Films

ABI is the story of scientist Vincent Forrester's biological computer prototype that could change the world but when a system virus infects his lab assistant, Abi, it could prove deadly. 

Starring: Rom Barkhordar, Clare Cooney, and Emily Berman

Writer, editor, producer: Dan McGuire

Libby Lamm (Tika Sumpter) is a former White House security aid to US Vice President Rachel Burke (Jamie Lee Curtis). After leaving politics for academia, Lamm can't escape her earlier actions or their impact.

BODYMAN (EXPERIENCE REQUIRED) is a story exploring the idea that, with the seemingly endless wave of gun violence in America, instead of asking ourselves how to stop it, we imagine what could happen if we don't.

DISSIDENCE (2084), a film imagining the year 2084, in which a government worker chooses to go without his mandated phone. This begins to open his eyes, as he learns the consequences of speaking out against the surveillance state he is living in. 

Writer, director, producer: Matthew Brdlik

Derrick Rose became the youngest MVP in NBA history and a celebrated superstar for the Bulls in his hometown of Chicago. Rose's gritty style on the court was forged by a childhood surrounded by gang violence and poverty in Englewood.

RUBICON ROAD is a film about a couple trying to connect on a weekend getaway at a unique rental home tailored just for them. They discover some strings attached they weren't anticipating. The film explores the complications of privacy and technology in our consumer-centric world.  

SAME BOAT the story of a time traveling assassin who inadvertently falls in love with the woman he’s been sent to kill... while on a cruise ship. The film was secretly shot aboard an actual cruise.

WHEN BILLY BROKE HIS HEAD...AND OTHER TALES OF WONDER (25TH ANNIVERSARY) is an entertaining, irreverent road movie about disability, civil rights, and the search for intelligent life after brain damage.

4 CORNERS is a minimalist short that examines gun violence in Chicago.

In this official music video for Ravyn Lenae's "4 Leaf Clover," feat.

U.S. PREMIER! Behind closed doors and in plain sight, AS OF NOW delves into a virulent relationship on on a Catholic college campus and the ensuing Title IX hearing.

A young woman weaves through the stages of grief after a miscarriage, confronting the vast universe inside her own body and beyond. Where do we begin and end if we are already made of stardust?

SPECIAL SNEAK PREVIEW

A comedy-drama series about a group of South Asian-Americans juggling love, work, and family in Chicago. 

Not a day after moving in together, Maggie and Jon both come down with the worst flu in years. Now, trapped at home together, forced to share every living, breathing, suffering moment of misery, their week becomes the ultimate test of their relationship. Can their love survive the cold?

CHICAGO PREMIER! Theo is a young and talented pianist recently diagnosed with Macular Degeneration, which is slowly rendering him blind. Watch from his point of view as he comes to terms with the struggles of loss. Each day brings new struggles for him and Dee, his long-term girlfriend.

A young boy escapes to the woods to indulge his fantasies but finds himself consumed by them, longing to return home, in this music video/short based on the song &quot

F*CK YES is what you say when you are super excited about the sexy times you're about to have. This digital series is here to remind you #consentissexy.

MIDWEST PREMIERE!

A comedy web series that follows a lovable group of geeks through their lives, loves and awkward misadventures at their favorite bar.

Documentary short GRACE captures the journey of a 36-year-old suburban mom and breast cancer survivor who decides to reclaim her body by covering her mastectomy scars

FESTIVAL PREMIERE!

Gumbo and Street Rat spend the day in a rich stranger's house with a pair of plastic guns and twelve hours to kill.

MIDWEST PREMIERE! HESBURGH, a feature-length documentary film from award-winning filmmakers Patrick Creadon and Christine O'Malley examines the challenges and triumphs of one of the most influential leaders in American history.

In episode three of the Lullaby Theories series on scientific theories, the science of sleep is examined in this animated short. lullabytheories.com

With a trusty peacock in tow, Mickey Alice Kwapis, a young taxidermist must overcome her insecurities to win first place at the U.S. National Taxidermy Championships.

A TRAGEDY (WORLD PREMIERE).  David and Timothy can't sell each other out fast enough.  Starring Timothy Simons (VEEP, EASY), David Pasquesi (VEEP, GROUNDHOG DAY), and Tracy Letts (L

A cycle of pursued acceptance met by rejection is threatened when one character sees the world for what it truly is.

Director: Emma Keehan
Writer: Nick Early
Producer: Emma Keehan
Producer: Andrew Harrington
Starring: Kyra Renee

Hunter K-009 embarks on a contract that may be too much to chew in this Chicago-made narrative short film depicting a high-tech battle between pets of the future.&nbsp

In this music video for Chicago hip-hop artist Taylor Bennett, the artist gets caught up in a robbery going wrong. 

