Siskel Film Center

Siskel Film Center Chicago's home for great cinema. See you at the movies!
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For more than 50 years, the Gene Siskel Film Center has welcomed cinephiles and curious newcomers alike to experience a curated collection of the world’s most compelling films.

Still thinking about an incredible evening of Chicago stories at the Obama Presidential Center! 🎬Last week, we brought B...
10/07/2026

Still thinking about an incredible evening of Chicago stories at the Obama Presidential Center! 🎬

Last week, we brought Black Harvest to the OPC for SHORTS FROM THE BLOCK: Black Harvest’s Chicago Stories, featuring five standout shorts from recent editions of the Festival, followed by a conversation with journalist Sylvia Ewing and Black Harvest curator jada-amina. We loved this amazing partnership with the Obama Presidential Center, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Chicago Public Library. Thanks to everyone who came out and shared the evening with us!

And there’s much more Black Harvest to come. The 32nd Black Harvest Film Festival returns to the Gene Siskel Film Center November 6–15, with ten days of films, filmmaker Q&As, special events, community, and conversation. Festival passes are on sale now, and the full lineup and individual tickets will be available October 16.

📸 Swipe for scenes from SHORTS FROM THE BLOCK, and see the full photo gallery at the link in our bio.

🎟️ Black Harvest Film Festival | Nov. 6–15

A disappearance. A three-year obsession. And one of cinema’s most unsettling answers.George Sluizer’s THE VANISHING (SPO...
10/06/2026

A disappearance. A three-year obsession. And one of cinema’s most unsettling answers.

George Sluizer’s THE VANISHING (SPOORLOOS) follows a young man consumed by the search for his girlfriend after she mysteriously disappears during a vacation stop. Meticulously constructed and almost unbearably tense, Sluizer’s 1988 thriller transforms a seemingly simple mystery into something far stranger: an unorthodox love story, a study of obsession, and a descent toward an unforgettable finale.

“The film creeps under your skin and offers a unique and as of yet, unreplicated, cinematic experience in dread.” —Little White Lies

THE VANISHING screens Wednesday, October 14 at 8:15 p.m. as part of SAIC Film Club, our monthly repertory series programmed this fall by SAIC undergraduate student Sofia Roberts, who will introduce the screening.

SAIC students receive free admission with a valid student ID; tickets must be obtained at the Siskel Film Center box office.

See showtimes and get tickets at the link in bio.

Built from a remarkable archive of films, recordings, and never-before-seen materials, BARBARA FOREVER lets pioneering f...
10/06/2026

Built from a remarkable archive of films, recordings, and never-before-seen materials, BARBARA FOREVER lets pioneering filmmaker Barbara Hammer tell her story in her own words—and on her own terms.

Opening Saturday, October 10, Brydie O’Connor’s intimate, immersive portrait draws from Hammer’s canon of more than 80 films alongside extensive audio interviews and unreleased archival materials, weaving them together into a film that feels as alive, sensual, and searching as Hammer’s work itself.

Moving through her art, relationships, sexuality, and creative life, BARBARA FOREVER captures the inseparability of Hammer’s filmmaking and her way of moving through the world: boldly, experimentally, and unapologetically le***an. The result is both a portrait of a singular artist and an extension of the cinematic legacy she left behind.

“Full of loving relationships, artistic triumphs and great sex.” —AV Club

“A loving and intimate tribute to a Q***r Cinema Legend.” —IndieWire

BARBARA FOREVER plays October 10–15 at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

See showtimes and get tickets at siskelfilmcenter.org/barbara-forever

🎬 Director Paula González-Nasser in person!What does it mean to spend your days stepping briefly into other people’s liv...
10/06/2026

🎬 Director Paula González-Nasser in person!

What does it mean to spend your days stepping briefly into other people’s lives?
In THE SCOUT, Sofia crisscrosses New York City scouting locations for a network TV show, entering strangers’ homes, businesses, and private worlds along the way. Over the course of a single day, these fleeting encounters reveal moments of curiosity, vulnerability, and quiet tension—until her work takes an unexpectedly personal turn.

Praised as a “fantastic feature debut” by The Playlist, González-Nasser’s contemplative, quietly compelling film explores connection, isolation, and the strange intimacy of moving through a city filled with other people’s stories.

📅 Oct. 9–15
✨ Sat. Oct. 10, 7:00 p.m.: Post-screening Q&A with director Paula González-Nasser

🎟️ Get tickets now!

💻 Hack the planet.Thirty years after HACKERS imagined the thrills and dangers of a newly connected world, Iain Softley’s...
10/06/2026

💻 Hack the planet.

Thirty years after HACKERS imagined the thrills and dangers of a newly connected world, Iain Softley’s deliriously stylish cyber-cult classic remains a time capsule of early internet culture—and an irresistible blast of ’90s techno-futurism.

Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie star as impossibly cool teenage hackers whose digital exploits put them up against a powerful corporate adversary. Powered by eye-popping visuals, a propulsive electronic soundtrack, and its own gloriously camp vision of cyberspace, HACKERS turns the emerging internet into a playground for rebellion, connection, and crossing boundaries.

🌐 Presented as part of Contact Zones: Cinema of Globalization, our Fall 2026 Lecture Series.

📅 Tue. Oct. 6, 6:00 p.m.
📅 Sun. Oct. 11, 12:00 p.m.
🎟️ Get tickets now!

