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The Chicago International Film Festival is one of the highlights of the Chicago movie calendar. Every October for the past several years, we've purchased a festival pass and taken a gamble; in addition to catching films every year that we've already heard about, we always force ourselves to see at least a few films we know nothing about. In the past that's meant such pleasant surprises as Syndromes and a Century and 10th District Court.
This year, there's something fishy going on. The festival runs October 4-17 and will feature 150 movies from 35 countries. And that's just about all we know. With less than three weeks to go, we haven't been able to find a published schedule or even a list of venues. A quarter-page ad in Section Two of last week's Reader directed us to an online Sneak Preview at the festival's site, but even this is fairly uninformative.
In previous years, by this point a final schedule would have been printed up and distributed all across the city; over Sunday morning coffee, we would have mapped out a plan of attack, made our first- and second-tier choices and purchased a festival pass. True, we could go ahead and buy a pass online. But without seeing a schedule, we're a little hesitant. And on the CIFF site it clearly states that tickets will not be mailed for online reservations and that passes cannot be redeemed until September 22, less than two weeks before Opening Night! That doesn't leave a whole lot of time for planning on anyone's part.
So what's going on? Is there trouble behind the scenes, or is festival staff just being extra meticulous this year? We hope that this post triggers someone with inside knowledge to come forward so we can get some answers (an email directly to CIFF has so far gone unanswered). This year's festival will undoubtedly still be worth going to, and gorging on. But the festival should be two weeks preceded by the joyful anticipation of Chicago movie lovers, not restless anxiety about what the hell is going on.
Image of the 1983 festival poster via Cinema Arts.
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At the Bela Tarr showing yesterday, I heard some local cineastes refer to the CIFF as the People's Republic of Kutzastan. He apparently has been micromanaging the festival to death and driven off the best programmers.
I have heard that Tarr's new film The Man from London, which Rosenbaum really liked, would be playing at CIFF. I'm hoping Roy Andersson's and Carlos Saura's new films will also be there. It seems we should be able to expect a fair amount of crossover from Toronto, since the filmmakers are already in the neighborhood--but who knows?
I hope it goes off ok - i love the idea of a week of movies from all over the world.
Toronto just had their TIFF, which somehow became world reknowned in the past 10 years or so0. I mean, like, big huge stars go there. CIFF should take a page out of their book about how to make our festival a celebrity attraction.
i just went to the toronto film festival for the third time, and they don't really post their schedule, list of venues, ticket prices (besides the ticket packages) until less than a week before it starts. individual tickets don't even go on sale until one day before the festival. so it's possible this is normal. i don't know anything about the chicago festival, though, so it's possible something weird is going on.
Two weeks of movies.
Anyone interested in a summary of TIFF, with an eye toward what to watch at CIFF if the titles appear here, should go to Girish:
www.girishshambu.com/blog/
Short TIFF reviews
www.eyeweekly.com/eye/issue/issue_09.06.07/film/tiff_reviews.php
That Kutza micromanages the festival should not be a surprise to anyone. As the CIFF is little more than an afterthought in the film fest circuit for distributors, scheduling can be difficult. It's a little surprising that it has gone this late without a finalized schedule, though.
Generally films are delivered last minute and need to be sent back out after the screening. Ever wonder how some of the movies that were wildly popular with audiences do not show up in the "Audience Choice" screenings at the end of the festival? (And conversely how little liked films get an "Audience Choice" citation?) It's about availability of the print. If the print's not available at the end of the festival, it doesn't get screened again thus no citation.
Is it the fault of the CIFF or its director? Maybe, maybe not. But I think this example of a small issue is indicative of how not seriously the CIFF is taken. And that could be the fault of the director and the board.
Director and board are to blame. If winning CIFF made more of a difference, you can be sure that the films at Toronto would make it here.
If you’ll remember about 7-8 years ago the board DID try to get rid of Kutza – but failed by just one vote. The person who was the board president at that time, and who had instigated the coup, then resigned. This current board came about after that event.
I briefly worked for CIFF a couple of years back, and I have to say that I think Kutza should shoulder the majority of the blame for the festival's failings. It’s not just that he micromanages, it’s that he rarely shows up and then when he does happen grace the place with his presence, micromanages/changes things at the last minute after commitments have already been made. This holds true for underlying film rights holders, sponsors, venues and partners (restaurants, hotels, etc.).
There were a couple of instances we were told to commit what I would consider to be out-and-out fraud with people that we had signed contracts with, just because he had changed his mind about something. Needless to say, this type of behavior tends to burn a lot of bridges: staff can’t be retained (it is, essentially, a revolving door for employees there), sponsors drop out (compare the list from three years ago to this years’ list in the Sneak Previews – not pretty), and film distributors have no loyalty to the festival.
