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Banner: the 61st Chicago International Film Festival

Genre: Romance


In the center of a dark, flooded room with large windows, an animated ghost hunches over a grand piano.

Arguments in Favor of Love (Argumentos a Favor do Amor)

Gabriel Abrantes  |   Portugal
English  
Animation, Drama, Romance
Against a backdrop of flooded apartments and fiery forests, two animated ghosts rehash old arguments. This anger, however, contains other feelings: the grief of loss and the love that bound [...]
Distorted by a glitch effect, a blue-haired woman sits at a laptop with a messy desk and an open window in the background.

Blue Violet

Josie Charles  |   U.K.
English  
Comedy, LGBTQ, Romance
Blue’s devotion to her beloved Violet knows no bounds, as the video compilation she’s assembled for Violet’s birthday attempts to convey. When hours pass with still no response to her [...]
An elderly woman stands on a balcony with flowers, resting her arms on the ledge and looking down, smiling.

Calle Malaga

Maryam Touzani  |   Morocco, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium
Arabic, Spanish  
Drama, Family Affairs, Romance, Women-Centered

In this warmly spirited drama, eighty-year-old María plots to remain in her beloved Tangier home even as her daughter threatens to displace her.

In black & white, a couple is in an argument. Between them are three people sitting on a couch, observing their conversation.

Exam (Egzamin)

Jan Naszewski  |   France, Poland
Polish  
Romance, Social Commentary
A couple are put to the test, literally, when they agree to participate in a joint therapy session that will be observed by an international panel of psychology experts. Proving [...]
A man and a woman closely stand face to face in a deeply wooded area.

Hamnet

Chloé Zhao  |   U.K.
English  
Biopic, Drama, Literary Adaptation, Romance

From Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, Hamnet tells the powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Hamlet.

A young woman wears a pink bathing suit and an ill-fitting pink shower cap, with goggles around her neck.

Heartsick

MK Quane  |   Ireland
English  
LGBTQ, Romance
Spiraling from a recent breakup, Jess writes a detailed email to her ex to prove how well she is doing, with a few embellishments here and there… An utterly charming [...]
One person lays their head on top of another person's chest, as they both lie asleep. A multicolored light shines on them.

Hold Me Close

Aurora Brachman, LaTajh Weaver  |   U.S.
English  
LGBTQ, Romance
Through audio recordings created by a couple over the course of a season, this film portrays and celebrates the love shared between two women. Shot exclusively inside the apartment where [...]
A stuffed, humanoid doll with a man's face projected onto it sits at a table in a room full of plastic-covered furniture.

Manakin

Kasey Oldford  |   U.S.
English  
Romance, Social Commentary
A single woman living alone is in search of a companion, so she builds one, stuffing discarded nylon stockings until they take on the approximate shape of a human man. [...]
Sitting behind a microphone set-up, a woman recites lines during a recording session.

Narrated By

Khaya Fraites  |   U.S.
English  
Romance
A normal day in the recording studio for voice actress Candice takes a sudden turn when a former fling shows up as her scene partner. Past resentment and underlying chemistry [...]

Shorts 1: After Dark

Various  |   France, Jordan, Palestine, Sweden, U.K., U.S.
Arabic, English, French, Swedish  
Comedy, Drama, Family Affairs, Horror, LGBTQ, Romance, Science Fiction, Social Commentary, Thriller, Women-Centered

Unfulfilled dreams, dark obsessions, and illicit desires take center stage in this program that transports viewers into the bold and blood-curdling world of genre film. From ventriloquist dummies to unrequited love, these shorts expose our darkest fears… and create new ones.

Shorts 3: Black Perspectives

Various  |   Kenya, Nigeria, U.S.
American Sign Language, English, Portuguese  
Coming of Age, Drama, Family Affairs, Music, Romance, Women-Centered

Close ties abound in these short films spanning Brazil, Kenya, Nigeria, and the U.S. These six shorts explore the complicated relationships between parents and children, aunts and nieces, artists and their craft, and even former lovers.

Shorts 5: Comedy

Various  |   France, Ireland, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, U.S.
Arabic, English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Swiss-German, Turkish  
Art, Coming of Age, LGBTQ, Noir, Romance, Social Commentary, Women-Centered

Laugh away the woes of the world with this eclectic collection of comedies. From the absurd anxieties of wannabe filmmakers to the ridiculous delusions of the recently dumped, these stories are insightful, unexpected, and delightfully irreverent.

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 woman stands at a window, a man resting behind her resting his forehead on the back of her head. Her expression is serene as she looks outward.

Three Goodbyes (Tre Ciotole)

Isabel Coixet  |   Italy, Spain
Italian  
Drama, Literary Adaptation, Romance, Women-Centered

This elegant and emotional drama finds Marta reeling after a breakup until a world-shifting diagnosis brings clarity and purpose to her life.

A man stands in a warehouse, looking down at a red contraption with white tubes coming out of the top.

A Useful Ghost (Pee Chai Dai Ka)

Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke  |   Thailand
Thai  
Comedy, LGBTQ, Political, Romance

Vengeful ghosts, possessed vacuum cleaners, and a supernatural sense of justice converge in this charmingly absurd fable of memory, loss, and grief.