The Chicago International Film Festival announced the full lineup of films and programs included in this year’s 61st edition of North America’s longest-running competitive film festival.
Unspooling at venues across the city October 15 – 26, 2025 including its hub theater, AMC NEWCITY 14, as well as the Music Box Theatre, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Chicago History Museum, and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. Community screenings will be held at the National Museum of Mexican Art and Kennedy-King College.
This year’s program includes 111 feature films and 70 shorts, four World Premieres, 17 North American Premieres, and 18 U.S. Premieres, and showcases cinema from more than 60 countries around the world including Colombia, Thailand, France, Morocco, Iran, Romania, Germany, Chile, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, and more.
The Festival opens its 61st edition on October 15, 2025 with the World Premiere of Kevin Shaw’s ONE GOLDEN SUMMER, the true story behind Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West Little League baseball team’s heartbreaking fall from grace and subsequent road to redemption, as told by the players themselves. The Festival’s Opening Night After Dark presentation of Tatsuya Yoshihara’s CHAINSAW MAN – THE MOVIE: REZ ARC sees the hugely popular anime character slashing his way onto the big screen, headlining the After Dark program, a collection of blood-splattered body horror, fantastical frights, and spine-tingling spectacles.
Centerpiece Presentation
The Centerpiece presentation of RENTAL FAMILY, screening Monday, October 21 at the Music Box Theatre, stars Brendan Fraser as an American actor in modern-day Tokyo, who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. Director HIKARI (37 SECONDS, BEEF) is set to receive the Festival’s Spotlight Award.
Closing Night
Closing Night presents David Freyne’s ETERNITY, where in an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with (Miles Teller) and her first love (Callum Turner), guided by their Afterlife Coordinator (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).
Special Presentations
Special Presentations include visionary director Yorgos Lanthimos’s BUGONIA, an explosive psychological thriller offering a pitch-black comic window into our modern age of madness; Guillermo del Toro’s beautifully crafted adaptation of classic novel FRANKENSTEIN; Palme d’Or winner IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, in which Vahid thinks he recognizes his former torturer and sets out to prove the man’s identity, from Iranian director Jafar Panahi, previously banned from filmmaking and imprisoned for his political views; Bradley Cooper’s IS THIS THING ON?, starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern as a couple whose marriage is quietly unraveling; Noah Baumbach’s poignant and humor-filled JAY KELLY, starring George Clooney as a famous movie actor on a journey of self discovery with his long-time manager, played by Adam Sandler; and the third installment of Rian Johnson’s whodunnit series, WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY.
Spotlight Presentations
Spotlight Presentations include Radu Jude’s bold, unpredictable, and unapologetically over-the-top DRACULA, the filmmaker’s second film in this year’s slate (his KONTINENTAL ‘25 appears in the Festival’s International Feature Competition); Mary Bronstein’s IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU, following Rose Byrne’s Linda’s attempts to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, a missing person, and a hostile relationship with her therapist; TWO PROSECUTORS, in which a prosecutor embarks on a paranoid-infused journey to Moscow during Stalin’s Great Terror in 1937, by director Sergei Loznitsa; and in Isabel Coixet’s THREE GOODBYES, Marta is reeling after a breakup until a world-shifting diagnosis brings clarity and purpose to her life. Additional Spotlight features include Gianfranco Rosi’s BELOW THE CLOUDS, Kelly Reichardt’s THE MASTERMIND; Bi Gan’s RESURRECTION; Annemarie Jacir’s PALESTINE 36; Christian Petzold’s MIROIRS NO. 3; Angieszka Holland’s FRANZ, Lav Diaz’s MAGELLAN; László Nemes’s ORPHAN, and Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne’s YOUNG MOTHERS.
Tributes and Retrospectives
For her keen eye for character, fearless approach to genre, and deep engagement with social issues, the Festival presents Nia DaCosta with an Artistic Achievement Award with her latest film HEDDA; and in a career defined by vision, courage, and an unwavering commitment to truth, director Euzhan Palcy is set to receive the Black Perspectives Tribute and Career Achievement Award at a screening of her SUGAR CANE ALLEY. This year’s Spotlight Award goes to director HIKARI, celebrating her vivid and versatile storytelling as exemplified in Centerpiece presentation RENTAL FAMILY. At their screening of the soulful, visually stunning TRAIN DREAMS, star Joel Edgerton receives the Artistic Achievement Award in Acting for his career-defining portrayal of grief and resilience, with director Clint Bentley accepting the Artistic Achievement Award in Directing. Acclaimed director Kelly Reichardt also joins the Festival for an in-person retrospective of her work, including 2006’s OLD JOY, 2019’s FIRST COW, and 2022’s SHOWING UP, anchored by a Spotlight screening of her 2025 standout THE MASTERMIND, following an unemployed carpenter turned art thief (Josh O’Connor) planning his first big heist.