I can’t say I know what is going on there this year, but I’m going to guess that it might be that some of this stuff is catching up with CIFF. I think that it’s a shame too – Chicago really deserves a better festival. Maybe not a 'market' show such as Toronto is, but at least one that has some respect in the film community.
is kutza also the owner of cheetah gym?
http://www.chicagofilmfestival.org/pdfs/SneakPreview07.pdf
#11 - that's been around for awhile. What Rob is bringing up is that usually a full schedule is printed and distributed by this point. Also, the opening night film/post-film event is usually announced by now in order to a) promote it, and b) allow people to purchase their tickets in a timely fashion. Last year, 'Stranger Than Ficion' was announced as the Festival opener by late August. As far as I can tell, all that we know is the opening night is at the Chicago Theater -- which is no surprise since it's been there for the last couple of years. Unless I've missed it, I don't see where they say what the opening night film is going to be.
#10 - Kutza might have fantisised about having sex with the Cheetah owner at one point, but they are indeed seperate people.
I worked at CIFF for the 2001 show. Kutza is a serious drawback because he's not immersed in the process he just sticks his head in once in a while and throws a wrench in things. He's also the pissiest queen I've ever met.
Isn't Kutza the founder of the festival? You're complaining about his management of something that, as far as I understand, wouldn't even exist without him.
Big stars? Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise hit town last year, among many others.
This is whiniest site I've ever seen. Every post is somehow framed in the form of a complaint, with the chorus of would-be film experts just waiting for their chances to make a snide comment.
Relax--the schedule will come out and it will be filled with 90% of movies you've never heard of, anyway. I looked at the Sneak Preview and I thought it was fairly informative.
Don't go if you don't like it. Way to put a negative light on even something that is almost completely positive.
#14 -
WOW! That actually sounds like something Kutza would have written. Are you channeling him or something? My favorite line is: "Relax--the schedule will come out and it will be filled with 90% of movies you've never heard of, anyway," which I guess is supposed to mean that we're all stupid and uninformed, I think. You have Kutza’s arrogance down almost EXACTLY. Michael, is that you?
Yes, #14, he is the founder, but maybe the time has come for him to hang it up and pass the gauntlet on to someone else. The festival has just barely survived under his leadership and, in fact, has never grown or become respected in the industry. Just because he started this thing 43 years ago doesn’t mean he should still be running it today.
Who should? A bunch of know-nothings? Not respected in the industry? Is that why Steven Speilberg showed up as the guest of honor last year? What do you want, for them to dig up Orson Welles and prop him up? Who else is more respected in the industry than Speilberg?
It sounds to me that you have no clue what you're talking about.
Why don't you start your own festival instead of criticizing the person who started it in the first place. Its his festival, you moron.
It is not his festival. If it were, it would be called the Michael Kutza International Film Festival. It's called the Chicago International Film Festival; therefore, the people of Chicago have a stake in it. As consumers, at the very least, we should be able to expect better service than we've gotten. You think scoring Spielberg was great, but what about all the films that had NO directors/actors/writers etc. to give talks. Last year was the lowest point for visiting dignitaries I've ever experienced in the three decades I've been going to the CIFF.
Let me clarify a few things. It wasn't my intention to criticize the festival itself. 150 movies over 2 weeks is going to be a pretty darn cool experience no matter how you slice it. And I don't know Kutza personally, so I'm not criticizing him either. (Plenty of people seem to be doing that already without my help). What does dismay me is the thin, ineffective publicity preceding this year's festival. It's not very likely that Chicagoans are going to get real fired up about it when all they know is that "a whole lotta movies are gonna be shown in various places for a few weeks soon." In order to get more people excited about the festival, you have to have a little more than "150 movies from 35 countries" as a tagline to lure them in.
That said, I'm going to throw up a new post within the next few days about some of the films that'll be showing. Once I find out what they are, of course.
That's nice of you, Rob. I do look forward to CIFF, but when I read about other festivals and experience the bad management, I get pretty disgusted that we don't do better. If that's Kutza's fault, so be it. I have never worked for him, either, only reported what I've heard from people who are much deeper inside the Chicago film community than I am.
You don't have a stake in it. Your only stake is buying a ticket or not. Someone else puts all the work in.
Maybe I am not a savvy conninseur of film festivals world wide like the rest of the auteur jetsetters that are posting, but I dig the film festival. Don't really care about lectures from the directors.
There were TONS of stars at the film festival the last two years.
Anyway, of course it would be nice to have the schedule earlier, but I just think a lot of the comments sound more like pseudo-intellectual posturing. The reality is that, yes, you will have never heard of 90% of the movies anyway, so it shouldn't take too long to go through the catalog and choose what you want to see when it comes out.
I mean, maybe it isn't as good as Toronto, I don't know, but why are you all of a sudden entitled to the best film festival in the world? My feeling with the festival is that it puts out a ton of interesting movies, and I guess that is what I find most attractive about it.
