The Chicago International Film Festival, North America’s longest-running competitive film festival, released a first look at its 62nd edition on August 25, previewing a fall lineup that opens October 14 and runs through October 25 across venues throughout the city. The early slate leans into Chicago-rooted storytelling, headlined by Illinois native Bob Odenkirk appearing in person for a screening of a documentary about his Machu Picchu trek with David Cross, and the world premiere of a film chronicling two-Michelin-star chef Curtis Duffy’s trajectory from personal tragedy to the upper tier of American fine dining. The full lineup will be announced September 17, with tickets going on sale September 24.

Key Takeaways

• The 62nd Chicago International Film Festival runs October 14–25 at venues including AMC NEWCITY 14, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Music Box Theatre, the Chicago History Museum, and the University of Chicago’s Logan Center for the Arts.
• Illinois native Bob Odenkirk will attend a screening of Michael LaHale’s documentary “Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu,” which follows the actor and his longtime comedic partner David Cross on their trek through Peru.
• Frankie Nasso’s “Ever After,” a documentary on Fulton Market chef Curtis Duffy, will have its world premiere as part of the festival’s City and State program spotlighting local stories.
• The international slate includes Martin McDonagh’s black comedy “Wild Horse Nine” starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cannes-winning “Fatherland” with Sandra Hüller, and Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas.”
• Director Tim Blake Nelson will visit Chicago to present “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd,” starring Amanda Seyfried.
• The full lineup drops September 17; memberships and early bird passes are available now through Cinema/Chicago.

Odenkirk Brings a Personal Project Back to His Home State

Bob Odenkirk, who grew up in Naperville and built his early comedy career in Chicago before becoming a household name through “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” will return to the festival for a screening of “Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu.” The documentary, directed by Michael LaHale, follows Odenkirk and David Cross, his collaborator on HBO’s “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” as the two comedians take on the physical and personal challenge of trekking to the Incan citadel in the Peruvian Andes.

The screening carries a different energy than a typical festival premiere. Odenkirk and Cross share a creative partnership that stretches back more than three decades, and the documentary format marks a departure from the scripted work that has defined both of their careers. For a festival that has historically used its programming to bridge international cinema with Midwestern audiences, an Odenkirk homecoming screening offers exactly the kind of local draw that fills seats during the opening week.

Curtis Duffy Documentary Gets Its World Premiere in the City That Shaped the Chef’s Career

“Ever After,” Frankie Nasso’s documentary on chef Curtis Duffy, will premiere at the festival as part of its City and State program, a section dedicated to films with ties to Chicago and Illinois. The premiere anchors the documentary in the city where Duffy has spent the past 25 years building and rebuilding a career defined by precision, resilience, and repeated reinvention.

Duffy arrived in Chicago as a young cook and trained in Charlie Trotter’s Lincoln Park kitchen, one of the formative fine dining environments of its era. Duffy went on to run Grace, which earned three Michelin stars and operated at the upper edge of American fine dining until an ownership dispute forced its abrupt closure in 2017. Duffy and his business partner Michael Muser spent more than two years bound by non-compete clauses before launching Ever on West Fulton Market in 2020, opening a tasting-menu restaurant in the middle of a global pandemic.

Ever earned two Michelin stars from the Guide in 2021 and has held that distinction in every subsequent edition. The restaurant gained a wider cultural footprint when FX’s “The Bear” filmed at Ever for its second season, using the real kitchen as the setting for the now-iconic “Forks” episode in which Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s character trains in a fictional version of the restaurant. Duffy published a memoir, “Fireproof,” in August 2025, co-written with Jeremy Wagner, which chronicles his childhood, the violent deaths of his parents, and the long arc from personal trauma to professional acclaim.

Nasso’s documentary follows that same trajectory in visual form, and staging its world premiere in Chicago, rather than at a coastal festival or international market, positions the film as a local story told on local ground. The City and State program has historically given Chicago-connected filmmakers and subjects a platform within the larger festival, and a Duffy documentary fits that mission cleanly: the chef is a product of the city’s restaurant culture, and his story is inseparable from the kitchens and neighborhoods where it unfolded.