Directed by Andre Muir

While being held captive, Isabelle discovers a mysterious ability to project herself to the outside world. When she appears to two of her friends in a desperate appeal for help, they work together to try and find her. But time is running out.

A socially conscious, comedy web series following the misadventures of 4 young black women.

U.S. PREMIER! After Paul confesses to a one-night-stand, disrupting their nearly 25 year marriage, Alice comes to terms with her bubbling depression. While she seeks meaning outside the marriage, Paul atones for his mistakes and tries to resurrect their relationship.

A few drinks and a mysterios woman lead Towkio on a night-long whirlwind of a chase around a hotel in this Chicago-made official music video for "Symphony" f

WORLD PREMIERE!

CHICAGO PREMIER! A lone shopping cart injured and seized for scrap breaks free and navigates a world of danger, changing his fate and bringing happiness to those he encounters.

We fall in and out of love, experience joy and pain, and sometimes we find that we harness incredible strength.

The bumbling Demon King realizes his creepy daughter may just be too evil for her own good.

Screened as part of our Midwest Shorts Program on April 6, 2018.

The modern romantic comedy takes a wise and witty look at the world of relationships, bisexuality, and polyamory, through the story of Emily, who, after losing her job, arrives home early from work to find her girlfriend in bed with someone else.

The Midwest Independent Film Festival presents its first ever Animation Showcase at Landmark's Century Centre Cinema on Tuesday, May 2nd, with festivities beginning at 6 p.m. Here is the lineup for the Midwest Independent Film Festival’s inaugural Animation Showcase:

Dave, an artist who has yet to complete anything significant in his career, builds a fort in his living room out of pure frustration, only to wind up trapped by the fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and critters of his own creation.

2018 Academy Award® Nominee: Best Documentary Short

Edith and Eddie, ages 96 and 95, are America's oldest interracial newlyweds. Their love story is disrupted by a family feud that threatens to tear the couple apart.

All films made in the Midwest, all films directed by women... The Midwest Independent Film Festival presents Female Filmmakers Night at Landmark's Century Centre Cinema on Tuesday, August 1st, with festivities beginning at 6 p.m.

The Huffington Post declares "with movies like this, the future of indies is bright (5 stars)"...

Thirty-six-year old Benjamin Lewis takes his parents out for their annual pizza night.  What could be weird about that?

Fish are vanishing throughout the city and it is up to Charlemagne Clawes (a lobster) and Orville Sinclair (a clam) to save the day.

In this hilarious and heartfelt look at modern families and the complexities of love in its many forms, Zaynab (Fawzia Mirza) is a thirty-something Pakistani, Muslim, lesbian lawyer living in Chicago who begins a new romance with Alma (Sari Sanchez), a confident Mexican-American woman.

At 16 Lloyd Daniels was named the "next Magic Johnson." Now 46, his life story has been a proverbial roller-coaster.

A 17-year-old student finds an unlikely lifeline in her therapist after a sexual transgression. As the lines of propriety between two lonely souls are slowly broken, she has to navigate the thorny issues of age, lust, and leaving one's life behind.

Two brothers recall trauma suffered after the death of their sister in this Chicago-made experimental short.

Produced and Directed by Meghan Sims.

For many, Peter Anton’s house embodies an end-of-life nightmare: the utility companies long ago shut off the heat and electricity, the floorboards are rotting, and the detritus of a chaotic life is precariously stacked to the ceiling.

Inspired by true events, Anguish follows a teenage girl Tess who grows to understand her intense psychological problems are actually the result of a supernatural ability which allows spirits to possess her body.

A girl's obsession with her brother's disappearance leads her on a nightmarish journey through a small town's harrowing landscape where she is faced with a deadly proposition. How far will she go to save the people she loves?

Smoke from a fiery portrait and a voice: 'Photographs don't tell true stories, anymore.' So begins this taut, neo-noir throwback to the classic thrillers of the 1940s, where a spineless, busybody photographer finds himself trapped in a web of blackmail, bad guys, beautiful women, and murder.

John is a kindly, well-liked old man in a small rural town. John has just killed a man named Dutch. Dutch had done a lot of bad things to a lot of nice people. Nobody in town would think to implicate John – nobody but Danny, Dutch’s violent drunk of a brother.

Set in and around the improv comedy scene in Chicago, the film follows its ambling title character (played by writer/director Beh), a late-twenty-something comedian who moonlights as a barista.

