2015 CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL REVEALS FIRST LIST OF OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Featuring
Premieres from directors Todd Haynes, Paolo Sorrentino, Nanni Moretti,
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Jacques Audiard, Peter Greenaway, and many
more!
This
initial lineup announcement includes the top prizewinner from the
Cannes Film Festival, a look at what it takes to build one of the
world's greatest restaurants, a once-lost Sherlock Holmes film, a
Guillermo del Toro-produced buddy movie, and breakout performances from
Michael Caine, Cate Blanchett, and Sarah Silverman.
"This
preview into our 51st Festival includes innovative new work representing
a variety of cultures and ideas from around the world, which pays
tribute to our mission," said Michael Kutza, Founder and Artistic
Director of the Chicago International Film Festival. "It has always been
my goal to bring the most exciting work in contemporary international
cinema to Chicago during the Chicago International Film Festival. This
year is no different."
"Each
year, we view thousands of submissions as we search for the films to
show at the Festival," added Programming Director Mimi Plauché. "The
submissions each year are more impressive than the last. These first
titles offer audiences a preview of what they can expect during this
year's Festival: a thought-provoking, diverse program of the best in
cinema from around the world."
TRIBUTES
An Evening with Howard Shore
Sunday, October 18th
Three-time Oscar® winner Howard Shore is one of cinema's most celebrated composers. Along with scoring the entire Lord Of the Rings
trilogy, Shore has created soaring, propulsive compositions for the
greats, from Martin Scorsese to David Cronenberg's entire oeuvre. Shore
will reflect on his career in film in a can't-miss event.
Industry Tribute: Gigi Pritzker
Thursday, October 22th
Prolific
film executive Gigi Pritzker headlines Industry Days, the Festival's
new hub for filmmakers and industry professionals. Producer of such
noted films as Jon Stewart's Rosewater and the Ryan Gosling thriller Drive, Pritzker will be celebrated with an onstage conversation along with film clips from her producing achievements.
FILMS
All films listed will receive their Chicago premiere at the Festival unless otherwise indicated.
Country: UK
Director: Andrew Haigh
Synopsis: Tom
Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling deliver award-winning performances in
this engrossing marital drama. A couple celebrating their 45th
anniversary receive a jolt when they learn that the corpse of a woman
from the husband's past has been discovered in a melting glacier, and
he's listed as her next-of-kin.
An
Country: Japan
Director: Naomi Kawase
Synopsis:
Sweet red bean paste is the filling in this poignant tale of life,
compassion, and delicious desserts. An uninspired pastry chef is brought
to life when a plucky septuagenarian's irresistible homemade recipe
turns his red bean pancakes into a local hit. The latest from highly
regarded Japanese auteur Naomi Kawase is a tasty philosophical dish.
Country: Ireland/UK/Canada
Director: John Crowley
Synopsis:
BROOKLYN tells the moving story of Eilis (Saoirse Ronan), a young Irish
immigrant navigating through 1950s Brooklyn. Lured by the promise of
America, Eilis departs Ireland for the shores of New York, where she
finds love. But unexpected developments force her to choose between her
family's home and her adopted land.
Carol
Country: USA
Director: Todd Haynes
Synopsis: In an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's seminal novel The Price of Salt,
CAROL follows two women (Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara) from very
different backgrounds who find themselves in an unexpected love affair
in 1950s New York. As conventional norms of the time challenge their
undeniable attraction, an honest story emerges to reveal the resilience
of the heart in the face of change.
Cemetery of Splendor (Rak ti Khon Kaen)
Country: Thailand
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Synopsis: Thai
surrealist master and School of the Art Institute of Chicago alum
Apichatpong Weerasethakul astounds with a deeply spiritual drama about a
group of soldiers who catch a strange coma after disturbing ancient
royal graves. While a hospital volunteer nurses the ill, spirits lull us
into a captivating cinematic dreamscape.
USA PREMIERE
Country: South Africa
Director: Charlie Vundla
Synopsis:
In this wry, intimate drama, a young American professor in Johannesburg
falls apart after his gorgeous wife leaves him for another man. His old
school chum, now a homeless life coach, props him back up. But when his
wife reappears at his doorstep, she sparks a gripping chain of
deception.
