The International Cinema is a unique feature of BYU’s campus; here’s a look at what goes on behind the scenes.
BYU students and local community members don’t have to trek to traditional movie theaters to watch award-winning films—thanks to BYU’s International Cinema (IC), a theater devoted to showing historical and international films. With the combined efforts of faculty directors and student employees working behind the scenes, it offers its audience a unique opportunity to gain new perspectives and find cultural enrichment in the cinematic community.
A Handpicked Selection
The films the IC showcases are handpicked by a board of directors, who meet regularly to discuss movies that might be of interest to the students, taking student recommendations and attending film festivals for inspiration. IC codirector, Carl Sederholm (Horror, Popular Culture, Literature and Film), serves on the board. He says the group tries to find films directed by both men and women, to highlight “different voices that are represented in the creative process.” They also consider the languages taught in the College of Humanities. “We’re looking more than anything else at international representation—what’s coming out from all the countries of the world that we can possibly cover,” says Sederholm.
The selected films fall into a set of themes, like Black History Month, Valentine’s Day, dance, childhood, 100 years of cinema, sports, and World War II. “We look for themes that would be of interest,” Sederholm says, adding that they aim to balance the films: some “might challenge people in interesting ways.” Others are lighter, because “sometimes we just need to laugh or dance,” says Sederholm.
Finding Community Through Cinema
While the faculty directors play a large role in making decisions for the IC, it’s student employees like Hannah Guevara (Media Arts ’26) who run the show day-to-day. Working from Wednesday to Saturday, students make sure the IC runs smoothly. They play music while guests find their seats, announce each film and its runtime, ensure each film is shown on time, and make pins to hand out to patrons. Guevara enjoys facilitating a theater experience with “movies that are handpicked for students to experience the world.” The films are “fun, they’re exciting, and they’re perspective enhancing,” she says.
Working at the IC, Guevara has learned that “film has the power to create community.” When she looks out into the audience, she sees that “films can bring people together. There are friends, or there are couples, or there are even people who come alone,” and these people, she says, “find a community here.”
Sederholm agrees, saying that, to him, the IC is “about discovering other people, other cultures, other languages, and other ways of storytelling.”
Staff Picks for this Semester
- Sentimental Value (2025), playing March 18–21
- Sederholm: “It’s really well made and shows the dynamic between a father and a daughter.”
- Summer Interlude (1951), playing March 25–28
- Guevara: “It’s directed by Ingmar Bergman, a very famous Swedish filmmaker. His movies always are so fantastic.”
- Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (2025), playing March 25–28
- Sederholm: “It’s a movie about Gaza and all the stuff that’s going on over there. What makes this film interesting is that the filmmaker can’t go into Gaza to get the information that she needs, and so she does it over Zoom, over her phone. You’re watching these interviews over a phone screen.”
- The Red Shoes (1948), playing April 1–4
- Sederholm: “It’s one of my favorite movies and considered one of the best British movies. It’s a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale of the red shoes. It’s really beautiful.”
- Om Shanti Om (2007), playing April 8–11
- Guevara: “It’s a super fun Bollywood movie that’s big on dancing. It’s long, but worth it.”
- Sederholm: “We’re hoping people will just dance as they enjoy the film.”
- Parasite (2019), playing April 8–11
- Guevara: “This won Best Film in 2020.”
- Sederholm: “This one’s heavier than some of the others, but it’s worth seeing.”
Check out what’s playing this week at the International Cinema here.