![In a classroom, a crowd of onlookers watches a teenage boy read from a piece of paper.](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_ExplanationforEverything1_1200x600.jpg)
Explanation for Everything Magyarázat mindenre
Synopsis
Abel, an impetuous high school student on the verge of graduation, is in love. His only problem is that the object of his desires, his best friend Janka, has her eye on their married history professor Jakab. Distracted and unable to focus on his graduation test, Abel exits the exam room with a failing grade. Unwilling to accept the disappointing result, he insinuates to a local reporter that the test was adjudicated by Jakab with an unfair political bias. The result is a national scandal.
Explanation for Everything’s elegant narrative structure pieces together a layered mosaic of personal and political life, as opposing sides of a polarized Budapest hurtle towards a classroom confrontation.
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_ExplanationforEverything-poster_600x900.jpg)
Screenings & Events
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Media
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_ExplanationforEverything1_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_ExplanationforEverything2_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_ExplanationforEverything3_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
Film Credits
- Júlia Berkes, Mátyás Prikler
- Gábor Reisz, Éva Schulze
- Vanda Gorácz, Gábor Reisz
- Kristóf Becsey
- Gáspár Adonyi-Walsh, István Znamenák, András Rusznák, Rebeka Hatházi, Eliza Sodró, Lilla Kizlinger, Kristztina Urbanovits
- András Kálmán, Gábor Reisz
- Viktória Petrányi, Kornél Mundruczó, Eszter Gyárfás, Judit Sós
- Proton Cinema, MPHILMS
Sponsors
International Competition Program Sponsor
John and Jacolyn Bucksbaum Family Foundation
![In a lightly attended screening in the movie theater, a man glances at the woman seated next to him.](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_FallenLeaves1_1200x600.jpg)
Fallen Leaves
Synopsis
One cold night in Helsinki, two strangers meet by chance in a karaoke bar. He is a wayward alcoholic construction worker searching for meaning. She’s a lonely dreamer who spends her days stocking supermarket shelves and fantasizing about a better life. There’s a spark of instant attraction, but a slew of unfortunate everyday obstacles — lost phone numbers, missed meetings, and the fact that they don’t know each other’s names — makes it seem as if they’ve missed their chance at true love.
A masterpiece of detail and decor, Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki imbues this tender, deeply felt romance with wry wit and a light touch. Set against a brooding background of dead-end jobs and looming war, his empathetic protagonists continue to hope for something more. In the words of the director: “It felt like this bloody world needed some love stories now.”
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Media
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_FallenLeaves1_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_FallenLeaves2_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_FallenLeaves3_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
Film Credits
- Aki Kaurismäki, Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff, Reinhard Brundig
- Aki Kaurismäki
- Samu Heikkilä
- Timo Salminen
- Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen, Janne Hyytiäinen, Nuppu Koivu
- Spitnik Oy, Bufo
Sponsors
International Competition Program Sponsor
John and Jacolyn Bucksbaum Family Foundation
![A girl in a pink button-up, soaking wet, looks off camera. Behind her a pond surrounded by lush trees](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_FamilyPortrait1_1200x600.jpg)
Family Portrait
Synopsis
Spring 2020. A Texas family gathers for a reunion on their sprawling estate. When it’s time to memorialize the proceedings with a family photo, it becomes Katy’s job to wrangle everyone down by the river. Then her mother disappears, and Katy’s unwelcome task morphs into a frantic search as a trickle of news about COVID-19 spreads through the get-together. Fear begins to grip Katy, and reality appears to be tearing at the seams.
Ruminating on life, death, the nature of photography, and existence itself, the film is a brilliantly observed, often slyly humorous picture of the unwieldy chaos of a family gathering and a potent distillation of early pandemic paranoia.
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_FamilyPortrait-poster_600x900.jpg)
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![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_FamilyPortrait1_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_FamilyPortrait2_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_FamilyPortrait3_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
Film Credits
- Megan Pickrell, Frederic Winkler, Rob Rice
- Lucy Kerr
- Karlis Bergs
- Lidia Nikonova
- Deragh Campbell, Chris Galust, Rachel Alig, Katie Folger, Robert Salas, Veronica Cinibulk, Silvana Jakich, David McGuff, Christian Huey, Les Weiler
- Lucy Kerr, Brittany Reeber
- Insufficient Funds, Conjuring Productions
- https://www.lightsonfilm.com/familyportrait.html
Sponsors
New Directors Program Sponsors
Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation
![A man and woman, looking concerned, kneel next to a retro-futuristic looking microwave.](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_Fingernails1_1200x600.jpg)
Fingernails
Synopsis
Anna (Jessie Buckley) and Ryan (The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White) have found true love. In fact, it’s been proven by a controversial technology that tests the authenticity of romantic love between couples. While the assessment is painful — a single fingernail from each person in the relationship must be removed — a positive result is worth it for many. Entranced by this new science, Anna decides to take a job at the love institute, running workshops and testing matches. But when she meets her new colleague Amir (Riz Ahmed), it puts everything she knows empirically into question.
In his winsome and wryly surrealist English-language debut, Greek director Christos Nikou (2020 ChicagoIFF winner Apples) creates a clever, idiosyncratic allegory about our desire for certainty in love and the infallibility—and frailty—of our closest relationships.
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Media
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_Fingernails1_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_Fingernails2_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_Fingernails3_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
Film Credits
- Coco Francini, Andrew Upton, Cate Blanchett, Christos Nikou, Lucas Wiesendanger
- Christos Nikou, Sam Steiner, Stavros Raptis
- Yorgos Zafeiris
- Marcel Rév
- Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson, Annie Murphy
- Christopher Stracey
- Glen Basner, Milan Popelka, Alison Cohen, Ashley Fox, Kevin Lafferty, Jerome Duboz
- FilmNation Entertainment, Dirty Films
![Two men wearing matching yellow polos lean against a fence topped with barbed wire, one smokes a cigarettes.](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_Firedream1_1200x600.jpg)
firedream lumbrensueño
Synopsis
Lucas is a teenager in limbo. He and his family have recently started over in a gray, industrial city, where he works aimlessly flipping burgers at a restaurant that never ceases to exploit him. He spends his afternoons with his coworker and friend Oscar, a socially awkward free spirit who resists the family and work pressures to which Lucas feels so beholden. When Oscar suddenly departs on a distant journey, entrusting Lucas with a shoebox full of his memories and most valued possessions, these objects will send Lucas on a path of discovery and connection. Through poetry and photography, he seeks to capture the light he observes amongst the darkness, and bring it back home.
José Pablo Escamilla’s formally daring second feature is a poetic odyssey, searching for meaning in grief and genuine human connection through the act of creating.
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_Firedream-poster_600x900.jpg)
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Media
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_Firedream1_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_Firedream2_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
![](https://cinemachicago.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FF59_Firedream3_1200x600-1024x512.jpg)
Film Credits
- Diandra Arriaga
- José Pablo Escamilla, Nicolasa Ruiz
- Julieta Seco
- Miguel Escudero
- Diego Solis, Imix Lamak, Teresita Sánchez
- Lucerna Records, Isaac Soto
- La Biennale Di Venezia
- Colectivo Colmena
- https://www.colmena.tv/en/film/lumbrensueno/
Sponsors
New Directors Program Sponsors
Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation