Chicago International Film Festival/Photo: Timothy M. Schmidt
Chicago’s film festival institutions are hardly autumnal: The Chicago International Film Festival turns fifty-nine; Chicago Underground is thirty this year; and Reeling? Forty-one. Tuck into 130 years of tasty institutional memory this fall.
The Forty-First Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival September 21-October 8
The second-oldest LGBTQ+ film festival in the world returns, kicking off at the Music Box and continuing its run at hub theater Landmark Century Centre Cinemas, showcasing the most innovative and insightful work in narrative and documentary film exploring the LGBTQ+ experience worldwide. reelingfilmfest.org
The Fifty-Ninth Chicago International Film Festival
October 11-22
The longest-running competitive film festival in North America celebrates opening night October 11 with a giant block party stretched out down Southport outside the Music Box before a marathon of more than ninety films in theaters across the city including the festivals new hub, the AMC Newcity 14, the Music Box, the Siskel Film Center, the Chicago History Museum and select Chicago Park District venues. chicagofilmfestival.com
Napoleon Opens November 22
Ridley Scott made an auspicious directorial debut in 1977 (at the age of forty) with the lush Napoleonic-era rivalry of “The Duellists”; his Joaquin Phoenix-starring portrait of the larger canvas opens the week before his eighty-sixth annum.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Film Top 5: January 2023 Epic movies at a single sitting, including "OUT 1," "Sátántangó" and "Dekalog"; two months of Billy Wilder movies in 35mm; and one creepy doll.
