award for Best Picture; there had been few (foreign language) films that have been nominated,” Feinstein said. “Award-winning movies tend to get people interested at the start of the program.” 

Following “Parasite,” the next film on the line-up is “The Long Walk of Carlos Guerrero,” a 2024 film in both Spanish and English. The film draws from real-life stories from Film Director Joseph Matthews’s 2006 documentary, “Crossing Arizona.” The film follows an undocumented New York chef and an El Salvadorian girl who end up stranded in the south Arizona desert. 

Five of the films on the spring line-up are presented by the Spanish Film Club series with the support of Pragda and the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain, a program that offers matching grants to educational institutions to showcase Ibero-American countries and cultures. 

The films presented by the Spanish Film Club are: “Cassandro,” “This Stolen Country of Mine,” “Alegría,” “The Padilla Affair” and “Eternal Amazon.” 

“They have a different selection each year of different Spanish or Portuguese films to try and get more people interested in watching films on campuses across the country that deal with Iberian culture,” Feinstein said. “We tried to choose a number of different movies from different geographic regions to have a good spread.”

Of all the films, Feinstein said was excited for “The Padilla Affair,” with its ties to 20th-century Latin American history. Feinstein expressed great interest in the horror-esque documentary centered on poet Heberto Padilla. For the presentation, Feinstein has enlisted students from her honors civilization course, setting the stage for the 1971 affair that induced global outrage.

“I’m excited to see what my students come up with to create a presentation for the audience there,” Feinstein said. 

The 2014 film “Selma” is the 5th film in the line-up, supported by the department of history. The film follows Martin Luther King, Jr’s, campaign to secure equal voting rights. 

Both “Eternal Amazon,” a film documentary presenting a new approach to substantially utilize the Amazon Rainforest and “Dark Waters,” a thriller following an attorney who jeopardizes his career to expose a toxic-waste-dumping scheme are supported by the Watershed Studies Institute and the Jesse D. Jones College of Science, Engineering and Technology. 

For Women’s History Month, West Kentucky NOW supported the program’s film “Can You Hear Us Now?” follows four women fighting to have their voices heard. 

“We’ve been trying to find student groups that might be interested in sponsoring films,” Feinstein said. “If they want to present with us before the film and do a discussion if they want to, we’d be happy to collaborate (with them).” 

All Cinema International screenings are in Faculty Hall 208 Thursdays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. For more information follow Cinema International on Instagram @cinemainternationalmsu.