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Banner: the 61st Chicago International Film Festival

Genre: Environmental


An animated young girl sits on the shoulders of a man in a large rainbow cloak. Beams of light shoot from his forehead.

Arco

Ugo Bienvenu  |   France
English  
Adventure, Animation, Environmental, Science Fiction

When a curious time traveler falls from the sky, 10-year-old Iris resolves to help her new friend return to the future in this thrilling animated adventure.

Shown in black and white, a massive mountain sits in the middle of a sprawling city. Sun streams through the clouds.

Below the Clouds (Sotto le nuvole)

Gianfranco Rosi  |   Italy
Arabic, English, Italian, Japanese  
Environmental, Political, Social Commentary

From the Oscar-nominated director of Fire at Sea comes an immersive and impressionistic portrait of communities living in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

A man and a woman stand at a barbed wire fence in the middle of a field, using cellphones to film a looming storm.

A Brief History of Chasing Storms

Curtis Miller  |   U.S.
English, Spanish  
Environmental, Social Commentary

A road-trip through “tornado alley” yields an evocative cinematic essay mapping the natural disaster as destructive event and iconic American symbol.

A woman in sunglasses walks to her car, parked outside of her lavish home.

Bugonia

Yorgos Lanthimos  |   U.K.
English  
Comedy, Environmental, Science Fiction, Thriller

Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.

A close up of a young girl sitting outside, her face hopeful as she looks to the right. The sky behind her is bright white.

Cotton Queen

Suzannah Mirghani  |   Germany, France, Palestine, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan
Arabic  
Coming of Age, Environmental, Family Affairs, Women-Centered

In a matriarchal cotton-rich Sudanese village, teenage Nafisa is at the nexus of a power play that will determine the community’s future.

A bare chested man stis on a canoe at night, as he blows a green powder on his hand, and holds a bowl with his other hand.

Lanawaru

Angello Faccini Rueda  |   Colombia, Mexico, U.S.
Spanish  
Coming of Age, Environmental
As a community grapples with the disappearance of one of their own, a young boy receives spiritual guidance from his grandfather. Hypnotic and profound, Lanawaru depicts one community’s bond with [...]
Seen in black and white, a man holds a baby while standing in a small playground.

Seeds

Brittany Shyne  |   U.S.
English  
Environmental, Family Affairs, Political, Social Commentary

This lyrical portrait of legacy Black farmers in the American South celebrates their tenacity and resolve, presenting a timeless vision of a waning way of life.

Shorts 2: Animation

Various  |   Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Finland, France, Ireland, Japan, Portugal
Chinese, English, French, No Dialogue, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish  
Animation, Art, Comedy, Coming of Age, Drama, Environmental, Family Affairs, Mystery

Some worlds can only truly be conjured outside of physical reality. These eight thrilling shorts unfold in an inventive array of visual and narrative styles that come together to form a vibrant snapshot of contemporary animation.

Shorts 7: Documentary

Various  |   Colombia, Mexico, Netherlands, U.K., U.S.
Croatian, English, Spanish  
Comedy, Coming of Age, Environmental, Family Affairs, LGBTQ, Music, Political, Religion, Sports

These films showcase the richness of the documentary form. Through observation, testimony, and poetic reimagining, six different complex corners of the world come into view.

Shorts 10: Outré

Various  |   Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Philippines, Portugal, Spain, U.S.
English, French, Spanish, Tagalog  
Animation, Comedy, Drama, Environmental, Horror, LGBTQ, Romance, Social Commentary, Women-Centered

The creators of these shorts unabashedly follow their own singular visions into wildly new and weird territories.

A man in a suit stands under a large and knotty tree, looking up at it. His hands are clasped.

Silent Friend

Ildikó Enyedi  |   Germany, Hungary, France
English, German  
Art, Drama, Environmental

A majestic ginkgo tree connects three characters across a century in this thoughtful, winsome meditation on the mysterious power of nature.

An older man in a dark tank top sits outdoors, gently holding a white stork against his side. His hand is extended, offering food to the bird, while a wooden bench and orange net rest nearby in the background.

The Tale of Silyan

Tamara Kotevska  |   North Macedonia
Macedonian  
Environmental, Family Affairs, Political, Social Commentary

From the Oscar-nominated director of Honeyland comes a heartwarming story of family, storks, and sustainability in North Macedonia.

A computer-generated image depicts the outlines of a tree in a forest with tiny dots of light.

This is not your Garden (Este no es tu jardín)

Carlos Velandia, Angélica Restrepo  |   Colombia
Spanish  
Animation, Environmental
In this hypnotic short, new media artists Carlos Velandia and Angélica Restrepo use data visualization to document mist forests and páramos near Bogota, ecosystems that are facing existential threat due [...]
Against a tile-covered wall, a stream of yellow liquid passes through the center of two hands held together to form a heart.

Water Sports

Whammy Alcazaren  |   Philippines
Tagalog  
Comedy, Environmental, LGBTQ
Two students, Jelson and Ipe, prepare for life in their hyper-stylized world ravaged by climate change through feats of physical strength and endurance. However, the force that binds them together [...]
A woman with dark hair pulled back stands in a forest, wearing a brown jacket, knit sweater, and backpack straps over her shoulders. She looks ahead with a serious, slightly tense expression. The background is blurred trees and soft light.

Whitetail

Nanouk Leopold  |   Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium
English  
Crime, Environmental, Thriller, Women-Centered

As poachers encroach on the wilderness she supervises, Irish park ranger Jen must reconcile past trauma with new threats in this white-knuckle thriller.

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