Fiercely committed performances drive this satirical hothouse thriller about a successful Black couple driven to take action after learning that their neighbor, a while policeman, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed youth.

Two decades after spending their last vacation together, Sophie tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t in this searing emotional drama.

In this absorbing family drama, a close-knit clan is plunged into crisis when the land they have farmed for decades is sold to developers.

When the residents of a Colombian youth shelter are asked to imagine a fellow adolescent, “Alis” emerges as an avatar for their own experiences in this innovative and moving portrait of youth and resilience.

After a disturbed recluse scores hallucinogenic earthworms, he embarks on a psychedelic journey of self-discovery with a sex worker and a hotel maintenance man as his companions.

This compelling personal history chronicles Goldin’s tragedies and triumphs, as she uses her position as an artist and disrupter to affect cultural and political change.

A heartfelt tribute to activists Art Johnston and Pepe Peña, whose celebrated gay bar Sidetrack has fueled movements and created community on Chicago’s Halsted Street for decades.

In this off-beat send-up of blind ambition that celebrates female friendship, Iceland’s Post Performance Blues Band give themselves one year to become avant-garde pop stars—or relinquish their dream forever.

Two lifelong friends find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them.

In this gripping, primal thriller, a French couple living in rural Spain becomes embroiled in an escalating conflict with the local community that reaches a point of no return.

Set in 1960s Indonesia, this layered, contemplative drama sees a lonely woman forge a life-saving friendship with her husband’s mistress.

Best of Fest showcases 10 winning shorts from CineYouth 2022 and includes passionate documentaries, surreal comedies, and deeply personal stories by young filmmakers from around the globe.

An inspiring look at rookie Alderman Robin Rue Simmons’ fight to redress the wrongs of “redlining” and the legacy of slavery through a groundbreaking reparations program in Evanston, Illinois.

After master tailor Halim reluctantly takes on a new apprentice, the two must conceal their mutual attraction in this elegant and sympathetic reflection on adoration, love, and longing.

Overwhelmed and unable to care for her new child, new mother So-young stumbles into an unlikely partnership with two baby traffickers to find the perfect (and well-paying) parents for her infant in this heartbreaking, human story of found family.

In this crackling, politically-minded thriller, by-the-book prosecutor Emre discovers he has been sent into a viper’s nest of corruption, scandal, and homophobia at his new posting in a drought-plagued rural community.

In this compelling neo-Western, a Harvard-educated young man teams up with an impassioned buffalo hunter (Nicolas Cage) for an epic quest that unravels in a downward spiral of ego, obsession, and greed.

After a life-threatening heart condition forces a suburban Chicago housewife (Elizabeth Banks) to seek an abortion in 1968, she turns to an underground activist group for help—and joins their cause.

In this taut, understated thriller, a woman of means treads dangerous ground when she agrees to care for an injured member of the political opposition during the Pinochet dictatorship.

Following a perfect summer vacation, the intimate friendship of Leo and Remi, thirteen-year-old best friends, is tragically tested by the social pressures of the new school year.

The fascinating story of Manhattan Project scientist Theodore Hall, who passed crucial military secrets to Soviet intelligence in the hopes of saving the world.

Vicky Krieps delivers a tour-de-force performance as Austria’s Empress Elisabeth in a bold and timely revisionist costume drama.

Set against 19th-century China’s breathtaking landscape, this action-packed, box office smash from acclaimed director Ang Lee features stunning martial arts choreography by Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix).

An ace detective falls for a magnetic murder suspect in this neo-noir masterpiece from South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook

Devotion, an aerial war epic based on the bestselling book of the same name, tells the harrowing true story of Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors) and Tom Hudner (Glen Powell), two elite U.S. Navy fighter pilots during the Korean War. Their heroic sacrifices would ultimately make them the Navy’s most celebrated wingmen.

Set in an English seaside town in the early 1980s, Empire of Light is a powerful and poignant story about human connection and the magic of cinema from Academy Award®-winning director Sam Mendes.

A series of vignettes tell the life story of Eo, a sentient circus donkey whose tumultuous life finds him bearing witness to the best and worst of humanity in this loving homage to Robert Bresson’s “Au Hasard Balthazar.”

A shapeshifting creature upends the lives of a squabbling couple seeking to rekindle their romance in this utterly unique and delightfully off-kilter fable that explores notions of gender, love, and longing.

A 14-year-old boy vacationing with his family in rural Quebec falls for a rebellious older girl in this tenderly-observed, haunting rumination on first love.

In this follow-up to Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out,” Detective Benoit Blanc travels to Greece to peel back the layers of a mystery involving a new cast of colorful suspects.

Journeying to Iceland to establish a parish in a remote part of the Danish colony, a priest is confronted by an unforgiving landscape and wary locals, who refuse to bend to his will.

Just as Alma is preparing to take her vows to become a nun, her estranged brother turns up demanding his share of the family inheritance, setting into motion a haunting tale of love, deceit, and forgiveness.

Resonant and riveting, this eco-thriller sees a crew of young environmental activists plot to carry out a dangerous mission to sabotage an American oil pipeline.

