Digging Deeper into Movies
with Nick Davis
Join the Chicago International Film Festival and Nick Davis, Northwestern Professor and film critic, for this series of free interactive lectures exploring recent releases and festival films from around the world with a focus on the nuances of imagery, editing, and sound that complicate story and theme.
Admission is free and open to the public with registration.
The Digging Deeper into Movies Lecture Series is made possible with the support of the Robert & Penelope Steiner Family Foundation.
Upcoming Digging Deeper Events
Lee Chang-dong: A Touch of the Poet
A prize-winning filmmaker and novelist and a former Minister of Culture and Tourism in Korea’s government, Lee Chang-dong has cultivated a tender, soulful, elliptical style all his own—while still confronting class-based tensions and simmering potential for violence. Hooked to his latest film Possible Love, a hit at last month’s Chicago International Film Festival, this talk will give equal time to Lee’s aesthetic craft, rapport with actors, and sharp-edged social critiques.
The Unexpected Encounter: All of a Sudden and Mouse
Two of the strongest features at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival were All of a Sudden, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s Franco-Japanese study of reimagined elder care and of strangers who quickly become soulmates, and Mouse, Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s Arkansas-set drama about a middle-aged mother and a teenage girl who feel but also force an intimate connection in the wake of a shared loss. This talk will explore stylistic and thematic bonds between these warm, haunted, soft-spoken masterpiece.
Past Digging Deeper Events
Never a Dull Moment: Radu Jude
Radu Jude’s prolific and much-lauded artistry has often proved fiery, literally and otherwise. His florid, impudent style poses its own commentary on our brazen and spiraling era, even before each movie reveals its series of witty, provocative viewpoints on such raw-nerve subjects as cancel culture, media manipulation, and histories of genocide.
Time and Teamwork: The Cinema of Mike Leigh
This presentation considers how teamwork and partnership, in all their complexity, are ongoing preoccupations of director Mike Leigh’s storytelling, not just his working methods. We’ll also honor Leigh’s undervalued collaboration with behind-the-camera talent, including editors and cinematographers, and his keen hold on specific dilemmas of middle and old age.
On the Road with Pawel Pawlikowski
This Digging Deeper session will chart the extraordinary versatility but also some consistent signatures across Pawal Pawlikowski’s career, ranging from 2004’s psychosexual suspenser My Summer of Love to 2013’s post-Holocaust drama Ida, which further raised his profile and earned him an Oscar.
Cannes Staycation 2026
This year’s program for the Cannes Film Festival tilts refreshingly toward less familiar voices. We’ll spend this session catching up with past work by names that may be newer to many of us, plus some established masters always worth reconsidering.
What a Difference a Director Makes: Documentary Edition!
Looking at clips from some of last year’s most acclaimed nonfiction releases, each very different in style and topic, we will highlight unique aesthetic decisions that make each film a creative achievement as well as a valuable inquiry into real lives and events.
Oscar Spotlight: What a Difference a Director Makes
This year, Oscar’s Directing Branch nominated two movies showcased at last fall’s Festival and three bigger-budget features by filmmakers who started out as independents.
Buried Treasures: Unsung Movies of 2025
