Chicago Latino Film Fest announces winner of annual poster contest

The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago (ILCC), producer of the Chicago Latino Film Festival (CLFF), has announced the winner of the Festival’s annual poster competition. The Chicago Latino Film Festival, now in its 41st year, will run from April 3rd to April 14th.

The winner of the annual competition is Brazilian painter and graphic artist Camila ‘Mila’ Bernardo. Born and raised in the beach town of Santos, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, Mila graduated in Graphic Design from Centro Universitário Belas Artes de São Paulo and works primarily as a painter. Her work is a vibrant fusion of graphic design and physical art, shaped by the colorful, warm and dynamic world of her upbringing in Latin America.

The quirky, playful winning design portrays a woman filmmaker delicately balanced on a stepladder, camera on one hand, clapboard on the other, her back arched as she takes a shot of the Festival’s title. “For this piece, I wanted to create a vibrant poster that reflected the energy of the festival. I integrated into the color palette the colors of the Brazilian flag as a connection to my heritage, and paid honor to the 41st edition of the festival by shaping the director’s body to reflect the number in her shadow. The hand-drawn lettering was added to reflect the playfulness of the art. The entire illustration was created digitally by using pastel brushes on a textured paper background, adding a sense of depth and texture to the overall look,” said Bernardo.

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“Who said you can’t have fun at a film festival?” said Pepe Vargas, Executive Director of the International Latino Cultural Center and Founder of the Chicago Latino Film Festival. “Mila’s design for this year’s poster is delightful, charming and imaginative; it evokes the many cartwheels, pirouettes and other acrobatics film artists must perform to get their vision on screen, from securing financing to solving every single type of production problem. It also evokes the playful spirit of silent film comedies. Film festivals are more than this staid space where moviegoers gather to watch the best and the brightest; they are also vibrant spaces full of joy.”

The ILCC received close to 600 submissions from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Spain, Turkey, and the United States, among other countries.

The poster will be the face of the Festival, as it will be on the cover of newsprint schedules, invitations, program books, t-shirts, a range of merchandise, the Festival’s website, and more. The winner receives a $1,000 cash prize.

Adding to the excitement of this unveiling is the fact that for the first time, the Chicago Latino Film Festival will start selling merchandise with the winning design ahead of the Festival beginning today. Hoodies and T-shirts will be available for sale through Printful, a third-party vendor who ships the merchandise directly to the buyer. Additional merchandise will be added in the weeks leading up to the Festival.

To access the online store, visit here.

Featuring close to 100 short and feature-length films from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal, and the United States, the 41st Chicago Latino Film Festival will run from April 3rd to April 14th.

Opening and Closing Nights will be held at the Davis Theatre, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave., and a special event at the Instituto Cervantes, 31 W. Ohio St., with the rest of the Festival taking place at the Landmark Century Center, 2828 N. Clark St. Program announcements will be made in late February/early March.

Visit here for more information on this and other events.


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