Believing she has been cursed by a sinister entity, a pregnant woman must embrace dark magic to combat the malicious spirit in this chilling exploration of the anxieties of early motherhood.

Searching for meaning in her life and work, a young journalist investigates the deportation of a local asylum seeker in this understated yet profound character-driven drama.

In this personal film of memory and discovery, director Mary McCartney gives exclusive access to the most famous and longest-running studio in the world, Abbey Road Studios.

With an uneasy beauty and a blistering moral force, filmmaker Guy Davidi chronicles the militarization of Israeli society and its impact on the lives of young people.

After a young, gay Black man joins the Marines, he battles prejudice and the grueling routines of basic training, while also finding unexpected strength, camaraderie and a welcome sense of identity from his new community.

This exposé of crime and corruption delves into the brutal murder of a reporter, implicating a brazen oligarch connected to the highest echelons of Slovakia’s government.

The thrilling life story of the legendary African American powerbroker, who built a multimillion-dollar empire running a racketeering syndicate on Chicago’s South Side in the 1930s and ’40s.

A kaleidoscopic road movie that follows five streetwise boys on a dangerous yet dreamlike journey across Colombia to reclaim a piece of land that they might finally call home.

A headstrong pregnant 14-year-old is sent to live at La Maternal, a support home for young mothers, where she must quickly learn how to be a parent.

When an aging action screenwriter is knocked into a coma by a falling television, she becomes trapped in one of her unfinished scripts and must find a way to complete the story while still unconscious.

In this stirring true-life tale set in 1968 Italy, poet and playwright Aldo Braibant must defend himself after he is accused of breaking an antiquated Fascist-era law criminalizing homosexuality.

Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan star in this inspiring true-story of a shy, middle-aged writer who sets out to unearth the long-buried truth about King Richard III’s life and death.

An in-depth look at controversial Civil Rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton detailing the roots of his political engagement and his evolution into a media-savvy showman.

An intimate and revealing look at the world-changing musician, presented
through a lens of archival footage and never-before-heard home recordings and personal conversations.

Warmth, humor, and winning performances infuse this heartfelt comedy that follows twin brothers Kolya and Vasily in their search for common ground and a long lost father.

For his latest masterful inquiry into the power of the moving image, director Mark Cousins ventures into Italy’s film archives to expose the machinations and faulty foundations of fascism through his dissection of an infamous 1923 propaganda film.

In this charming, absurdist tale of mid-life restlessness, an aspiring novelist suffering from writer’s block finds himself out of his depth after he is befriended by his new neighbor who dabbles in petty crime.

A striking portrait of artist David Hammons, who emerged out of L.A.’s Watts Rebellion and whose provocative work was rooted in a deep critique of U.S. society.

In 1972 Bucharest, agathering of freedom-minded teenagers is interrupted when the secret police come knocking in this alternately tender and tense, politically inflected coming-of-age drama.

Trace Lysette stars as a woman who moves back to her childhood home to care for her dying mother (Patricia Clarkson) after two decades of estrangement in this intimate study of forgiveness and acceptance.

A tale of forbidden romance and changing social conventions that follows the relationships between three people—and their emotional journey spanning decades.

A retired sea captain’s strained relationship with his adult daughter is further tested when he embarks on a new romance with a widowed housekeeper.

In a stunning performance, Anna Diop plays a Senegalese nanny increasingly haunted by the absence of the young son she left behind.

In this mesmerizing documentary crafted entirely from WWII archival footage, Ukrainian-raised filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa (Donbass) mounts a harrowing critique of the killing of civilian populations during war-time.

Playing a fictionalized version of himself, director Jafar Panahi, barred from leaving Iran, remotely supervises a film shoot in this meta-textual reflection on freedom, oppression, and cinema itself.

In this inspiring story of love, hope, and activism, former Obama political director Brian Wallach, who was diagnosed with ALS at age 37, fights alongside his wife to find solutions for the debilitating disease.

Months after her daughter’s disappearance, a grieving mother sets out on a search for answers and joins an underground network of people risking their lives to search for lost loved ones.

A famous writer is inspired to make a film after a chance encounter with a director who tried and failed to adapt one of her novels in this wistful meditation on the creative process.

From Cannes winner Mia Hansen-Løve comes this engrossing story of a young widow whose friendship with a married friend soon blossoms into a passionate love affair.

Interpol agent Ramon Ortega becomes a ruthless killing machine driven by vengeance after he and his new bride are brutally attacked in their own home.

De Roller, France’s top man in post-colonial Tahiti, grows paranoid as rumors of military tests begin circulating throughout the island in this mesmerizing, elliptical vision of declining colonial enterprise and imperialist corruption.

A lyrical and intimate portrait of a transgender woman in rural Brazil confronting prejudices as she pursues her dream of a traditional church wedding.

In this sublime 1980s Paris-set drama, newly single mother Élizabeth (Charlotte Gainsbourg) takes a job at a late-night call-in radio show, a decision that redefines her place in the world and reshapes her destiny

An introverted Foley artist working on a commercial is invigorated when her body begins to transform in unexpected, intoxicating ways.

