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Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/385207
T he 50th year—that's crazy," says Michael Kutza, marveling that the Chicago International Film Festival, which he founded at the age of 22, this year celebrates its golden anniversary. The 50th CIFF will honor the festival's past, present, and future by bringing back film artists whose first movies screened here, and showing their latest works. Among the illustrious invitees are Michael Moore and Oliver Stone. Asked if they will show, Kutza shrugs. "Who knows?" The festival's director says he never knows for sure if celebrities will come "until I see the whites of their eyes." Unlike government- funded film fests in other parts of the world, he explains, CIFF does not pay its guests, so if they suddenly get a paying gig, they take it. Still, some notable figures have confirmed, among them Kathleen Turner, who will serve as film jury president; Norwegian actress/ director Liv Ullmann; and celebrated French actress Isabelle Huppert. CIFF has distinguished itself from other film festivals, Kutza says, by being both public- friendly and competitive. Last year it had about 950 feature submissions and screened only 100 of them; of about 2,000 shorts submitted, it showed 50. The festival also has a vital education arm that buses about 6,000 Chicago Public Schools students to screenings each year. While CIFF looks to its past and future, Kutza, 71, says of his own future at the festi- val, "I'm not going anywhere." As Kutza and his team prepare to raise the curtain on films from around the world, we look at some of the Chicago men who are making movies their livelihood. Dressed to the nines and photographed at Soho House—the city's new ground zero for creative minds— these Windy City cinéastes are proving themselves maestros of the moving picture. As the ChiCAgo internAtionAl Film FestivAl CelebrAtes its 50th AnniversAry, we tAke A look At eight windy City gentlemen who Are mAking A serious impACt in the world oF CinemA. by novid parsi photography by billy rood MOVIE MEN C h i C a g o ' s " 108 michiganavemag.com