An enthralling collaboration between Armenian filmmaker and University of Michigan student Oksana Mirzoyan and several Michigan production companies, including Beast Editorial and Ringside Creative. A young boy must go to the store by himself for the first time.

The feature film debut for director Billy Federighi, Adventures in the Sin Bin finds a virgin in an awkward love triangle after he gets into the habit of loaning out his van to his friends for their sexual encounters.

ANIMALS tells the story of a young couple that exist somewhere between homelessness and the fantasy life they imagine for themselves. Though they masterfully con and steal in an attempt to stay one step ahead of their addiction, they are ultimately forced to face the reality of their situation.

When Jenny (Anna Kendrick), a hard-partying 20-something, moves in with her film director brother (Joe Swanberg), his wife Kelly (Melanie Lynskey), a budding novelist, and their two-year-old son after a break up, the family's idyllic life is shaken up.

Isolated over the Christmas holiday by her own anxiety, a young college student finds herself responsible for a stranger's troubled children as she struggles with the unsettling connection between her own unraveling mental stability and the cold, quiet dark of their broken home.  Written by, produced and di

Worlds apart, a five-star chef, a twelve year-old girl, and a retired school teacher discover how their individual efforts to feed the poor ignite a movement in the fight against hunger.

WE ALWAYS LIE TO STRANGERS is a story of family, community, music and tradition set against the backdrop of Branson, Missouri, a remote Ozark Mountain town that is one of the biggest tourist destinations in the United States.

Todd Looby’s timely, autobiographically-inspired tale of the pressures and rewards of modern parenthood, shot mainly in the Ravenswood Manor area.

Born In Chicago is a soulful documentary film that chronicles a uniquely musical passing of the torch. It’s the story of first generation blues performers who had made their way to Chicago from the Mississippi Delta and their ardent and unexpected followers - young white, middle class kids who followed the evocative music to smoky clubs deep in Chicago’s ghettos. Passed down from musician to musician, the Chicago blues transcended the color lines of the 1960s as young, white Chicago musicians apprenticed themselves to legends such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Official Selection, 2013 South By Southwest Film Festival.

Here's a quick excerpt from Roger Ebert's review... "QWERTY tells the love story of two lonely misfits who find hope with each other. One has been considering suicide. The other has been considering entering the national Scrabble championship. The movie is charming, winning and sweet."

A reclusive novelist struggles to find romance and meaning in his life despite disastrous and comedic circumstances.  Starring Cary Elwes, Joey Lauren Adams, Brianna Evigan, Lisa Edelstein and Caitlin Keats.  Written and directed by Alton, IL native Brian Jun.  Brian's debut feature STEEL CITY pre

In the history of aviation, there have only been 14 of them: sole survivors of commercial airline disasters. Most have never spoken publicly about the loss, the guilt, the immense pressure of feeling "spared," Who, after all, could ever truly understand?  The answer is only each other.

Three teenage friends, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land. Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival.

As Goes Janesville catapults viewers to the front lines of America’s debate over the future of our middle class – a debate that has become a pitched battle over unions in the normally tranquil state of Wisconsin.

Blind love, clandestine love, and love in vain all figure in the interlocking stories of battling baristas, betrayed spouses, inveterate tellers of tales, and caffeine addicts, all brought together by fate late one night in a Chicago coffee shop.  One hour before closing time, the customers suddenly pour in and

An American crime thriller about a convict who is abandoned by his ex-wife and prevented from seeing his young daughter. As a parolee he develops a relationship with a lonely and troubled woman, whom he saves from a violent attack, killing the assailant in the process.

Set in a small, lonely Midwestern town, this is the story of a deeply troubled young man, haunted by guilt and responsibility for his role in a fatal car accident. He falls in love with a local waitress, and in this complicated connection, he is forced to face his tragic past.

Newly single, 35, and uninspired by his job, Jesse Fisher (Josh Radnor) worries that his best days are behind him. But no matter how much he buries his head in a book, life keeps pulling Jesse back.

After you train, say your prayers, and take your vitamins, you can meet the purest fan of all, Chris Sader, in a story that travels from childhood obsession to an unexpected and touching friendship.  In this inspirational tale, Chris and Hulk Hogan relate how they met and developed a bond through mutual struggl

2012 Academy Award Winner, Best Documentary.  The football Tigers of Manassas High School in North Memphis attempt to become the first team in 110 years to win a playoff game in Dan Lindsay and T.J.

BALLHAWKS is the story of the men, who for the last 90 years have chased baseball history just outside the ivy covered walls of Wrigley Field.  In what could be their last year due to the shadow of Wrigley Field bleacher expansion, the Ballhawks resolve will once again be tested., Home run balls hit out of Wrig

Ivy League Freshman, Aaron Milton, 17 (played by Nightmare on Elm Street's Kyle Gallner) gets a different kind of education when he falls for Linda, 34 (played by Laura Allen) a vivacious former wild-child who has returned to college to straighten out her life.