In a remote Alpine village, Marco and Anna find their relationship tested as his behavior grows increasingly erratic in this moving meditation on the nature of enduring love.

In a dystopian near-future, the fates of three lonely souls become intertwined as they are drawn into the sphere of Plan 75, a government program that gently coerces senior citizens to be euthanized.

Filmmaker Sinead O’Shea returns to her Irish hometown to scrutinize the Church’s pervasive history of abuse and neglect—and shine a light on the unsung heroes who fought back.

A rural Transylvanian village is pushed to its breaking point by anger and xenophobia in this edge-of-your-seat small town thriller.

Half-brothers Raymond and Ray have lived in the shadow of a terrible father. Somehow, they still each have a sense of humor, and his funeral is a chance for them to reinvent themselves.

Trailblazing country legend Tanya Tucker makes one of the greatest artistic comebacks in music history, forging an unexpected friendship with the acclaimed singer-songwriter she inspired.

A surprisingly tender bond develops between two social outcasts in this sweeping meditation on the joys and sorrows of life on the margins in rural China.

After Freddie, 25, returns to her native South Korea for the first time, she finds herself on an unexpected journey, taking her life in new directions.

In this deftly directed psychological thriller, a promising young doctor loses his grasp on reality after developing an unhealthy obsession with a patient whose symptoms seem suspect.

In this visually stunning story of first love, a young woman sets out to bury her father in his rural Illinois hometown and finds connection with a fellow lonely soul.

In this profound character study, a novelist observes the trial of a Senegalese woman accused of infanticide—a crime she admits to having committing yet maintains her innocence.

Gleaming silver superhero Ultraman is called back into action to protect Japan from ever more monstrous otherworldly kaiju threats in this wildly entertaining reboot of the classic 1960s sci-fi franchise.

These shorts reflect the makeup of Chicago in unique visual styles that together form a creative local landscape.

This group of animated shorts stirs the imagination and offers heroic stories of rituals.

This spine-tingling collection of shorts feels like a fever dream, taking viewers on a harrowing journey of crisis and mischief. Questioning everything becomes a means of survival.

These powerful non-fiction shorts highlight ambitious missions, modern artistry, and regional heritage.

These five shorts spanning five countries are bursting with precarious circumstances and unexpected happenings.

These impressive comedic shorts pack a punch and make it hard to hold in your laughter.

This suite of films revels in themes of memory, grief, and joy.

Radical tools are at play in this daring collection of shorts that take viewers on an experience like no other.

This group of fun, energetic, emotional, and beautifully made animated works will capture the imaginations of audiences of all ages.

In this homage to classic slasher films reimagined for the pandemic era, college friends Parker and Miri quarantine at a remote lake house, only to discover they are not entirely alone.

In this incisive social satire, a small Czech town is riled into xenophobic fervor after the locals are persuaded that a car crashing into an Easter celebration is an act of terrorism.

In this tender yet fittingly irreverent portrait of iconoclastic filmmaker Robert Downey, Sr.), documentarian Chris Smith, together with the subject’s movie-star son, conspire to tell the story of a fearless American director.

Learning that a local drug cartel threatens one of his promising young pupils, a Buenos Aires educator must decide how far he will go to protect the boy’s life in this tense and timely drama.

An indigenous teen joins a youth therapy trip into the Western Australian wilderness, discovering photography as a new lens through which to view her world and her dreams.

A day in the Tunisian fig harvest: fruit pickers young and old gossip, squabble, flirt and reminisce, seeking connection and reflecting on love and life in this sun-dappled slice of life.

When Vicenta loses her gifts of seeing into the future and communicating with spirits, she must search for her faith among a community that has lost its own.

A Czech anthropologist discovers her new home on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is threatened both by melting glaciers and a newly hardened stance against open border immigration policies.

Brendan Fraser stars in this intimate drama about a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.

A contemporary American family attempts to deal with the mundane conflicts of everyday life while grappling with the universal mysteries of love, death, and the possibility of happiness in an uncertain world.

When 17-year-old Lucas finds his blithe teenage world suddenly shattered, his worried mother sends him to Paris where he plunges into a sea of excitement, possibility, and anonymity with near reckless abandon.

Based on the best-selling novel by Miriam Toews, Women Talking follows a group of women in an isolated religious colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony’s men.

The Irish Midlands, 1862. When a young girl stops eating yet miraculously remains alive and well, a skeptical nurse is called to investigate, challenging the faith of the community.

Although a series of surreal cataclysmic events throws his life into chaos, cheery Pepe remains steadfastly optimistic in this riotous, deadpan fable set in the endless Finnish winter.

When murderous Bruce invites fellow art aficionado Meredith to his house, the evening spirals into a surreal, bloody fantasia inspired by the Greek myth of the Furies.

In her sharply comic feature debut, Chicago filmmaker Alex Heller plays an acerbic college student with bipolar disorder struggling to connect with her parents and make her way in the world.