Welcome to the 54th Chicago International Film
Festival.
Fewer days and fewer films, yet higher prices, with an
unannounced rip-off mark-up price of $2 dollars per ticket, as they’re not
using Ticketmaster anymore, which is the most disheartening change, as that’s
just price gauging.
No reason why that couldn’t have been announced on the
festival website, clearly stating what customers could expect this new year. By not doing so, the realization does not hit
until the moment of actually purchasing the tickets, where the price is not as advertised, which many believe is
overt deception. Getting customers angry
and offended at the outset is not at all a good way to start off a new festival
year.
Once more there is a plethora of Specials, 12 in total, one-time-only
screenings priced at a whopping $20 bucks, many of which include films that will
be released in the next few weeks, which is
not what the festival should be featuring.
I’m a thorough believer that there should be no more than 3 or 4, and
for films with a festival buzz about them, which makes them truly
“Special.” But instead they are money
grabs. By including them into the
schedule, they make it appear like a better festival than it is, but it’s a
façade, a sleight-of-hand illusion that should by all means be ignored. Don’t reward this blatantly deceptive
practice.
First off, let’s see what will not be playing here, though they’ve played elsewhere in other
festivals.
20 or so films not playing
*Barry Jenkins If
Beale Street Could Talk
Claire Denis High Life
Nadine Labaki Capernaum
Neil Jordan Greta
Jeremy Saulnier Hold the Dark
Xavier Dolan The Death and Life of John F.
Donovan
Zhang Yimou Shadow
*Lee Chang-dong Burning
Mia Hansen-Love Maya
László Nemes Sunset
Michael Winterbottom The Wedding Guest
Jafar Panahi Three Faces
Kirill Serebrennikov Leto
Mariano Llinás La Flor
Hong Sang-soo Grass + Hotel By the River
*Ulrich Köhler In
My Room
*Bi Gan Long
Day’s Journey Into Night
Frederick Wiseman Monrovia, Indiana
Roberto Minervini What You Gonna Do When the World’s
On Fire?
Nuri Bilge Ceylan The Wild Pear Tree
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi Asako I & II
* films with plenty
of festival buzz
There will be 8 films that premiered in competition at
Cannes this year, including the Palme d’Or (1st place) winner,
Hirokazu Koreeda’s The Shoplifters
from Japan, the Best Director, Polish director Pawil Pawlikowski for Cold War, co-winner of Best Screenplay,
Italian writer/director Alice Rohrwacher for Happy As Lazzaro, Best Actor was awarded to Italian actor Marcello
Fonte from Matteo Garrone’s Dogman,
and 4 films from Un Certain Regard, including the award winner Border by Ali Abbasi from Sweden and
Denmark. There are 5 films that
premiered in competition at The Berlin Film Festival, including the Jury Grand
Prize (2nd place) for Małgorzata Szumowska’s Mug from Poland, and an Ecumenical Jury Prize for Thomas Stuber’s In the Aisles from Germany. There are 6 films that premiered in
competition at The Venice Film Festival, but two are Specials, including the
two top prize winners, the Golden Lion (1st place) winner, Alfonso
Cuarón’s Roma from Mexico, and the
Grand Jury (2nd place) winner, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite from the UK, US, and
Ireland. The Best Actress prize was
awarded to Olivia Colman from The
Favourite, while the Best Documentary prize was awarded to Peter
Bogdanovich for The Great Buster: A
Celebration.
A recent trend has seen fewer Asian films (11), none from
the Philippines, a lone African film, while like last year there is a
significant increase in American films (55), with only 40 chosen before that. Those American films constitute 43% of all the
films shown in the entire festival, which is 128 this year, as opposed to 143
films last year, yet this is advertised as an “International” Film
Festival. Perhaps in name only, but not
in spirit.
Still, expectations are rising as the programming was
decidedly better last year, with fewer truly great films, but many more really
good films, with hopes that will continue this year as well.
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