Choosing Quality Over Clout

The Chicago International Film Festival turns 40 this year, and in its middle age, it has settled nicely into its role in the film world. The Chicago Fest is not a big event on Hollywood’s calendar, but the organizers have long since come to grips with that fact and, rather than begging for world premieres and striving for recognition from the big studios, “the Chicago event began concentrating more on showing quality films no matter whether they’d screened elsewhere.”