Tickets and VIP passes on sale NOW for the 2025 Cinema Femme Short Film Festival in Chicago from July 17 - 21!
Tickets and VIP passes on sale NOW for the 2025 Cinema Femme Short Film Festival in Chicago from July 17 - 21!
24 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
April 29, 2026
It’s a special kind of thrill when the greatness of an emerging filmmaker’s work hits you like a thunderbolt. That’s precisely what happened to me upon discovering the sublimely nuanced
25 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
April 13, 2026
After seeing Chicago’s BDSM community turn out in huge numbers for a euphoric preview screening of Harry Lighton’s acclaimed movie “Pillion” earlier this year, it’s clear that Madison Young’s equally
22 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
March 13, 2026
As I spent twelve hours in the hospital last week, waiting for my dad to recover from his long-belated knee replacement surgery, I found a liberating mode of escapism in
17 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
March 8, 2026
If she could, Amber would be a wall painted nondescript grey. Paint isn’t like wallpaper. It can’t be removed completely. No matter how much sanding down, they would still be
17 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
February 19, 2026
The sun is just beginning to set as the twenty-something characters in Jessica’s Barr’s mesmerizing new film, “The Plan,” start to congregate in an East LA apartment. The calmness of
4 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
February 13, 2026
There is no filmmaking duo whose work I await with greater anticipation than Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson. In 2019, Thompson made his debut feature, “Saint Frances,” written by and
21 min read
by Veronica Miles
February 12, 2026
Yes, you can just go to Sundance. Yes, you will definitely have fun. Yes, you will see celebrities. Yes, you will see movies that may win Oscars or launch the
16 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
January 28, 2026
Sundance has always been a festival I had admired at a distance. How Robert Redford had gone about using his platform to launch the careers of countless filmmakers for over
13 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
November 17, 2025
As I sat in my favorite movie palace, the Music Box Theatre, waiting for my wife—Cinema Femme founder Rebecca Martin—to arrive for that evening’s eagerly awaited Chicago International Film Festival
14 min read
by Anna Pattison
November 1, 2025
When a laid-off sex worker falls for a mail carrier in a world frozen by pandemic unknowns, it will take the help of an astrologer, cinema guru, cam model, retired dungeon owner,
14 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
October 25, 2025
With the 61st Chicago International Film Festival nearly in the rearview mirror, there are so many memories from the past several days that I know I will be cherishing for
20 min read
by Veronica Miles
October 10, 2025
In 2019, I crashed the Cannes Film Festival. Well — not really. I went legitimately with a pass I applied for (if you work in the film industry, you usually