The Iranian Art Forum (IAF) in Tehran will present the American animated comedy film of 2026, 'Minions & Monsters,' to audiences. The film was directed by Pierre Coffin, and the screening is scheduled for Thursday.
This film is the third installment in the 'Minions' prequel series and the seventh film in the 'Despicable Me' franchise. It was produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination.
Pierre Coffin himself stars in the film as the Minions, alongside Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeff Bridges, Zoe Deutsch, Bobby Moynihan, and Phil LaMarr.
'Minions & Monsters' takes place before the events of the first 'Minions' film (2015). Audiences will meet an entirely new tribe of Minions who end up in Hollywood during the dawn of cinema. Two new Minions, James and Henry, are the main characters. They are introduced with their noisy friends in the distant past, where they undergo trials searching for an evil master to serve.
They eventually end up in the 1920s and accidentally appear on a Hollywood film set. Their brief and unintentional appearance on camera yields results, and soon the Minions become real movie stars. They then get interested in filmmaking and decide to shoot their own amazing monster movie. With the help of a spellbook taken from an old boss (an evil wizard for whom they previously worked), James and Henry summon terrifying monsters to play the villains in their film.
When the situation gets out of control, James, Henry, and all their comrades are forced to join forces to save the world from a horde of raging monsters.
'Minions & Monsters' premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 21 and was released in the United States on July 1. The film was a commercial success, earning $494 million worldwide and ranking tenth among the highest-grossing films of 2026.
The film received positive critical reviews; many considered it the best in the franchise since the first film. On the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator, 89% of 180 critic reviews were positive, with an average rating of 6.9 out of 10. The site's consensus states: 'The Minions bring their penchant for chaos into the story of Hollywood in this sweet and charming parody of the magic of filmmaking, representing the most delightful work in the franchise to date.' It is currently the highest-rated Illumination film on this site. Metacritic, using a weighted average, gave the film a score of 70 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating 'generally favorable' reviews. Audience members surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average rating of 'A-' on the scale from A+ to F.
The Minions are a fictional all-male species of yellow capsule-shaped creatures appearing in the Illumination 'Despicable Me' franchise. They first appeared in the film 'Despicable Me' (2010), where they served as assistants to the film's main antagonist, the supervillain Gru. The Minions are known for their comical behavior and a fictional language called Minionese, which is largely incomprehensible.