Chicago Underground Film Festival
chicago underground film festival cuff annual nonprofit international festival dedicated exhibition underground avantgarde cinema video performancethe festival offer opportunity independent artist frequently overlooked conventional marketdriven film festival showcase recognized work though jury audience award addition screening festival also host event build community amoungst audience founded festival widely regarded longest running festival kind festival founded jay bliznick mark siska bryan wendorf alternative mainstream film festival circuit increasingly dominated distributor product festival celebrated year anniversary festival stated goal focus artistic aesthetic fun side independent filmmaking cuff promotes work dissent radically form content technique tired convention hollywood increasingly stagnant indiewood mainstream festival excellent reputation curation become known one key event history underground february announced festival become official program ifpchicago independent feature project festival held gene siskel film center state art cinematheque connected school art institute chicago since festival held logan theatre chicago popular independent movie theater city north side festival run course several day featuring extensive lineup film video performance well party concert festival became independent organization received c notforprofit status cuff welcome mix film video length genre festival’s dominant focus work chart new experimental ground form content festival mission showcase selection diverse film video related work highlight filmmaker take unconventional approach filmmaking work break boundary form narrative length aim provide audience wide range programming promote innovative form medium art build audience community around work festival always explored many different definition underground film early year festival programming consisted mainly lowbudget bmovies film tradition cinema transgression recently moved focus toward experimental avantgarde film video documentariesthe festival programming diverse varied festival objective showcase defiantly independent filmmaker promoting film video challenge transcends expectation festival also featured retrospective legendary underground filmmaker john water kenneth anger alejandro jodorowsky festival screen film host workshop qas afterparties encourage discussion underground art build community among attendee festival jury present six jury award film video selected best interesting various category well made chicago award recognize film video made local filmmaker jury award vary year year determined current year jury award given typical festival best documentary others creative specific winning film radical empathy awardaudience choice award honorable mention also given addition order recognize outstanding film festival film festival accepts wide range genre style film submission nine category festivial submission narrative feature narrative short documentary feature documentary short experimental feature experimental short animation feature animation short music video official website