The International Slate Brings Cannes, Venice, and Festival Circuit Favorites to Chicago Screens

Beyond its local programming, the festival’s early preview signals an international lineup built around directors with established reputations and films that have already circulated on the 2026 circuit. Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine,” a black comedy set during the 1973 Chilean coup, stars John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA agents dispatched to Easter Island. The film has played widely on this year’s festival circuit and brings McDonagh back to the kind of dark, geopolitically absurd storytelling that defined “In Bruges” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland,” which won the Cannes Best Director prize in 2026, stars Sandra Hüller, whose work in “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest” established her as one of the most in-demand actors in European cinema. The Cannes pedigree alone makes “Fatherland” a likely centerpiece screening, though the festival has not yet confirmed its programming slot.

James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” brings another marquee cast to the lineup, with Adam Driver, Miles Teller, and Scarlett Johansson. Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas” extends the Spanish director’s late-career run of films that have drawn both critical attention and crossover audiences. And Tim Blake Nelson, who will visit Chicago in person, presents “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd,” a drama starring Amanda Seyfried as a teacher in an abusive relationship who becomes involved with an inmate while working at a prison.

A 12-Day Festival Across Seven Venues, With Free Screenings in Underserved Neighborhoods

The 62nd edition will screen films at seven venues across the city, maintaining the geographic spread that the festival has built over the past several years. AMC NEWCITY 14 returns as the primary venue for the second consecutive year, after the festival moved its main operations there for the 61st edition. The Gene Siskel Film Center and the Music Box Theatre, two fixtures of Chicago’s independent cinema ecosystem, round out the core screening locations, alongside the Chicago History Museum and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago.

The festival will also program free Community Cinema screenings at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen and Kennedy-King College on the South Side, extending the reach of the festival into neighborhoods that sit outside the typical downtown-to-North Side corridor of Chicago’s cultural institutions. The free screenings have become a consistent feature of the festival’s programming, and they serve a practical function: they introduce the festival to audiences who might not purchase passes or attend ticketed events, building a broader constituency for an institution that depends on public engagement to sustain its annual run.

Last year’s 61st edition presented 111 feature films and 70 short films from more than 60 countries, including four world premieres, 17 North American premieres, and 18 United States premieres. Cinema/Chicago, the nonprofit that produces the festival, has not released projected numbers for the 62nd edition, but the preview’s emphasis on in-person appearances from directors and actors suggests the organization is building a schedule designed to generate ticket sales through event-driven screenings rather than volume alone.

Memberships and early bird festival passes are available now through Cinema/Chicago’s website. Individual tickets will go on sale September 24, one week after the full lineup is revealed on September 17.

FAQs

When does the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival run?

The festival runs October 14 through October 25, 2026. The full lineup will be announced on September 17, and individual tickets go on sale September 24. Memberships and early bird festival passes are currently available through Cinema/Chicago.

Where are the festival venues?

Screenings take place at AMC NEWCITY 14 (main venue), the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Music Box Theatre, the Chicago History Museum, and the University of Chicago’s Logan Center for the Arts. Free Community Cinema screenings will be held at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen and Kennedy-King College on the South Side.

What is the Curtis Duffy documentary screening at the festival?

“Ever After,” directed by Frankie Nasso, is a documentary on two-Michelin-star chef Curtis Duffy, who runs Ever in Fulton Market. The film will have its world premiere as part of the festival’s City and State program. Duffy previously helmed the three-Michelin-star Grace and published a memoir, “Fireproof,” in 2025.

Will Bob Odenkirk attend the festival?

The Illinois native will attend a screening of “Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu,” a documentary directed by Michael LaHale that follows Odenkirk and his longtime comedic partner David Cross on a trek through the Peruvian Andes.