Cinefile

Every year the Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) brings a world of great, interesting, sometimes baffling and always exciting cinema to the Windy City for two weeks. This year marks the 47th CIFF and the festival kicks off next Thursday October 6th, 2011 with its opening night presentation of the Chicago-filmed The Last Rites of Joe May, starring Dennis Farina.

Via the CIFF website: "When we held the first Chicago International Film Festival, we couldn't have imagined where the medium of film was headed. Today, you can have a film from around the world delivered straight to your door. You can download a film to your cell phone or stream it to your computer screen.

Call us old school, but we still love settling into a dark theater full of people to watch that giant screen come alive with pictures of far-off lands. Nothing quite compares to that electrifying sense of discovery you get when you see something fresh and exciting for the first time on the big screen.

This year we will be presenting more than 180 films from 50 countries, including over 45 films by first-time directors. This year's crop of talented new filmmakers will take you on a provocative and touching journey to lands near and far. They could very well become the next Martin Scorsese, Peter Weir, Mike Leigh or Bertrand Tavernier, themselves among dozens of directors who also showed their first film at the Festival.

Each film provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the sights, sounds and experiences of other cultures and the chance to hear and maybe even meet some of the artists behind them. The languages may be different, but the emotions are the same. Film unites us like no other popular art form can."

You can purchase your 47th CIFF tickets here!