2023

CHICAGO – Happy Pride Weekend! To bring us into this proud celebration, HollywoodChicago.com presents three reviews of LGBTQ+ themed films, with audio overviews from Editor/Writer Patrick McDonald, contributor Jon Lennon Espino and guest reviewer/Founder of Cinema Femme, Rebecca Martin Fagerhoim.

NEW YORK – The 23rd annual Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, today announced the winners in its competition categories at an awards ceremony at Racket NYC. The top honors went to “Griffin in Summer” for the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature, “Bikechess” for Best International Narrative Feature, and “Hacking Hate” for Best Documentary Feature. 

CHICAGO – In a breezy and memorable 96th Oscars … which took place on March 10th, 2024 … the Best Picture was “Oppenheimer,” with Cillian Murphy taking Best Actor and Robert Downey, Jr. for Best Supporting Actor from the same film. Emma Stone was the surprising Best Actress for “Poor Things” and Da’Vine Joy Randolph was Best Supporting Actress for “The Holdovers.”

CHICAGO – Maria Bamford has been a top comic force since her breakthrough in the first decade of the millennium. She will be appearing on the Super Bowl Sunday edition of CBS-TV’s @FTER MIDNIGHT, the new show hosted by Taylor Tomlinson after “Late Night with Stephen Colbert.” Appearing alongside her will be A-listers Wayne Brady and Kevin Smith.

CHICAGO – It’s 2024 y’all and what better way to start the new season of the Midwest Film Festival than a short film “Best of the Midwest” (BMA) Showcase. These Award Honorees, announced at the BMAs in November, spotlights the filmmaker diversity that is now the calling card of this once-a-month fest.

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Raquel Welch, 1940-February 15, 2023

CHICAGO – As always, we lost a number of notable people in 2023. In his hustle and glory, photographer Joe Arce has spent his career not only taking Exclusive Portraits of every notable he runs across, but he also has collected an archive that makes their image available again for the 2023 IN MEMORIAM.

CHICAGO – The seemingly middle-of-the-road character actor Bob Balaban has more to his legacy than just a ton of appearances from the 1960s to present in classic films and TV. His Chicago family were pioneers in film exhibition and the movie executive suite during the studio system in the early days of the history of film. It is in his DNA.

CHICAGO – 2023 to Me: “Hey Buddy, you can take a hike!”/Cause it’s harder work for a celebrity photographer/when your subjects are all on strike. And sure, the world is melting down/It was a hell of a year … But TIME still favored Taylor Swift/and that’s worthy of a cheer.

CHICAGO – Here we are again, the end of another year, and it’s time to momentarily look back. Thus opens the 10 BEST FILMS OF 2023, the list that represents one soul interacting with the art of cinema. That soul belongs to Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, WBGR-FM and WSSR-FM.

CHICAGO –At the the just wrapped up Fall 2023 Chicago Humanities Festival, a few laughs (and tears) were had at an appearance by comedian Aparna Nancherla. She has a new book entitled “Unreliable Narrator: Me, Myself and the Imposter Syndrome,” which takes readers on the journey of a stand-up comic and essayist who doesn’t feel she belongs doing what she does, but she’s able to express it.