Cinema/Chicago News

Cinema/Chicago News

Takuma Sato

Director Spotlight: Sato Takuma on ANY CRYBABIES AROUND

Published: October 24, 2020  |  Filed under: Festival News

The 56th Chicago International Film Festival is excited to welcome director Sato Takuma to our fair city for the premiere of his film Any Crybabies Around? Young parent Tasuku has spent his life assiduously avoiding any responsibility in his small town in northern Japan. But when he’s caught drunk and naked on live national TV coverage at the local Namahage festival, in which men dress as ogres and scare children into behaving, he flees to Tokyo in shame. After two years of rock-bottom city living, he returns home, ready to embrace adulthood.[…]

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Cinema/Chicago News

36hours

36 Hours of Festival at Home

Published: October 24, 2020  |  Filed under: Festival News

With only two days to go, we’re here to help you to maximize your viewing experience and strategize so you can make the most of your time before Festival viewing ends this Sunday at 11:59pm CT. With a frigid Saturday and a rainy Sunday in the Chicago forecast, the elements are conspiring to eliminate any outdoor distractions.

Additionally to add to your schedule, we’ve just announced the Ivory Coast’s Night of the Kings, winner of Best Cinematography and Best Sound, will be available for appointment viewing on Sunday, October 25 from 4pm-8pm![…]

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Cinema/Chicago News

Kris Dewitte

Director Spotlight: Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Niels van Koevorden on BECOMING MONA

Published: October 21, 2020  |  Filed under: 56 Films

The 56th Chicago International Film Festival is excited to welcome directors Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Niels van Koevorden to our fair city for the premiere of their film Becoming Mona. This poignant tragicomic journey of courage follows Mona from early childhood when she is inculcated to be a quiet, obedient presence in the world. She blossoms into a talented young artist, but years of repressing her feelings have impaired her emotionally, binding her to unhealthy relationships at work and at home.[…]

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Cinema/Chicago News

Jiayan Shi FindingYingying Jiayan Jenny Shi Director

Director Spotlight: Jiayan “Jenny” Shi on FINDING YINGYING

Published: October 19, 2020  |  Filed under: Festival News

The 56th Chicago International Film Festival is excited to welcome director Jiayan “Jenny” Shi to our fair city for the premiere of her film Finding Yingying. In April 2017, idealistic Chinese student Yingying Zhang came to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to study agriculture. Six weeks later, she went missing. In what the Hollywood Reporter has called “a deft portrait of a family on the razor’s edge between hope and dread,” filmmaker Jiayan “Jenny” Shi chronicles the circumstances around Yingying’s disappearance and its devastating consequences on her family, friends, and community.[…]

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