Save the date cinephiles: the renowned Chicago International Film Festival is back with a fresh lineup of screenings from Oct. 16 – 27, 2024.
The Chicago International Film Festival, North America’s longest-running competitive international film festival, is celebrating its landmark 60th anniversary this year with a packed schedule of films, parties, special appearances, award ceremonies, and more can’t-miss events for film buffs.
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This year’s lineup features 122 feature films and 71 shorts, including world premieres, North American premieres, newly restored Chicago films, and cinema from more than 60 countries around the world.
The event is centered around AMC NEWCITY 14, but will also feature events throughout Chicago at venues like the Music Box Theatre, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Chicago History Museum, and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago.
Check out a few highlights of the 60th annual Chicago International Film Festival and get your tickets today.
Opening Night: The Piano Lesson
This year’s festival kicks off with The Piano Lesson, in which a family’s clash over an heirloom piano unleashes haunting truths about how the past is perceived and who defines a family legacy.
At the Opening Night screening, director and co-writer Malcolm Washington will receive the Festival’s Breakthrough Award and John David Washington will receive the Spotlight Award.
Nightbitch
In Nightbitch, Academy Award nominee Amy Adams plays a woman who pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mom, but her new domesticity takes a surreal turn. Marielle Heller’s film is a penetrating, funny, and outrageous look at the realities of being an American mom. This screening includes an in-person tribute to award-winning writer & director Marielle Heller.
Closing Night: Here
The director, writer and stars of Forrest Gump reunite for Here, original film about multiple families and a special place they inhabit, presenting an emotional journey through generations of human experience.
At the Closing Night screening, director Robert Zemeckis is set to receive the Founder’s Legacy Award.
Blitz
London, WWII. 9-year-old George, sent to the countryside by his mother, embarks on an epic journey to return home and reunite with his family.
Featuring impressive attention to period detail and empathetic performances from its all-star cast, Blitz is an inspiring, heartfelt tale of bravery and perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds, as McQueen’s signature visual style conjures up an immersive vision of wartime London.
Conclave
Conclave follows one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events – selecting the new Pope. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.
Emilia Pérez
Through liberating song and dance and bold visuals, this Mexican odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women, each pursuing happiness.
The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self. The double Cannes-winning film also stars Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Édgar Ramírez.
Maria
Directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Academy Award-winner Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas, Maria presents a tumultuous and beautiful depiction of one of the world’s most renowned artists and reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days in Paris, as La Callas negotiates the blurred boundaries between her public image and private self. The film also stars Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Viet and Nam
Young coal miners in love Viêt and Nam steal moments of intimacy together at work deep underground. But Nam wants to leave the country via a smuggler, placing their future on tenuous ground. Waiting in limbo, the two accompany Nam’s mother on her search through the jungle — and her dreams — for the remains of her veteran husband, the ghosts of the past guiding their way.
Between Goodbyes
Born in South Korea, but adopted by Dutch parents and raised in the Netherlands, Mieke lives happily as a queer woman with her partner in the city of Utrecht. But when her guilt-ridden birth parents reach out to her after years of separation, Mieke’s life is upended. She must come to grips with who she is, and also who she might have been — made all the more complex by the entrenched homophobia that still exists in South Korean society.
The End
From Oscar-nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer comes a poignant and deeply human musical about a family that survived the end of the world. Twenty-five years after environmental collapse left the Earth uninhabitable, Mother (Tilda Swinton), Father (Michael Shannon) and Son (George McKay) are confined to their palatial bunker, where they struggle to maintain hope and a sense of normalcy by clinging to the rituals of daily life — until the arrival of a stranger, Girl, upends their happy routine.