At once both singularly funny and painfully poignant, Incredibly Small is equal parts Woody Allen, John Hughes, and Eric Rohmer.  Shot in Minneapolis over the course of fourteen summer days with an independently financed micro budget, Incredibly Small exemplifies the true spirit of independent film.

The Irishman chronicles the rise and fall of infamous Cleveland gangster Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson), who engaged in a power struggle with the Italian mob.

Official Selection, Tribeca Film Festival. In this irreverent comedy, awkward teenager Tobe (Dustin Ingram) sets off on a road trip to meet Monica Velour (Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall), his favorite 80s porn star, at a rare live appearance hundreds of miles away.

Mark is a new actor in town rehearsing for 'A Dream Play' by August Strindberg at a local theater. While trying to master the multiple roles he was cast to play, he recollects a day from his past when a chance encounter with a hitchhiker changed the course of his life and his identity.

THE LAST RITES OF JOE MAY chronicles the last days in the life of Joe May, an aging, short money hustler who always believed that a glorious destiny awaited him around every corner.

A junkie. A rebel. An innocent little girl.

This Michigan-made Lionsgate thriller stars Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, “CSI: Miami” star Adam Rodriguez and Chris Klein.

The fates of an aging hitman (Frank Vincent, The Sopranos, Casino) and a washed up detective (Chicago theatre veteran Danny Goldring) become entwined when one last job leads to one last chance to settle an old score.

Joe Peterson (Ross Partridge) is a burned-out kids book writer who’s approaching his mid-life crisis.

On Valentine's Day 1993, 17-year-old Bethel High School basketball star Allen Iverson was bowling in Hampton, Va., with five high school friends. It was supposed to be an ordinary evening, but it became a night that defined Iverson's young life.

A bride comes on to a priest in a motel room.
A bouquet of flowers from a stranger takes on a life of its own.
A man's last day at the office proves to be the longest day of all.
It's family moving day, but no one's moving.

Baby on Board stars Heather Graham, Jerry O’Connell, John Corbett, Lara Flynn Boyle and Katie Finneran in the story of a professional woman (Graham) whose career and personal life are turned upside-down by an unexpected pregnancy.  A series of misunderstandings among two couples escalate into a battle of

When you are Bucky, you are forbidden to tell anyone. You do not get paid. You do it for the privilege of upholding a time-honored tradition. The time commitment is grueling enough.

Hannah and Rachel grew up as little girls in the same small Midwest town, where traditional gender expectations eventually challenge their deep love for one another. Hannah becomes an adventurous, unapologetic lesbian and Rachel a strong but quiet homemaker.

SONG SUNG BLUE is the alternately inspiring and tragic love story of Lightning & Thunder, a homegrown Milwaukee husband & wife singing duo who pay tribute to the music of Neil Diamond. For Mike and Claire Sardina, aka Lightning & Thunder, dreams are the fuel and music the engine of life.

A delicacy of tone transforms Michael Keaton’s The Merry Gentleman from what might have been a pedestrian tale into a beautifully romantic fable.

Directed and co-written by Iowa native Lori Petty, co-written by and starring Michigan native David Alan Grier.  Supporting cast includes Michigan native Selma Blair (Hellboy), newcomer Jennifer Lawrence and a wealth of Chicago talent.  An ordinary day in young Agnes' life is anything but.

A boy working in a hotel becomes obsessed with a swimming pool in the opulent hills of Panjim, Goa in India. His life gets turned upside down when he attempts to meet the mysterious family that arrives at the house.  Written and directed by Chris Smith (American Movie, The Yes Men).  John Cassavetes Award Nominee, Independent Spirit Awards.  Grand Jury Prize Nominee and Special Jury Prize Winner, Sundance Film Festival.

In a society where "celebutantes" like Paris Hilton dominate newsstands and models who weigh less than 90 pounds die from malnutrition, female body image is one of the more dire problems facing today's society.  America the Beautiful illuminates the issue by covering every base.

After a concussion leaves him unfocused, short on short-term memory, and demoted from the political pages to the comics, Cooper (Matthew Broderick), a Chicago newspaper editor, travels home to Missouri to visit his aging Uncle Rollie (Alan Alda).

Forget the pie charts, color-coded maps and hyperventilating pundits. What's the street-level experience of voters in today's America? In a triumph of documentary storytelling, Election Day combines eleven stories--all shot simultaneously on November 2, 2004, from dawn until long past midnight-into one.

