AT LAST, PATRONS CAN FOCUS ON THE SCREEN CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OVERCOMES BEHIND-THE-SCENES PROBLEMS DU PAGE SPORTS FINAL, NED Edition

This year's 10-day event, which opens Thursday night with the world premiere of Sidney Lumet's "Critical Care" at McClurg Court, doesn't follow any behind-the-scenes coup attempts or speculation that it might not survive another year. The discord that preceded last year'...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChicago tribune (1963)
Main Author Mark Caro, Tribune Staff Writer, Michael Wilmington, Tribune Movie Critic
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago, Ill Tribune Publishing Company, LLC 09.10.1997
Subjects
Motion picture festivals
Stabilization
Chicago Illinois
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Summary:This year's 10-day event, which opens Thursday night with the world premiere of Sidney Lumet's "Critical Care" at McClurg Court, doesn't follow any behind-the-scenes coup attempts or speculation that it might not survive another year. The discord that preceded last year's festival has been replaced with consolidation and an atmosphere of relative stability. The centralization should make life easier for the festival as well because, as (Daniel) Coffey noted, "we know we'll get the films to the right place" -- as opposed to films arriving at wrong theaters, which has happened in the past. The festival also will save money on transporting films and staffing the theaters. But the biggest debt reduction came thanks to Ellis Goodman, the former board chairman who had tried and failed to oust founder-artistic director Michael Kutza after the 1995 festival. Goodman had personally guaranteed a $350,000 loan to the festival, and after he left the board last year, he agreed to cover $100,000 of the debt if the festival raised a similar amount, Coffey said.
ISSN:1085-6706