Chicago International Film Festival


The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by filmmaker and graphic artist Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America.
The Festival has a rich history of discovering and showcasing ground-breaking directors including Martin Scorsese, John Carpenter, Ava DuVernay, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Wim Wenders, and more.
In 2025, the Festival featured 150+ films from more than 50 countries over 12 days. Each year, the Festival welcomes more than 40,000 filmmakers and film lovers for 12 days of international and independent cinema.
Festival programming includes the International Competition, New Directors Competition, Documentary, Black Perspectives, After Dark, City & State, Shorts, and more. It is also an Academy Awards qualifying Festival in the categories of Best Live Action Short, Best Documentary Short, and Best Animated Short.
The Festival’s main venue is AMC NEWCITY 14. The Festival also hosts screenings across Chicago, including at Music Box Theatre, the Chicago History Museum, Gene Siskel Film Center, the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Kennedy-King College, and the National Museum of Mexican Art.

Black Perspectives Program

The Chicago International Film Festival’s Black Perspectives Program was founded in 1997 in collaboration with Spike Lee to highlight the excellence and diversity of African American cinema and films by the African diaspora from around the world. In addition to showcasing the work of emerging filmmakers, the program also features an annual tribute, with past honorees that include Viola Davis, Sidney Poitier, Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman, Steve McQueen, and more.

Awards

Winners are awarded Hugo Awards in eight different competition categories.
  • International Feature Film Competition
  • *Gold Hugo
  • *Silver Hugo: Jury Prize
  • *Silver Hugo: Best Director
  • *Silver Hugo: Best Actor
  • *Silver Hugo: Best Actress
  • *Silver Hugo: Best Performance
  • *Silver Hugo: Best Ensemble Performance
  • *Silver Hugo: Best Cinematography
  • *Silver Hugo: Best Screenplay
  • *Silver Hugo: Best Sound
  • *Silver Hugo: Best Art Direction
  • New Directors Competition
  • International Documentary Competition
  • Out-Look Competition
  • City & State Competition
  • *Chicago Award
  • Live Action Short Film Competition
  • Documentary Short Film Competition
  • Animated Short Film Competition

    Gold Hugo

Silver Hugo

Jury Award

Winners of the festival's Lifetime Achievement Award include Steven Spielberg, Helen Hunt, Dustin Hoffman, Martin Landau, Shirley MacLaine, Lord Richard Attenborough, François Truffaut, Jodie Foster, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Williams, Manoel de Oliveira, and Clint Eastwood.

Career Achievement Awards

  • Bruce Dern
  • Terrence Howard
  • Susan Sarandon
  • Shirley MacLaine
  • Robert Zemeckis
  • Irma P. Hall, Robert Townsend and Harry J. Lennix
  • Annette Bening
  • Robin Williams
  • Nicolas Cage

    Television awards

The Television Awards started with the idea of honoring television commercials in a special event of the film festival, but over time evolved and grew into a bigger event, comprising not only commercials but also television productions, series, and online television. In 2003, a separate ceremony was launched for the TV awards, and in 2017, the event became a separate event, named the Chicago International Television Festival. Winners and runners-up for the various categories, which include Gold and Silver Hugos, are listed on the film festival website.