In Michael Phillips' Toronto coverage Sunday, he wrote:
"Several of those gems ["Michael Clayton," "No Country for OldMen," "Atonement," "Assassination of Jesse James..."], including this year's winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days" and the gorgeous and moving "Diving Bell and the Butterfly," are tenative go's for the early October Chicago International Film Festival, which formally announces its lineup this week."
Is the schedule any later than usual this year? Doesn't feel like it.
If you don't know what a word like "auteur" means, don't use it. Your anti-snob snobbery is pretty offensive. We're consumers with a legitimate gripe.
I know what it means. I thought you were all cutting-edge filmmakers from the posts.
I'm not an anti-snob. I'm a complete snob. I just think you are a whiner.
Nice of you to post a bunch of heresay about someone you apparently don't even know, by the way. "I heard..." "People were saying..." "Apparently..."
Have you ever heard the Metallica song "Free Speech for the Dumb?"
CIFF has reduced us to guesswork.
Well, it is somewhat silly that they don't have the programs out. ; )
Kutza is this week's David Wilshire.
I read on a yahoo posting that the Bulgarian/American feature TRADE ROUTES would show at CIFF. Does anyone know anything about that? Where can I find more information on that film? It was previewed in the New York Times a while back and apparently won a few awards at an LA festival. Anyone?
i belong to the bulgarian-american yahoo group you mentioned and just got the notice about TRADE ROUTES. sounds interesting and i definitely want to go. says there are three screenings with times and dates. still can't find tix on CIFF website though. the link includes a myspace page that may have more info eventually: myspace.com/traderoutes
Re: "Maybe I am not a savvy conninseur [sic] of film festivals world wide like the rest of the auteur jetsetters" - you know, some of us out here actually go to those other film festivals as part of our work. It's called the entertainment industry – these movies don’t just get distributed to theaters or on DVD by themselves.
It is only natural to compare experiences. If the CIFF experience comes up lacking on some levels, it is also within all of our rights to complain about it. It's not about feeling we “deserve the best festival in the world” -- but more that there is much room for improvement. It has more do to with civic pride than ego: don’t we want the best sports teams, parks, museums, etc. for Chicago? An establishment like the Art Institute didn’t get its reputation as one of the best museums in the world with an attitude like: “We can’t compete with the Louvre, so we’ll just be happily disorganized and third rate instead.”
As far as the postings here containing hearsay: gee, it looks to me like many of them came from insiders who had some not-too-positive observations on how CIFF as an establishment is run. There is no business or institution on the face of this planet that can survive and prosper with bad management. They might be able to cover it up from the public for a while, but it will eventually catch up to them.
I do realize that this might have been a waste of typing: I'm sure that the person who posted the auteur comment (and who apparently is the same one who called all of us morons earlier), will respond with something hysterical, childish name calling. Being the playground bully only weakens their arguments: they would get a lot more mileage in their defense of Mr. Kutza if they tempered their tone. At this point, they’re doing him more harm than good, and the festival too, for that matter.
I don't see how I'm doing anyone any harm. This conversation is played out. We have two different perspectives: Mine is that I enjoy the film festival casually and think the whining tone of the article and the follow-up posts fits well into the generally whiny tone of many of the articles and posts on this site.
You, apparently, are much more invested in the film festival than I am, and take it as a personal affront that we don't get big world premieres, etc. You have no problem with people anonymously spewing vitrol about the festival's founder and director all over the Internet, and seem to not find it of any significance whatsoever that the film festival, in any form, wouldn't even exist without him.
I am sure one or two of you really do care about this kind of thing; I think for the rest, it's simply posturing, along the same lines as saying you're so over Interpol.
Oh, sorry about my misspelling of connoissier, by the way; I like how you put that [sic] in there. Very cute. It's this kind of pretentious pedantry I would expect from a hand-wringer outraged that Toronto has a better film festival than us.
There's an awful lot of 'Inside Baseball' going on here. Does any know anything substantive about the schedule? I'd actually like to attend but I can't find any information.
...and thank you for living up to my expectations.
Hey Samuel Johnson, why don't you start your own film festival. The schedule was released this morning, by the way. I'm sure you will find plenty to complain about.
And, no, to answer your question, I think the Art Institute became what it is due to anonymous backbiting on the Internet.
as i recall, the schedule and press party came out the same time last year...so i'm confused about what all the hubub is about.
also, who would want to be toronto, sundance, cannes? do they have a lot of big stars? of course, but from my experience those are industry festivals that are designed to sell films, chicago (whether you like it or not) seems to be more for the people in chicago who like watching films.
i'm just glad they didn't jack ticket prices up to over $20 a ticket like tribecca did...
I saw the website for the movie but only has same info as Chicago movie site. Does anyone have information in this trade routes movie?