Best of the 2018 Chicago International Film Festival

The 2018 Chicago International Film Festival has closed on another year.  The 54th edition of the festival gave us a number of films from all over the world from all different genres and filmmakers.  I saw 24 movies this festival, from big budget Oscar players to foreign indies you may never hear of.  Here are my picks for the best of the festival.

 

TOP 5 MOVIES

 

 

5 – IN SEARCH OF GREATNESS (Gabe Polsky)

• A documentary about what makes great athletes great is a thrill for fans of film and fans of sports.

 

 

4 – WILDLIFE (Paul Dano)

• Paul Dano’s directorial debut is a slow-burning, coming-of-age family drama led by a magnificent performance from Carey Mulligan.

 

 

3 – SHOPLIFTERS

• A beautiful, heartbreaking look at what it means to be family.

 

 

2 – COLD WAR

• A stunning, epic love story.

 

 

1 – WIDOWS (Steve McQueen)

• A film that is wildly entertaining and also deep with themes about everything from politics to the life of a criminal.  McQueen takes who would usually be schlocky, B-movie entertainment and gives us a rich, masterful crime film.

 

 

 

BEST OF THE REST

 

BEST DIRECTOR: STEVE MCQUEEN – WIDOWS

BEST ACTOR: WILLEM DAFOE – AT ETERNITY’S GATE

BEST ACTRESS: MELISSA MCCARTHY – CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET – BOY ERASED

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: RACHEL WEISZ – THE FAVOURITE 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: SHOPLIFTERS

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: WIDOWS

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: COLD WAR

BEST ENSEMBLE: WIDOWS

BEST MIDNIGHT MOVIE: OVERLORD

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: COLD WAR

BEST DOCUMENTARY: FRIEDKIN UNCUT

 

 

 

 

OVERALL RANKING OF EVERY MOVIE

*You can watch trailers for each each film by clicking on the title

 

1 –WIDOWS

2 – COLD WAR

3 – SHOPLIFTERS

4 – WILDLIFE

5 – IN SEARCH OF GREATNESS 

6 – CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

7 – OVERLORD

8 – LIVERLEAF

9 – THE FAVOURITE

10 – FRIEDKIN UNCUT

11 – FLAMMABLE CHILDREN

12 – RAFIKI

13 – THE MERCY OF THE JUNGLE

14 – AT ETERNITY’S GATE

15 – PETERLOO

16 – BEN IS BACK

17 – THE CITY THAT SOLD AMERICA

18 – BEAUTIFUL BOY

19 – FATHER THE FLAME

20 – JUMPMAN

21 – A PRIVATE WAR

22 – AN ACCEPTABLE LOSS

23 – GREEN BOOK

24 – THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

 

 

 

 

Follow Kevflix on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, and on Facebook by searching Kevflix.