Carrie Coon and Marlon Wayans are set to walk the red carpet in Chicago this fall as the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival unveils a lineup built for both Hollywood star power and hometown pride. Roughly 45,000 cinephiles are expected to pack theaters across the city for the run, which opens October 14 with a screening of Jordan Firstman's A24-distributed debut feature Club Kid and closes October 25 with Tony Gilroy's Behemoth!, a Searchlight Pictures release starring Pedro Pascal and Olivia Wilde.
The festival's programmers have assembled 113 feature films and 57 shorts for the 2026 edition, according to WBEZ Chicago. Coon will receive the Artistic Achievement Award and appear in support of The Liberation, while Wayans is being honored with a Career Achievement Award that includes an onstage discussion of his work. Also on the marquee this year: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who will receive the Tour de Force Award, plus appearances from Bob Odenkirk and Tim Blake Nelson, per the same report.
A Career Tribute Built on an Old Friendship
Wayans' Career Achievement Award presentation carries a personal twist. The tribute will feature an “In Conversation” discussion alongside actor Omar Epps, according to Cinema/Chicago. The two attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School together in New York before later collaborating in film.
Wayans' honor lands during a milestone year for the festival's Black Perspectives program, which marks its 30th anniversary in 2026. The program was established in 1997 in collaboration with director Spike Lee to showcase African American cinema and filmmakers across the global Black diaspora, according to Cinema/Chicago. Over three decades it has hosted world premieres including Ava DuVernay's debut feature I Will Follow in 2010, and this year's slate will include screenings of DuVernay's documentary 14th and David and William Greaves' Once Upon a Time in Harlem, per WBEZ's report.
Chicago Filmmakers Take the Centerpiece Slot
Local talent gets prime placement this year. The centerpiece presentation, Mouse, was co-directed by Chicago-based filmmakers Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson, who previously helmed the acclaimed 2019 independent drama Saint Frances, according to Cinema/Chicago. The pair are Chicago-based filmmakers and collaborators. Also rooted in the city is No Hands: The Wild Ride of the Schwinn Bicycle Company, a documentary framed as a Chicago story, alongside Ever After, which profiles chef Curtis Duffy, per WBEZ.
The lineup otherwise ranges far beyond city limits, pulling in films from more than 60 countries. That includes the Oscar contender Wild Horse Nine, the unsanctioned Elon Musk documentary Musk, the Sandra Hüller-led foreign drama Fatherland, and another foreign drama titled Sad Girlz, per the same report. Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut stars Julianne Moore, Simon Stone's Elsinore stars Andrew Scott, and Mike Leigh's prospective final film, Tender Loving Care, also screens during the run.
Queer Cinema and a 30th-Anniversary Salute
The festival continues to program disability-inclusive films and celebrate queer filmmakers this year. Director Andrew Haigh will take part in a conversation with fellow filmmaker Ira Sachs, who is set to receive the Q Hugo Achievement Award at a screening of his film The Man I Love. Filmmaker Cheryl Dunye will also receive a career achievement award, honored at a retrospective screening of her 1996 film The Watermelon Woman, according to WBEZ's reporting.
A National Ranking and a Deep Bench of History
The honors arrive on the heels of outside recognition. In March 2026, the USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards ranked the Chicago International Film Festival as the No. 2 Best Film Festival in the United States, placing it second nationwide behind Indiana's Heartland Film Festival following a four-week public vote, according to Cinema/Chicago. The festival was founded in 1964 by 22-year-old filmmaker Michael Kutza alongside silent screen star Colleen Moore, making it North America's longest-running competitive film festival, with its inaugural screenings held at Chicago's Carnegie Theater in November 1965.
That pedigree showed up again at last year's edition, when the festival's top prize, the Gold Hugo for Best Feature, went to director Oliver Laxe's drama Sirât, Spain's official entry for Best International Feature, at the 61st festival in October 2025. In January 2026, 13 film selections that had showcased at recent editions of the festival went on to earn a combined 47 Academy Award nominations at the 98th Oscars, underscoring the festival's role as an official Academy Award-qualifying event in the live action, documentary and animated short categories.
New This Year: A Fair for Physical Media Collectors
Beyond the screenings, organizers are launching an inaugural Physical Media Fair October 17-18 at 1511 N. Halsted St., featuring official partnerships with boutique distributor Kino Lorber and local record shop Reckless Records, according to Screen Magazine. The free two-day event was created for home video collectors trading Blu-rays and DVDs amid shifting streaming availability, and attendees will be able to swap movies, win prizes and hear from filmmakers and special guests, per WBEZ's reporting.
The 62nd festival's footprint spans multiple neighborhoods, anchoring at AMC NEWCITY 14 while hosting screenings at the Music Box Theatre, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago History Museum and the Logan Center for the Arts, connecting North Side commercial theaters with South Side university centers and downtown institutions. Cinema/Chicago also runs free public Community Cinema screenings during the festival season at neighborhood venues including the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen and Kennedy-King College in Englewood, with year-round programming that has included classics such as Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.
Growing Younger, and Growing Fast
Cinema/Chicago's artistic director, Mimi Plauché, said festival momentum is building and that the event grows every year. People under 35 now make up the festival's largest demographic, accounting for more than 40 percent of attendees, a shift Plauché attributed in part to younger festival programmers and the Letterboxd craze, per WBEZ's report. Plauché also said the festival's films aim to change how audiences see and feel about the world.
Festival passes go on sale to the general public September 24, with individual screening tickets, priced at $26 each, following September 25. Cinema/Chicago members receive presale access to passes and individual tickets ahead of those dates.
