2018

CHICAGO – The rise of innovative and inclusive television programming, along with the expansion of the broadcast spectrum that includes digital and online options, has been the most important entertainment story of the last five years. The 54th Chicago Television Festival – an offshoot of the Chicago International Film Festival, and presented by their agency Cinema/Chicago – has grown in prestige and importance along with that evolution in TV, and will take place from Tuesday, March 20th through Thursday, March 22nd, 2018, at the AMC River East 21 Theater at 322 East Illinois, Chicago.

CHICAGO – Even though Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway appeared once again to present the Best Picture at the 90th Academy Awards – as they did last year – the correct film was announced, and it was the romantic fantasy “The Shape of Water” that won the 2018 Best Picture on March 4, 2018.

CHICAGO – Time to fill out the Oscar prediction ballots! The 90th Academy Awards are on Sunday, March 4th, 2018, and HC film critics Patrick McDonald, Michael “Spike” Walters and Jon Lennon Espino are ready to add their prognosticating powers to all the major categories, plus three wild cards. Let the predicting begin.

CHICAGO – One of the surprise hits of 2017 was a film based on a true life courtship incident, that the now husband and wife – Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon – fashioned into a comedy. “The Big Sick” is nominated for Best Original Screenplay, and the duo behind it talked to HollywoodChicago.com last summer.

CHICAGO – He has been cleaning up in the preliminary awards so far in 2018, and he’s an odds-on favorite to take the Oscar for Best Actor on Sunday, March 4th. Veteran actor Gary Oldman donned make-up and found the right accent to portray Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour” (also nominated for the Best Picture).

CHICAGO – The legendary Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami (“Certified Copy”) passed away in 2016, but he left one more meditation on cinema and illusion, in the artistic “24 Frames.” Yes, it refers to the number of still photos that make up a second of film, but in this case it is also Kiarostami’s observations of stillness in motion.

CHICAGO – It was basic black at the 75th Golden Globe Awards on January 7th, 2018, as attendees chose a fashion statement to define the year that Hollywood faced the realities of sexual harassment. Hosted by Seth Meyers of NBC-TV’s “Late Night,” the Globes celebrated the best of TV and film in 2017.