Festival Programs

This year’s festival kicks off with One Golden Summer. Years after cheating allegations stripped a Chicago Little League team of their championship title, this eye-opening documentary uncovers the story behind the headlines.

In Rental Family, an American actor (Brendan Fraser) struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers.

Closing out the festival is Eternity, in which souls in the afterlife have one week to decide where to spend eternity. Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) is faced with the impossible choice between her husband and her first love.

Don’t miss newly added screenings of these Festival award winners and audience favorites!

Exciting, last-minute additions to the festival lineup.

Be the first to catch the year’s most highly anticipated films by notable directors featuring celebrated talents.

Masterful, stylish, and bold, these powerful cinematic statements represent the best in modern filmmaking from around the globe.

Screening for the first time in the U.S., these bold works from emerging talents showcase exciting new voices in international cinema.

These real-life stories bring you close to memorable people reckoning with the personal and the political, the past and the present.

From Ireland to North Macedonia, Canada to Libya, these compelling international documentaries compete for the festival’s top nonfiction prize.

Award-winners and critical favorites, these films are among the year’s most acclaimed and accomplished.

Featuring everything from heartfelt dramas to animated adventures to gripping thrillers, these resonant works showcase the diversity of contemporary global cinema.

Competing for the Q Hugo Award, these superbly crafted films reflect the myriad perspectives and experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals.

Spanning narrative, documentary, and animation, these films are succinct yet mighty demonstrations of the exceptional craft and considerable scope of the short form.

From sex-on-demand to colonial revenge and jinn to necromancers, these blood-splattered stories put us face-to-face with fantastical frights and the real-world conditions that produce them.

From North America to Africa and the Caribbean, this collection of stories about the Black experience explores cultural icons, historical excavations, and the complexities of individuals in relation to their communities.

From destructive tornados to dysfunctional families and more, these stories from the brightest local talents will compete for the Chicago Award.

Hilarious, deadpan, and satirical, this program presents a range of films that will keep you laughing out loud.

Community Cinema presents free indoor screenings of Chicago International Film Festival films in the Englewood and Pilsen neighborhoods.

From a Martinican 1983 classic to American indies and a French New Wave masterpiece, these restored screenings (some on 35mm!) give you the rare chance to see past movies anew.