High school journalist Robert ‘Gar’ Gartland (Haley Joel Osment) has been assigned to cover the town’s state championship-bound high school basketball team. Gar's best friend and all-star point guard, Matt Morrison (Ryan Merriman) is entangled with breaking and entering gone awry.

Will the United States of America go broke in your lifetime? This documentary examines the myriad reasons why such a dangerous outcome is a distinct possibility.

In the Family, a film by Joanna Rudnick produced by Kartemquin Films, takes an intensely personal look at what follows the results of a predictive genetic test.

Megan and Jelly find true love in the most unlikely of circumstances, snowed in at a favorite Italian restaurant in one of the worst blizzards in Chicago history. The only wrinkle is that Jelly, a loveable and pacifistic mobster who has never shot his gun, and his cousin Nick are unexpectedly sharing dinner with two detectives charged with capturing Nick and Jelly.

OSSO BUCCO made its World Premiere at the Midwest Independent Film Festival in 2008, earning multiple Best of the Midwest Award nominations, including Best Feature Film.

Doug (Seann William Scott) is a painfully nice guy with a lovely little wife and a dead-end job as assistant manager at a supermarket.

Will you kill for a good story?

Winner of the International Critics' Prize at the Toronto Film Festival, DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is conceived as a fictional TV documentary broadcast in 2008, reflecting on another monstrously despicable and cataclysmic event: the assassination of President George W. Bush on October 19th, 2007.

James (Garlin) is a frustrated and underappreciated Chicago actor who lives with his mother and has only really wanted three things in life: someone to love him, a great part, and to lose weight. Unfortunately, he is 0 for 3.

When 31 year-old Ben Byer is diagnosed with ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, he begins documenting his life on camera.

Furiously paced and rich with multiple narratives, Rock The Bells follows Weisberg and his team of upstarts as they struggle against the odds to book all nine Wu-Tang members while overwhelmed security attempt to control the riotous crowd in the over-heated, overcrowded venue and deliver the history-making show they

A young man struggles to hold his family together while keeping his own life on track in this independent drama.  P.J. Lee (Thomas Guiry) is a teenager growing up in a decaying industrial town in Illinois.

Directed by Chicago filmmaker Malik Bader and completely produced in Chicago, this film received its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and made its television premiere on the A&E network.

Casting About is a lyrical documentary that explores the experience of casting for a dramatic film, weaving together footage from auditions with 350 actresses in Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, and Los Angeles (with 39 actresses who auditioned in Chicago appearing in the film).  Janice Page of The Boston Globe

A compromised cop, an ambitious politician with an ego bigger than the Daley Center, a hotel maid without a green card, and a crime boss with a sadistic sense of humor are the ingredients for dark and thrilling made-in-Chicago drama.

An Official Selection of the Tribeca Film Festival, Iowa features searing performances by film veterans John Savage (The Deer Hunter, The New World), Rosanna Arquette (The Executioner's Song, Desperately Seeking Susan, Pulp Fiction), and television's star of The Pretender Michael T. Weiss.

REPETITION features some of the premier theatre actors in Chicago, including Guy Van Swearingen, Nicole Wiesner, Andy Rothenberg, Laura Jane Bailey, Doug McDade, Brad Armacost, Lance Baker and Dan Waller, whom reviewer Jeff Gorney of the Syracuse International Film and Video Festival calls “a joy to behold; qu

More than fifty million Americans do crossword puzzles each week, and many of them gravitate towards the puzzle presented by the esteemed New York Times.  In Wordplay, Creadon and his wife, producer Christine O’Malley, pay tribute to these language labyrinths and those who love them with this in-depth loo

In the vein of Swingers and Waiting for Guffman, The Godfather of Green Bay is a thoroughly entertaining crowd pleaser about two struggling standup comedians from L.A. who travel to tiny Pine Lake, Wisconsin, after learning that the talent booker for The Tonight Show will be attending their Rocktoberfest celebration. The "LA guys" hilariously soon find themselves as fish out of water, surrounded by beer-drinking, Macarena-dancing, mullet-wearing locals ready to teach them a thing or two.

A film by Tim Hoover, The Divine is a touching and spiritual journey into the life of a deformed eighteen-year-old kid who is left to care for his terminally ill mother.  Hal Conklin of cinemainfocus.com comments, "Developed with a pacing and movement that is both authentic and unexpected, this award-winni

This rarely seen short film from writer-director Seth Henrikson stars two-time Academy Award Nominee Michael Shannon before he was a two-time Academy Award Nominee. Enjoy this charming short film on our YouTube channel.