The Festival debuts the New Directors category, as well as a Films for Children competition judged by children. For the first time, the Festival receives public acknowledgement from Mayor Richard J. Daley, who had previously told Kutza, “the films you show could lose me votes!” in declining public support of its audacious, often experimental programming. Career animator George Pal is celebrated, and Belgian director Harry Kümel is awarded the Best Feature Gold Hugo for Monsieur Hawarden.
Categories Archives: CCTimeline
All timeline stories.
1968
Two short films by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Two Virgins and No. 5, receive their World Premieres at the Festival. The Gold Hugo for Best Feature goes to Innocence Unprotected by Yugoslavian director Dusan Makavejev, and the Festival pays tribute to Mervyn LeRoy and famed Canadian animator Norman McLaren.
1967
The Festival presents I Call First (later retitled to Who’s That Knocking At My Door), the first feature film by director Martin Scorsese, starring Harvey Keitel. The film is reviewed by a young critic as one of his first assignments for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert. That year saw honors for Busby Berkeley, George Cukor, Ruby Keeler, Saul Bass, Pablo Ferro, and animator Richard Williams. The 3rd Chicago International Film Festival also sees the debut of the iconic “eyes” logo, a composite of close-ups of silent screen sirens Theda Bara, Pola Negri, and Mae Murray, designed by Kutza.
1966
The Chicago International Film Festival is declared open to adults only to avoid having to obtain programming approval from the Chicago Censor Board, a civic group made up of policemen’s widows that rated films for local audiences. The United States Supreme Court ultimately dissolved the group two years later. Harold Lloyd, Otto Preminger, and silent film comedienne Colleen Moore are celebrated at the 2nd Chicago International Film Festival.
1965
The first Chicago International Film Festival debuts on November 9 at the original Carnegie Theatre at Rush and Oak St. Eight films are shown in the feature category, selected from more than 300 entries from 15 nations. Other categories included Religious Films, Experimental Films, Industrial Films, Short Subjects, Educational Films, Television Commercials, Documentaries, and Cartoons. In its inaugural year, the Festival honors King Vidor in a ceremony attended by Bette Davis, Stanley Kramer gives a talk offering advice to student filmmakers, and short films by the soon-to-be-legendary director William Friedkin are presented.
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