March Highlights: 20th Annual Chicago European Union Film Festival, presenting over 60 premieres; Film/Lecture Series New Sensory Cinema; Conversations at the Edge
Chicago European Union Film Festival
20th Annual Chicago European Union Film Festival (March 3-30) is the nation’s largest showcase of EU cinema, features 62 premieres from all 28 nations. March 3 marks the opening of the festival, featuring Maltese romantic comedy 20,000 Reasons at 6:00 pm. There will be a reception in the gallery/café following the screening for all ticketholders hosted by The Hopleaf Bar, the Ambassador of the Republic of Malta, Detroit, and the Consulate General of Germany, Chicago.
New and daring work from some of Europe’s most renowned directors include Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper); the Dardennes brothers (The Unknown Girl); Doris Dörrie (Greetings from Fukushima); Bruno Dumont (Slack Bay); Eugène Green (The Son of Joseph); Szabolcs Hajdu (It’s Not the Time of My Life); Joachim Lafosse (After Love); Sergei Loznitsa (Austerlitz); François Ozon (Frantz); and João Pedro Rodrigues (The Ornithologist).
Films selected to represent their respective nations in the Academy Awards competition for Best Foreign Film include: Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe (Austria); Losers (Bulgaria); On the Other Side (Croatia); Dawn (Latvia); Tonio (Netherlands); and Eva Nova (Slovakia). One-fifth of the films in this year’s festival are directed by women, including Cezanne and Me (France) by Danièle Thompson, Sami Blood (Sweden) by Amanda Kernell, Tonio (Netherlands) by Paula van der Oest, and Master and Tatyana (Lithuania) by Giedrė Žickytė.
Guests appearing in person for Q&As at select screenings are Ludmila Zeman and Linda Spaleny, producers of the newly completed restoration of Karel Zeman’s The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, who appear on March 4 at the 8:00 pm screening and March 5 at the 5:15 pm screening of the film’s U.S. premiere. On March 6 following the 7:45 pm screening, a panel discussion around the controversial work of former Italian Vogue editor Franca Sozzani follows the screening of Franca: Chaos and Creation, led by Gillion Carrara, Director of the SAIC Fashion Resource Center, presented as part of the Gene Siskel Film Center’s Movie Club.
Czech ingénue Jenovéfa Boková will discuss her role in Family Film following the March 10 8:00 pm and March 11 6:15 pm screenings. Renowned German actress Barbara Sukowa is tentatively scheduled to appear with Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe on March 17 at 8:00 pm, and director Maria Schrader will participate in the discussion via Skype. Swedish director Amanda Kernell will tentatively be present via Skype at the March 25 8:15 pm screening of Sami Blood. On March 25 at 5:45 pm and March 27 at 8:15 pm, Tatyana Aldag, the subject of the Lithuanian documentary Master and Tatyana, will appear in person for Q&A.
The festival will close on Thursday, March 30 at 6:15 pm with Louise by the Shore (France), a lovely animated fantasy of a woman’s Robinson Crusoe-like adventure. Following the screening, all ticketholders are invited to a reception in the gallery/café hosted by the European Union National Institutes for Culture with coffee sponsored by Intelligentsia.
Sponsors this year are Boeing and The Hopleaf Bar; promotional sponsors are Chicago Sister Cities International and WBEZ91.5; program-related sponsors are Austrian Cultural Forum, Instituto Cervantes, Dutch Culture USA, Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Chicago, European Union Center, EUNIC Chicago, Flanders State of the Art, Goethe-Institut, Istituto Italiano di Cultura Chicago, Malta EU 2017, Consulate General of the Republic of Lithuania in Chicago, Culture Ireland, Malta Film Commission, Chicago Sister Cities Prague Committee, Pragda, and Karel Zeman Museum; promotional partners are Chicago Reader, Akasuba, Swedish American Museum, Eurocircle, EXPO Chicago, Lycée Français de Chicago, Alliance Française de Chicago, and German International School Chicago.