Country: France
Director: Jacques Audiard
Synopsis:
Winner of the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Jacques
Audiard's explosive immigrant drama depicts a Sri Lankan rebel fighter
who attempts a better life in Paris under a dead man's identity.
Real-life novelist and former child soldier Antonythasan Jesuthasan
gives a breakout lead performance.
Country: Netherlands
Director: Peter Greenaway
Synopsis: This
radical, stylistically brilliant biopic chronicles Soviet revolutionary
filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein's 1931 sojourn to Mexico, where, in Peter
Greenaway's imaginative retelling, he lost his virginity to his male
guide. A treat for cinephiles, the film adapts Eisenstein's own feverish
editing rhythms and features a giddy performance by Elmer Bäck as
Eisenstein.
Country: USA
Director: Kevin Pang
Synopsis: After
cooking his way through Chicago's top kitchens, renowned Chef Curtis
Duffy begins plans for his dream establishment, Grace. A delicious look
at what it takes to build one of the world's greatest restaurants, and
the complex story of a man forging a new future out of his traumatic
past.
Country: France/USA
Director: Kent Jones
Synopsis:
In 1962, Alfred Hitchcock and François Truffaut conducted a weeklong
conversation about the craft of Hitchcock's movies, and of cinema
itself. The result: the seminal book Hitchcock/Truffaut. This
brilliant behind-the-scenes account of their conversation along with
memorable clips from Hitch's works is an inspiring and illuminating look
inside the mind of a master craftsman.
The Homecoming (Blóðberg)
USA PREMIERE
Country: Iceland
Director: Björn Hlynur Haraldsson
Synopsis: Self-help
author Gunnar's humdrum routine is shaken when he realizes his son's
new fiancée may be a bit closer to him than they think. He must choose
between keeping his secret or protecting his son. A dark, unpredictable
"family" comedy ensues, as everyone scrambles to recover their grip on
the truth.
Country: USA
Director: Adam Salky
Synopsis: I SMILE BACK explores
the life of Laney (Sarah Silverman), an attractive, intelligent
suburban wife and devoted mother of two adorable children. She has the
perfect husband, a pristine house, and a shiny SUV for carting the
children to their next activity. However, just beneath the façade lie
depression and disillusionment that send her careening into a secret
world of reckless compulsion. Only very real danger will force her to
face the painful root of her destructiveness and its crumbling effect on
those she loves.
The Infinite Happiness
Country: France/Denmark
Director: Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine
Synopsis: Copenhagen's
"8 House," an ultramodern loop of apartments by architect Bjarke
Ingels, reinvents the concept of "home." Its 500 residents traverse all
nine floors by bike and hike on its lush green roofs. This exuberant
documentary profiles the (mostly) happy residents, offering a hopeful,
inspired picture of communal living by design.
Country: USA
Director: Josh Mond
Synopsis: A
violent, emotionally unstable young man, still processing the recent
death of his long-absent father, must care for the now terminally ill
mother who raised him. This raw, affecting drama features a revelatory
lead performance from Christopher Abbott (Girls), with Cynthia Nixon (Sex And The City)as his ailing mother.
Country: Italy
Director: Nanni Moretti
Synopsis: John
Turturro provides madcap comic relief as a self-important American
actor in master filmmaker Nanni Moretti's latest autobiographical work. A
director tries to complete her movie while caring for her much-beloved
hospital-bound mother. Real life and art clash violently in this moving
personal drama about the heavy cost of artistic integrity.
Orphans of Eldorado (Órfãos do Eldorado)
USA PREMIERE
Country: Brazil
Director: Guilherme Coelho
Synopsis: In
this sensual, mythical tale of obsession, a man returns to his hometown
by the Amazon, where he resumes a dangerous old affair and begins
another one with a woman who seems to emerge and disappear from the
river itself. An immersive film that plunges into Oedipal desires and
Brazilian legends.
