ChiFilmFest 2025 Oscar Submissions
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The 61st Chicago International Film Festival is hosting a number of films which are the official submissions for International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. Below is a list that also includes Peacock, which screened at the festival last year.
A POET
A Poet
Attempting to revive his career, struggling poet Oscar mentors a young writer from a lower-class neighborhood.
Directed by Simón Mesa Soto
Country: Colombia
A USEFUL GHOST
A Useful Ghost
After dying from a respiratory disease, a mother’s spirit possesses a vacuum cleaner to protect her husband when he begins showing the same symptoms.
Directed by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
Country: Thailand
BLACK RABBIT, WHITE RABBIT
Black Rabbit, White Rabbit
Surreal visuals and wry humor animate a layered tale of a prop master who worries over a weapon on set and a conspiracy-minded car-crash victim.
Directed by Shahram Mokri
Country: Tajikistan
FRANZ
Franz
Conceived as a kaleidoscopic mosaic, the film follows the imprint Franz Kafka left on the world from his birth in 19th-century Prague to his death in post-WW1 Vienna.
Directed by Agnieszka Holland
Country: Poland
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
It Was Just An Accident
When Vahid thinks he recognizes his former torturer, he sets out to prove the man’s identity even as he’s plagued by doubt in this gripping revenge thriller.
Directed by Jafar Panahi
Country: France
LEFT-HANDED GIRL
Left-Handed Girl
When a single mother and her daughters relocate to Taipei to open a night market stall, they encounter challenges and generations of secrets that threaten to upend their unity.
Directed by Shih-Ching Tsou
Country: Taiwan
MAGELLAN
Magellan
Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan embarks on a brutal campaign of colonial conquest in Southeast Asia, but madness soon takes hold.
Directed by Lav Diaz
Country: Philippines
NO OTHER CHOICE
No Other Choice
After being unemployed for several years, a man devises a unique plan to secure a new job: eliminate his competition.
Directed by Park Chan-wook
Country: South Korea
ORPHAN
Orphan
Budapest, 1957. The young Andor’s life is turned upside down when a menacing, brutish man appears in town claiming to be his father.
Directed by László Nemes
Country: Hungary
PALESTINE 36
Palestine 36
In 1936, as Palestinian villages revolt against British colonial rule, Yusuf navigates between Jerusalem and his rural home, amidst escalating unrest and a pivotal moment for the British Empire.
Directed by Annemarie Jacir
Country: Palestine
PEACOCK
Peacock
Matthias is a master of pretense, from cultured boyfriend to perfect son or marital coach. He makes a career of being someone else. The real challenge begins when he has to be himself.
Directed by Bernhard Wenger
Country: Austria
** While this film screened during The 60th Chicago International Film Festival it counts for the 98th Academy Awards **
SENTIMENTAL VALUE
Sentimental Value
Two sisters reunited with their estranged filmmaker father must confront their family’s complex past when he returns to direct a very personal film.
Directed by Joachim Trier
Country: Norway
SIRĀT
Sirāt
After a young woman goes missing at a rave, her father and brother brave the arid Moroccan landscape searching for her in a world on the brink of collapse.
Directed by Oliver Laxe
Country: Spain
SOUND OF FALLING
Sound of Falling
Over the course of a century, as four girls from different time periods experience their youth on a German farm, their lives become intertwined until time seems to dissolve.
Directed by Mascha Schilinski
Country: Germany
THE LOVE THAT REMAINS
The Love That Remains
Captures a year in the life of a family as the parents navigate their separation. Through both playful and heartfelt moments, the film portrays the bittersweet essence of faded love and shared memories amidst the changing seasons.
Directed by Hlynur Pálmason
Country: Iceland
THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo
In a remote mining town, a girl raised by a queer family searches for the truth about a mythical illness said to be spread by a loving gaze.
Directed by Diego Céspedes
Country: Chile
THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE
The President’s Cake
Unlucky nine-year-old Lamia is forced to get creative when she’s tasked with baking a cake in celebration of Saddam Hussein’s birthday.
Directed by Hasan Hadi
Country: Iraq
THE SECRET AGENT
The Secret Agent
In 1977, a technology expert flees from a mysterious past and returns to his hometown of Recife in search of peace. He soon realizes that the city is far from being the refuge he seeks.
Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Country: Brazil
THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB
The Voice of Hind Rajab
January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A 6-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab.
Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania
Country: Tunisia
YOUNG MOTHERS
Young Mothers
Living together in a group home in Belgium, five teenage girls wrestle with the newfound responsibilities of parenthood in this warmly humanist social drama.
Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Country: Belgium