Eleven monsters. One big screen. DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. 🦖The original GODZILLA team of director Ishiro Honda, special-eff...
10/04/2026

Eleven monsters. One big screen. DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. 🦖

The original GODZILLA team of director Ishiro Honda, special-effects supervisor Eiji Tsuburaya, and composer Akira Ifukube reunites for a spectacular kaiju showdown featuring Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, and more.

“It’s a masterpiece…Any opportunity to see this film on a large screen is a precious one. Go.” —Walter Chaw, RogerEbert.com

See DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968) on the big screen as part of our eight-film Creature Features series:

🎟️ Fri. Oct. 9, 6:30 p.m.
🎟️ Sat. Oct. 10, 12:00 p.m.
🎟️ Sun. Oct. 11, 5:00 p.m.
🎟️ Wed. Oct. 14, 6:00 p.m.

Get tickets at siskelfilmcenter.org/destroy-all-monsters

🏆 Winner of the 2026 Palme d’Or at CannesAcclaimed Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, R.M...
10/03/2026

🏆 Winner of the 2026 Palme d’Or at Cannes

Acclaimed Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, R.M.N.) returns with FJORD, his first English-language feature—a riveting, slow-burning family drama starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. Mungiu’s latest earned him his second Palme d’Or, nearly two decades after his landmark 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won the prize in 2007. Festival de Cannes

After a Romanian-Norwegian family settles in a remote Norwegian village, bruises discovered on their teenage daughter draw the attention of local authorities and ignite a conflict that ripples through two families and their community. As suspicions mount, FJORD probes thorny questions of parenting, personal freedom, cultural difference, and what happens when deeply held values collide.

📅 Opens October 24
🎟️ Tickets on sale now!

Sundance award winner AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ANCESTOR/GREAT-GRANDPARENT/GREAT-GRANDCHILD] comes to the Siskel Film Center on Th...
10/02/2026

Sundance award winner AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ANCESTOR/GREAT-GRANDPARENT/GREAT-GRANDCHILD] comes to the Siskel Film Center on Thursday, October 8 as part of our Conversations at the Edge series, followed by a conversation with filmmaker Adam Khalil and guests.

AANIKOOBIJIGAN, the latest film by acclaimed Ojibwe artist-filmmakers Adam and Zack Khalil, is a searing indictment of institutions holding Indigenous Ancestors and a tribute to the ongoing work of bringing them home.

The film follows the Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance, a coalition of specialists from tribes across Michigan, in its decades-long effort to return looted remains held by museums, universities, and archives.

But AANIKOOBIJIGAN is no straightforward documentary—moving kaleidoscopically between vérité, essay, and animation, the Khalils bend cinematic time and space around a spiralic Anishinaabe worldview, making clear why repatriation is urgent work today.

Followed by a conversation with Adam Khalil, producer Jacque Clark, and historian and NAGPRA officer Veronica Pasfield, moderated by Debra Yepa-Pappan, Co-Founding Director of Exhibitions and Programs at the Center for Native Futures, and audience Q&A.

AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ANCESTOR/GREAT-GRANDPARENT/GREAT-GRANDCHILD]
Thursday, October 8, 6:00 p.m.
Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.

FREE for SAIC students
Get tickets at the link in bio or comments.

Presented in partnership with Center For Native Futures

This film has closed captions; the live event will include real-time captions (CART).

IMAGES: AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ANCESTOR/GREAT-GRANDPARENT/GREAT-GRANDCHILD], 2026. All images courtesy of the filmmakers.

Conversations at the Edge SAIC Film Video New Media and Animation Center for Native Futures

Black Harvest Festival Passes are ON SALE NOW! 🎟️The Black Harvest Film Festival returns November 6–15 for its 32nd year...
10/02/2026

Black Harvest Festival Passes are ON SALE NOW! 🎟️

The Black Harvest Film Festival returns November 6–15 for its 32nd year, bringing ten days of Black cinema from Chicago and across the diaspora to the Film Center.
With nine feature films, ten shorts programs, seven special presentations, filmmaker Q&As, community dialogues, and more, a Festival Pass is the best way to take in more of this year’s festival.

🎬 Opening Night + Five-Film Pass
Kick off Black Harvest with Opening Night—a selection of short films and a festive post-show reception—then choose five additional festival screenings.
Members: $55 | Public: $80

🎬 Six-Film Pass
Choose six regular festival screenings from this year’s lineup.
Members: $36 | Public: $60

Festival Passes are on sale now at the link in bio. And save the date: the full festival lineup will be announced October 16, when individual tickets go on sale.

📅 32nd Black Harvest Film Festival | November 6–15

A tragedy becomes a headline. A headline becomes a spectacle.Kirk Douglas gives one of his greatest performances in Bill...
10/01/2026

A tragedy becomes a headline. A headline becomes a spectacle.

Kirk Douglas gives one of his greatest performances in Billy Wilder’s blistering ACE IN THE HOLE (1951), playing a disgraced reporter who sees a deadly rescue operation as his ticket back to the top. As the story—and the crowd around it—grows, Wilder transforms one man’s ruthless ambition into a scathing satire of journalism, media manipulation, and the public appetite for spectacle.

📅 💬 Sun. Oct. 4, 4:15 pm — Followed by a discussion with critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, moderated by Jane Ruby, President of the League of Women Voters Chicago

📅 Mon. Oct. 5, 5:45 pm

Presented alongside Haskell Wexler’s MEDIUM COOL as part of Democracy at Risk Double Feature, presented in partnership with the League of Women Voters of Chicago.

Get tickets at siskelfilmcenter.org/ace-hole

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