Global Cinema Snapshots
Highlights of this year’s Snapshots program, showcasing the diversity of contemporary global cinema, include THIS ISLAND, Lorraine Jones Molina and Cristian Carretero’s coming of age story of a young couple finding refuge with a pastoral community in the mountains of Puerto Rico; Kalu Oji’s PASA FAHO, in which a Nigerian shoe salesman in Australia juggles fatherhood when his adolescent son comes to live with him; Taiwan’s official Best International Feature Academy Award submission LEFT-HANDED GIRL, following a single mother and her daughters as they encounter generations of secrets that threaten to upend their unity, from director Shih-Ching Tsou; and Hasan Hadi’s witty, playful, and moving tale of unlucky nine-year-old Lamia, who is forced to get creative when she is tasked with baking a cake in celebration of Saddam Hussein’s birthday in Iran’s THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE. When a curious time traveler falls from the sky, 10-year-old Iris resolves to help her new friend return to the future in Ugo Bienvenu’s thrilling animated adventure ARCO, from France; and in Charlie Polinger’s water polo camp-set thriller THE PLAGUE, newcomer Ben must decide if he will join in the bullying or risk being cast out himself after being told one of the boys has the “plague.”
Special Events and Programs
Movie lovers are in for a unique experience as the Criterion Mobile Closet visits North America’s longest-running festival, making Chicago its seventh stop from October 17 – 19. Stocked with more than 1,700 of the greatest films from around the world, the Closet may offer more cinematic inspiration per square foot than any other place on the planet, right outside the doors to the Festival’s hub theater. Opening weekend also sees the return of Industry Days, the Festival’s hub for filmmakers and industry professionals to connect, share ideas, and be inspired. This year’s program includes a Keynote Conversation with MINDING THE GAP director and Illinois native Bing Liu, discussing the journey to make his fiction debut PREPARATION FOR THE NEXT LIFE; a Documentary Summit featuring veteran filmmakers Lisa Cortés and Michèle Stephenson; and opportunities to connect with key executives from companies such as Shudder and Steven Yeun’s Celadon Pictures.
Frame by Frame: Screenings in 35mm
The 61st Chicago International Film Festival features 35mm presentations of five titles, including Clint Bentley’s TRAIN DREAMS, László Nemes’s tender, heartbreaking coming-of-age tale ORPHAN; and special back-to-back screenings of NOUVELLE VAGUE, Richard Linklater’s love letter to cinema reimagining the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s BREATHLESS, paired with a 35mm screening of the French New Wave classic. OLD JOY, presented as part of Kelly Reichardt’s retrospective, will also be screened in 35mm.
International Competitions
Filmmakers from around the world compete for the Gold Hugo award in the categories of International Feature, International Documentary, New Directors, and OutLook, in addition to Shorts programs, in North America’s longest-running competitive film festival. Previous Chicago International Film Festival award winners have gone on to Oscar recognition, including THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (2024), CLOSE (2024), DRIVE MY CAR (2021) and THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (2021) which were all nominated for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards, and Best Documentary Oscar nominee FOUR DAUGHTERS (2023).
Chicago Films and Filmmakers In Focus
The stories and filmmakers of Chicago and Illinois take center stage in the Festival’s popular City & State program. This year’s selections include Opening Night’s ONE GOLDEN SUMMER from director Kevin Shaw; Rich Newey’s ADULT CHILDREN, about a sheltered Chicago 17-year-old looking to her older half-siblings for guidance; Alex Phillips’ raucous exploitation thriller ANYTHING THAT MOVES; Chicago-based James Choi’s BEFORE THE CALL, featuring a young man in Seoul counting down the hours to his impending military service as a global crisis escalates; Curtis Miller’s meditation on “tornado alley,” A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHASING STORMS; and Nurzhamal Karamoldoeva’s ONLY HEAVEN KNOWS, an edgy, Chicago-set drama following a Kyrgyz family thrown into turmoil when the prodigal son gets in over his head with gambling debt.
Short Films
The Festival presents short films from around the world, ranging from comedies to dramas, documentaries to thrillers, and everything in between, in ten Shorts Programs. Highlights include the City & State program’s DEBATERS, featuring J. Smith-Cameron and Kenneth Lonergan, in which high school strivers don their best attire to compete at a congressional debate tournament; the Comedy program’s NERVOUS ENERGY, following two fiercely ambitious aspiring filmmakers; The Departuresprogram, which presents unique perspectives by filmmakers new to the Festival, features a woman’s journey to Los Angeles to treat hearing loss where she stays at her ex boyfriend’s house with his new girlfriend in THE NON-ACTOR, starring Victoria Pedretti and Maya Hawke; and the Family Friendly Animation program presents LILY, a spooky tale about the terrors of elementary school, adapted by Stephen King from one of his first short stories. A new shorts program joins the lineup this year: Outréshowcases filmmakers who unabashedly follow their own singular visions into wildly new and weird territories with films including WATER SPORTS, which transports audiences to a hyper-stylized world ravaged by climate change; the MS-paint style animation depicting a titular ABORTION PARTY; and a vampire’s quest to fulfill their heart’s truest desire in ONCE IN A FULL MOON.
The 61st Chicago International Film Festival runs October 15 – 26, 2025 with film screenings and programs presented at venues across the city including AMC NEWCITY 14, the Music Box Theatre, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Chicago History Museum, the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, as well as community screenings at pop-up locations including Kennedy-King College and the National Museum of Mexican Art.
Tickets for Opening Night are on sale now; tickets for the full slate of films presented at the 61st Chicago International Film Festival will go on sale September 26, 2025.
For more information about the 61st Chicago International Film Festival visit here.
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