A Perfect Day (Un día perfecto)
USA PREMIERE
Country: Spain
Director: Fernando León de Aranoa
Synopsis: Benicio del Toro and Tim Robbins join a motley crew of aid workers bumbling through the Balkan War in this M*A*S*H*-like black comedy about struggling to do good in bad places. When fishing a corpse out of a well, a sense of humor helps.
Sherlock Holmes(1916)
Country: USA
Director: Arthur Berthelet
Synopsis:
Lost for nearly a century, this silent-era screen incarnation of the
classic character (one of the first) miraculously reappeared last year
in a French cinema archive. Filmed at Chicago's own Essanay Studios and
starring William Gillette, theater's most famous Holmes of the time, the
film is a once-in-a-lifetime treat.
WORLD PREMIERE
Country: USA
Director: Rob Hatch-Miller
Synopsis:
Velvet-voiced soul singer Syl Johnson struggled for decades before
leaving the biz in the 1980s to open a Chicago fried-fish chain. Since
then, he's become one of the most-sampled artists in hip-hop. With a
lively soundtrack, this buoyant world premiere documentary celebrates
one man who can't stop the music.
Country: USA
Director: Perry Blackshear
Synopsis: After
receiving an ominous phone call, a young man crashing his friend's flat
becomes convinced mysterious creatures are inhabiting the bodies of
everyone around him. This tension-filled horror indie will leave you on
high alert, taking a good look at your co-worker, your neighbor... and
even your best friend.
The Thin Yellow Line (La delgada línea amarilla)
USA PREMIERE
Country: Mexico
Director: Ceslo García
Synopsis:
This hilarious Guillermo del Toro-produced buddy movie follows five men
tasked with painting the median line on a lonely rural road.
Good-natured male bonding blends with gorgeous landscape cinematography
in this thoughtful portrayal of a day's honest work in modern Mexico.
USA PREMIERE
Country: Italy
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Synopsis:
Fred (Michael Caine), an acclaimed composer, vacations in the Swiss
Alps with his daughter (Rachel Weisz) and best friend Mick (Harvey
Keitel), a renowned filmmaker. While Mick finishes the screenplay for
his last important film, Fred has no intention of resuming his musical
career. The men find that the most important experiences can come later
in life.
Short Films
Funny,
quirky, striking, moving, eye-opening... Find your own personal gem in
our selection of shorts featuring animation, documentary, drama, horror,
and experimental works from international and local talent. Highlights
from this year's program include: Feminist erotic filmmaker ERIKA LUST shows off her explicit works and discusses sex from the female perspective. In the animated WAVES '98, a Beirut drifter stumbles into a multicolored, imaginary world.
ABOUT FESTIVAL SPONSORS
The
51st Chicago International Film Festival's sponsors include Gold
Festival Partners: TIAA-CREF, Columbia College Chicago, Wintrust
Community Banks; Official Airline: American Airlines; Headquarters
Hotel: JW Marriott Chicago; Silver Festival Partners:
Bloomberg, Intersites; Platinum Media Partners: National CineMedia
(NCM), JC Decaux, Michigan Avenue Magazine; Bronze Festival Partners:
Stella Artois, AARP, Tribune Media; Participating Partners: SundanceNow
Doc Club, Whole Foods, Wansas, Cultivate Studios, Netrix, KIND,
OtterBox; Participating Hotels: Public, The Whitehall Hotel, theWit; and
Cultural Partners: Consulate General of Argentina in Chicago, Italian
Cultural Institute of Chicago, Italian Film Commission. With Foundation
and Government support from the National Endowment of the Arts,
Alphawood Foundation Chicago, the Illinois Arts Council, and Chicago
Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, Richard H. Driehaus
Foundation.
ABOUT CINEMA/CHICAGO
Cinema/Chicago
is a not-for-profit arts and education organization dedicated to
encouraging better understanding between cultures and to making a
positive contribution to the art form of the moving image. The Chicago
International Film Festival is one of the year-round programs presented
by Cinema/Chicago, which also include the Chicago International Film
Festival Television Awards, CineYouth Festival, INTERCOM Competition,
International Screenings Program, and Education Outreach Program.
Celebrating its 51st anniversary this year, theChicago International
Film Festival is North America's longest-running competitive film
festival. Learn more at www.chicagofilmfestival.com.
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