Author name: Cinema Chicago

The 59th Chicago International Film Festival announced select highlights of this year’s festival, running October 11 – 22, 2023. Films will be presented at venues throughout the city including the AMC NEWCITY 14, the Music Box Theatre, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Chicago History Museum, the Hamilton Park Cultural Center in Englewood, Harrison Park in Pilsen, the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

We Grown Now, written and directed by Festival alum Minhal Baig (Hala), will open the Festival on October 11 at the Music Box Theatre.[…]

Want to hear behind-the-scenes stories from 50+ years of the Chicago International Film Festival in anticipation of this fall’s 59th edition?

Check out Starstruck: How I Magically Transformed Chicago into Hollywood for More Than Fifty Years. It’s a captivating memoir by our Festival Founder Michael Kutza detailing his time at the helm of the longest-running competitive film festival in North America, with stories featuring stars from Sophia Loren and Steven Spielberg to Viola Davis and Al Pacino.

As Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone says, “For many of us, Michael Kutza brought the great city of Chicago to life with his infectious love of film.”[…]