Red Carpets galore at Chicago International Film Festival

The Chicago International Film Festival served celebrities and filmmakers at its 60th edition from October 16-27. Many of the creators and crew flew into the Windy City to celebrate at the long-running film festival.

Valeria Golino was involved with two projects screened at the festival and stopped by the red carpet on AMC Newcity 14 to promote them on Oct. 17.

Golino described her experience of playing Jackie, the sister of Maria Callas, in Netflix's Maria as “brief” and went on to say, “I was asked by Pablo Larrain to be in it and of course I did it. I think he's one of the best directors in the world. It was an opportunity to work with Angelina Jolie and I was not disappointed I have to say. I had a great time and it was surprising how sisterly our relationship became while playing sisters. I love her!”

Her five and a half hour movie director project The Art of Joy debuted originally in two parts at the theater, “It was born as a miniseries and it will come out on television as a short series. You will not get bored. That I can tell you! It is long but very entertaining.”

She finished by describing her experience in 1988's Big Top Pee-Wee, “Pee-Wee was the loveliest man. It was my first movie in America and I had the best experience working with him. I miss him!”

Paz Vega brought more female directing energy to the red carpet that day with Rita, in which she also stars, “The film is an homage to my own childhood in Seville, Spain in the '80s. It's not autobiographical but some parts are from my life. I wanted to show a story about domestic violence and put this family in a place that I know. I hope that the audience will think about changing things after watching this film, especially in terms of domestic violence. Our children are the future and need to be taken care of very well.”

Rita recently premiered in Spain and in Rome at the Piazza Grande during the 77th Locarno Film Festival.

Italian cinema was highlighted at CIFF with Sicilian Letters, the true story of a mafia boss avoiding authorities for over three decades. Co-director Antonio Piazza met at his hotel to discuss the film while in town, “This festival has been so kind as to pick our short films as well as our feature films over the years.” One of his short films was also called Rita with no connection to Vega's project.

Piazza described Sicilian Letters as “a real story even down to the subtext in the script. They used mafia handwritten letters called Pizzinis since they were afraid of technology to communicate among themselves.”

He stated, “Matteo Messina Denaro is the most famous Italian criminal and an important story of Sicilian identity. Our goal was to show how it happened and explain the myths that have been told over the years.”

On Oct. 19, The Knife director Nnamdi Asomugha appeared on the red carpet at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts before the movie screened for a packed house. He wears many hats on the project including being an actor in the lead role of Chris and elaborated on that, “It was tough because if I took too much time in what I was doing then we would lose the day. We had a lot to do so that was a difficult thing. I had to trust the work as an actor and my cinematographer Alejandro Mejia was very sharp. He helped the whole way.”

Melissa Leo portrays Detective Carlsen in The Knife and explains that her career has been one of necessity. “It is me pretending to be someone that I am not. That has always been easier for me than standing here and talking on a red carpet. I like a script and clothing being put on instead of publicity. I started as a small child and I draw great comfort from the work. That's why I do what I do!”

RaMell Ross promoted his film Nickel Boys and spoke on the red carpet before the screening at The Music Box Theatre about the cinematography, “Jomo Fray shot on Fuji Slide Film which is very dense so the film is fundamentally photographic. People are in for a treat for the eyes because not many people use archival footage as stepping stones and integrate it in the way that this does.”

Before the festival ended many LGBTQ+ storylines were explored in the programming including Thesis on a Domestication, Four Mothers, Cabo Negro and Between Goodbyes.

For year-round special events and cinematic festival screenings visit chicagofilmfestival.com.