Bringing an International Film Festival to Life

Watching your first international film can be an unforgettable moment - one that challenges your understanding of culture, storytelling and the world around you. Whether that first international film was "The Seventh Seal" or "Seventh Samurai," watching a movie from a different culture inspires many to fall in love with that place. Students and faculty from the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures understand just how important it is to create these moments that spark global curiosity.

Welcoming approximately 60 students for 10 films over five nights, the 2026 Marquette University International Film Festival was a bridge for students across campus to connect with another culture through cinema. Featuring films such as "Life is Beautiful," "Farewell my Concubine" and "De Temps en Temps" (a French documentary by student Riley Condon), stories from across the world made their way to students - many of whom experienced them for the first time.

"There is something profoundly moving about a diverse audience sitting together and engaging with a story from another part of the world," says Dr. Sarah Gendron, LLAC department chair and professor of French. "It feels like traveling to me, with eyes wide open."

The film festival began almost 15 years ago but has been on a brief hiatus up until the 2026 festival. Gendron first spear-headed the festival through the LLAC department back in 2011. "I wanted to create a space where global storytelling could move beyond the syllabus and become a shared, public experience," Gendron says.

Today, Gendron continues to collaborate with faculty and the broader Marquette community, including LLAC colleagues Drs. Dinorah Cortes-Velez, Tara Daly, Giordana Kaftan and Michelle Medeiros, with support from the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, the Institute for Women's Leadership, the Office of Inclusion and Belonging, the Office of Wellness and Helfaer Recreation, Wisconsin Ukrainians, Inc. and JoAnn Zuercher. While faculty approve and guide the creation of the festival, students take on the bulk of the work - spending nights collaborating on curating the film catalogue, purchasing film rights and publicizing the event.

"For students on the planning committee, the festival is a deeply collaborative and powerful experiential learning opportunity that bridges theory and practice," Gendron says. "Students don't just analyze films; they curate them. They don't just discuss global cinema; they bring it to their community."

Brennan Wills, a recent graduate who double-majored in digital media and history, was one of the seven students who helped the film festival come to life, serving as the ambassador for German language. Wills is not a fluent speaker of German but first became interested in German films through GRMN 4931: Topics in German Language, Literature, and Culture, a course on German film taught in German. Wills made his way through the class through subtitles and translation but found a blossoming love for German film and culture he was excited to share with others.

Wills was fascinated with the reunification period in Germany and how film served as a way of understanding the politics of this divisive moment in history. He used his background from the course and his own interest to approve screening for "Good Bye, Lenin!" a tragicomedy about understanding and accepting the political state of Germany throughout the 1990s in a way that's relatable to those who may have no prior knowledge of this time in history.

"These films show how we're all uniquely human - how we all have these same experiences that bond us together," Wills says. "At the end of the day, film shows us that we all face challenges and learn from our mistakes, no matter how different they may seem."

Other students, including Connor Bray, Riley Condon, Lily Genecco, Jenan Halawa, Nino Padua and Brenda Paredes, all served as language ambassadors for the other language and cultural courses taught at Marquette. The 10 films selected covered a broad range of language and cultural courses offered at Marquette, including American Sign Language, Mandarin and Arabic, among others.

The Marquette University International Film Festival plans to return next year, and faculty members are excited to see the variety of new films that students curate for the event. Regardless of whether a student is new to foreign films or an experienced film connoisseur, the festival offers an opportunity to see a new movie, hear an unfamiliar story and gain a deeper understanding of the world around them. "Our International Film Festival is, at its core, an act of invitation," Gendron says. "An invitation to look outward. An invitation to listen to others' stories. An invitation to gather in shared space and say: we are better when we try to understand and value one another."