We are proud to be a part of a network of sites that has awarded Julia Loktev’s stunning “My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow” with the 2025 IFSN Advocate Award. Other films cited as essential ones of 2025 include “Cutting Through Rocks,” “Familiar Touch,” “The Perfect Neighbor,” “Put Your Soul on

November 1975. This is the month when “Opening Soon at a Theater Near You” premiered on PBS in Chicago. It featured the city’s two most prominent film critics, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who appeared ill at ease during their first pairing on camera. Perhaps the coolness with which they

In “Rebuilding,” a Colorado cowboy sifts through the ashes of the life that once sustained him, struggling to find a way forward after wildfires take his family farm.  In U.S. theaters Nov. 14 (with a national rollout to follow) via Bleecker Street, this elegiac story of one rancher’s journey through an environmentally devastated American West

After World War II, US Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson led an effort to create judicial proceedings to try the leaders of the Nazi military and government, coordinating the effort with representatives from the other Allied forces, France, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. The charge was “crimes against humanity.” It was unprecedented

With the fall chill in the air and the holidays on the horizon, Black Harvest Film Festival is set to return to the Gene Siskel Film Center, Nov 7-16. The festival, programmed by Jada-Amina and Nick Leffel, boasts an eclectic and vibrant array of Black stories whose diasporic origins and bold ingenuity provide cinematic warmth

The Pokemon series has been in need of serious evolution recently. 2022’s “Pokemon Legends: Arceus” switched up the traditional Pokemon RPG formula by introducing real-time combat elements, a semi-open world, and a new way of story progression. It was a breath of fresh air for the franchise that had a stagnating turn-based battle system. Whereas

At all of its previous stops—Austin, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York—the Criterion Mobile Closet has attracted throngs of cinephiles hoping to pick their favorite films and shoot their very own closet videos. Its latest appearance at the 61st Chicago International Film Festival drew similar crowds during a short October (11-13) weekend stay that also witnessed

“If the devil’s alive, he lived here.” — Quote in the Chicago Tribune, attributed to a worker who was involved in the demolition of John Wayne Gacy’s house. While working as a news columnist in the 1990s, I had one of the most macabre experiences of my life when I was granted access to the

One of the more popular sections of the Chicago International Film Festival each year is the After Dark sidebar, a collection of films from around the world that are just a bit different from the usual fest fare—something a little stranger and wilder and containing plenty of sex, violence, and straight-up weirdness to appeal to

Documentary is a filmmaking approach inherently designed for remembrance. In fact, it’s the approach that most closely aligns with photography and the desire to capture a moment, a person, or a thing before the forces of time overcome and erase its existence. So, you know, usually with these films, you’re going to get a topic