Need something fun and cultured to do to hold off the long two weeks before Thanksgiving break finally arrives? Well, you’re in luck, as Thursday night marks the start of the 20th annual St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF), a ten-day film festival that spans four main screens and offers extensive movie variety and an assortment of movie-themed special events. The participating main venues are the Tivoli Theatre, the Plaza Frontenac Cinema, Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium and Wash. U’s own Brown Hall Auditorium, and there are a number of special-event venues including Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Ill., Wash. U.’s Steinberg Hall Auditorium and others. This means that screens are within walking distance, passing the first major qualifier of whether you should go.

Another reason you should go? The festival offers just about anything you’d want to see. Those interested in indie films can check out “23 Minutes to Sunrise,” a film starring Eric Roberts that focuses on four couples who meet at an out-of-the-way diner for a life-changing night. Psych majors will appreciate David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method,” which concentrates on the relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Those looking for a sneak peek should check out “Butter,” an indie comedy starring Jennifer Garner and Ty Burrell (“Modern Family”) as a champion butter-carving couple. The film will not be wide-released until March. Foreign language students can “study” while watching films screened in languages like German (“3,” a Berlin-based screwball comedy) and French (“Le journal d’Aurélie Laflamme,” a Canadian coming-of-age story).

And that’s just the feature films. SLIFF will also be featuring a number of documentaries, dealing with themes ranging from most serious ones to some plain old fun ones. “Brick by Chance and Fortune: A St. Louis Story” showcases St. Louis’s history in the brick industry, and the story is surprisingly complex. “Circus Dreams” stars kids in Circus Smirkus, the country’s only travelling youth circus. “You’ve Been Trumped” paints Donald Trump as the villain who tried to buy some of the last acres of Scottish wilderness to build golf courses, but it, of course, also focuses on the homeowners who attempted to fight back.

In addition to the full-length films, SLIFF showcases sets of short films tied together by a common theme. The sets are primarily short documentaries or animation features, but there are a few highlighting the works of the winners of the 2011 Stella Artois St. Louis Filmmakers’ Showcase. Animator Bill Plympton is the recipient of this year’s SLIFF’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and he will appear on Friday, Nov. 11, at Webster University to receive the award and screen some of his animated shorts.

The festival runs from Thursday, Nov. 10, until Sunday, Nov. 20. Tickets are available online at SLIFF’s website and at the box offices of the Tivoli Theatre and the Plaza Frontencc Cinema. For more information, check out http://www.cinemastlouis.org/sliff-2011.