The Gene Siskel Film Center will be holding the 19th European Union Film Fest from the first Friday of March until the last night of the month.
The festival, which even predates the official founding of the EU, will be North America’s largest showcase of cinema from EU nations with 62 features. It will will also provide the opportunity to view work from all 28 EU nations from the comfort of the theater box.
Consul General of The Netherlands Klaas van der Tempel will host the opening night, complete with the screening of the Dutch submission for Academy Awards consideration, The Paradise Suite. On March 4 and 5, one of the film’s featured actors, Issaka Sawadogo, will facilitate an au
A few of the other speakers include the MacArthur genius-awarded screenwriter Aleksandar Hemon to discuss his comedy Love Island on March 5 and 14, the Lithuanian director Aldona Watts on her documentary Land of Songs on March 19 and 21, and the executive producers Briona Nic Dhiarmada and Christopher Fox to conduct a Q&A for 1916: The Irish Rebellion on March 21.The festival will close on March 31 with a showing of Phantom Boy. The animated and family-friendly film will please crowds with a noir-esque story based in Manhattan. The Gene Siskel Film Center is located at 164 N State St., and more details on the festival’s lineup and schedule can be found here. We’ll have brief reviews of some of the EUFF films on the Screens page every week. See posts titled “Euro Union Film Fest: Recaps for Week of March XX.”