To learn more about the Chicago European Union Film Festival, please visit: http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/ceuff/2017/overview
March series
Spring film/lecture series New Sensory Cinema (through May 9) explores 14 films in which the body acts as a territory of desire, a vessel of transformation, a site of return, and a mode of resistance to cinematic capture. Presented in March will be Attenberg; It Felt Like Love; and You, The Living. Sponsored by HBO. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/newsensorycinema
Conversations at the Edge, a dynamic series looking at media-makers past and present, will feature the March programs Stacey Steers: Edge of Alchemy (March 2); The Passion of Remembrance (March 9); Sky Hopinka: Translations and Transmutations; and Hyphen-Labs: HeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism (March 30). http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/cate
Special events
Gene Siskel Film Center Movie Club examines Franca: Chaos & Creation, a look at the late Italian Vogue editor Franca Sozzani featuring a panel discussion after the March 6 6:15 pm screening with Gillion Carrara, director of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Fashion Resource Center. Sponsored by HBO and Intelligentsia Coffee. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/movieclub
Neighborhood Night, an evening of community and quality cinema, will be March 20 and will showcase the EU films After Love (Belgium) at 6:00 pm, Two Lottery Tickets (Romania) at 6:15 pm, The Olive Tree (Spain) at 8:00 pm, and It’s Not the Time of My Life (Hungary) at 8:00 pm. At Neighborhood Night, tickets are $6/general admission and $5/Film Center members. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/neighborhoodnight
* * *
Available for the Chicago European Union Film Festival are the Festival Pass for $55 (six tickets and six small popcorns; turn in the pass at the end of the festival for a $5 discount on a Film Center membership) and All-Access Pass for $500 (includes a guaranteed complimentary seat plus free popcorn to any and all CEUFF films—pass-holders must arrive prior to show time). Passes are available for purchase at the Gene Siskel Film Center box office or at http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/ceuff/2017/festivalpass.
* * *
All screenings and events are at the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, located at 164 N. State St.
Tickets to each screening–unless stated otherwise—are $11/general admission, $7/students, $6/Film Center members, and $5/Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) staff and School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) faculty, staff, and students. Friday 2:00 pm matinee tickets are $8/general admission and $5/Film Center members and students. All tickets may be purchased at the Film Center Box Office. Both general admission and Film Center member tickets are available through the Gene Siskel Film Center’s website www.siskelfilmcenter.org/content/tickets or through the individual films’ weblinks or visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org of $1.50 per ticket. The Film Center and its box office are open 5:00 to 8:30 pm, Monday through Thursday; 1:00 to 8:30 pm, Friday; 2:00 to 8:30 pm, Saturday; and 2:00 to 5:30 pm, Sunday.
Please note that at the Friday, March 3, Chicago European Union Film Festival (CEUFF) screening 20,000 Reasons, no free passes, festival passes, or blue tickets will be valid. Please note that at the Thursday, March 30, CEUFF Closing Night screening Louise by the Shore, no free passes or blue tickets will be valid.
At Monday, March 20’s Neighborhood Night, tickets are $6/general admission and $5/Film Center members.
* * *
A Gene Siskel Film Center membership is a year-round ticket to great movies for only $6 per screening! Memberships are $50 (Individual) and $80 (Dual). For more information, call 312-846-2600 or visit http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/membership.
Discounted parking is available for $18 for 10 hours at the InterPark SELF-PARK at 20 E. Randolph St. A rebate ticket can be obtained from the Film Center Box Office.
The Film Center is located near CTA trains and buses. Nearest CTA L stations are Lake (Red line); State/Lake (Brown, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple lines); and Washington (Blue line). CTA bus lines serving State St.: 2, 6, 10, 29, 36, 62, 144, and 146.
For more information about the Film Center, call 312-846-2800 (24-hour movie hotline) or 312-846-2600 (general information, 9:00 am-5:00 p.m., Monday-Friday), or visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
* * *
About the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Since 1972, the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has presented cutting edge cinema to an annual audience of 80,000. The Film Center’s programming includes annual film festivals that celebrate diverse voices and international cultures, premieres of trailblazing work by today’s independent filmmakers, restorations and revivals of essential films from cinema history, and insightful provocative discussions with filmmakers and media artists. Altogether, the Film Center hosts over 1,500 screenings and 100 filmmaker appearances every year. The Film Center was renamed the Gene Siskel Film Center in 2000 after the late, nationally celebrated film critic, Gene Siskel. Visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org to learn more and find out what’s playing today.
www.siskelfilmcenter.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/siskelfilmcenter
Twitter: @filmcenter
About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For more than 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program consistently ranking among the top programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, Jeff Koons and LeRoy Neiman. www.saic.edu
