Rate and Review the Films Screening at the Chicago Critics Film Festival 2026
Submit your ballots for the Audience Award at CCFF! Don't forget to rate and review the films on Rotten Tomatoes.
Rotten Tomatoes is proud to once again sponsor the Audience Award at the Chicago Critics Film Festival for another year. CCFF is the only festival in the country that’s programmed entirely by critics!
Below, you can submit your Audience Reviews for films at the festival and cast your vote for the festival’s Audience Award.
Please submit your Audience Award ballots in-person at the Music Box immediately following each screening! Only new feature-length releases are eligible for the Audience Award (shorts, restorations, and anniversary films are not eligible).
Friday, May 1
THE INVITE – 7:00pm (99 minutes)
Director: Olivia Wilde
Joe and Angela’s marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places. Have they reignited the spark or lit the match that burns it all down?
Special Appearance and Q&A with Director/Writer/Star Olivia Wilde
THE FLY (40th Anniversary in 35mm) – 9:45pm (96 minutes)
Director: David Cronenberg
When scientist Seth Brundle completes his teleportation device, he decides to test its abilities on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a housefly slips in during the process, leading to a merger of man and insect. Initially, Brundle appears to have undergone a successful teleportation, but the fly’s cells begin to take over his body. As he becomes increasingly fly-like, Brundle’s girlfriend is horrified as the person she once loved deteriorates into a monster.
DECORADO – 11:59pm (95 minutes)
Director: Alberto Vázquez
Something is wrong in the city of Anywhere. Arnold, an unemployed middle-aged mouse, confides to his wife Maria that he suspects his entire world is nothing more than a set, and his life a scripted performance. When his best friend Ramiro dies under mysterious circumstances, he traces the conspiracy to a monolithic corporation whose influence reaches every corner of their daily lives.
Saturday, May 2
SHORTS PROGRAM #1 – 11:30am (90 minutes)
Special Appearance and Q&A to follow with Directors Anna Baumgarten, Carlos Lerma, Curtis Matzke, Nick Santore
TUNER – 2:00pm (109 minutes)
Director: Daniel Roher
In Tuner, Academy Award-winning director Daniel Roher’s first narrative feature, Leo Woodall stars as a gifted young piano tuner named Niki whose heightened sense of hearing draws the attention of criminals, who see his talents as useful for opening safes as well as for tuning Steinways. With his once-promising musical career over, he works across New York with his mentor Harry Horowitz (Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman), encountering a range of characters, including composition student Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), with whom he forges an unexpected connection. Niki’s safecracking work threatens his budding romance with Ruthie and pulls him into increasingly dangerous territory.
CAROLINA CAROLINE – 4:30pm (105 minutes)
Director: Adam Rehmeier
Desperate to escape her small West Texas town, Caroline Daniels runs away with a charismatic con man who takes her on a romantic crime spree through the American South. But as confidence games escalate into more elaborate heists, Caroline transforms into a criminal icon and notorious bank robber, ultimately internalizing the central truth of every con: There’s no lie more convincing than the one you tell yourself.
POWER BALLAD – 7:15pm (98 minutes)
Director: John Carney
When Rick (Paul Rudd), a past-his-prime wedding singer, meets fading boy-band star Danny (Nick Jonas) during a gig, the two bond over music and a late-night jam session. But when Danny turns one of Rick’s songs into the hit that reignites his career, Rick sets out to reclaim the recognition he believes he deserves — even if it means risking everything he cares about. From writer-director John Carney (Sing Street, Once), Power Ballad is a feel-good story about music, self-respect, friendship, and the price of ambition.
I WANT YOUR SEX – 9:45pm (90 minutes)
Director: Gregg Araki
When fresh-faced Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) lands an exciting job for renowned artist, icon, and provocateur Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), his fantasies come true, as Erika taps him to become her sexual muse. But Elliot soon finds himself out of his depth, as Erika takes him on a journey more profound than he ever could have imagined into a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal, and murder.
LEVITICUS – 11:59pm (94 minutes)
Director: Adrian Chiarella
Two teenage boys must escape a violent entity that takes the form of the person they desire most — each other.
Sunday, May 3
YOU HAD TO BE THERE – 11:30am (98 minutes)
Director: Nick Davis
You Had to Be There is a hilarious, emotional, and revelatory documentary about the legendary 1972 Canadian production of Godspell that changed entertainment forever. The Toronto production of the musical about the life of Jesus starred a then-unknown cast of Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, and Victor Garber, et al., with Paul Shaffer serving as musical director — a crazy confluence of talent rivaling “Paris in the ’20s.” The production lit the spark that ignited the comedy revolution that followed, leading to Saturday Night Live, SCTV, and a host of movies and TV shows all the way up to Schitt’s Creek and Only Murders in the Building. The film features interviews with all the surviving members of the cast, as well as other show business luminaries who testify to the production’s profound and lasting influence. You Had to Be There also makes use of never-before-seen-or-heard archives from the cast, including rehearsal footage and rare audio recordings of the musical itself, as well as cast parties of the gang hanging out at Marty and Eugene’s apartment at 1063 Avenue Road late into the night, which shed joyful new light on this magical time and place.
SHORTS PROGRAM #2 – 1:45pm (90 minutes)
Special appearance and Q&A with Directors Carter Amelia Davis, Jet & Antonio L. Rodriguez (Glory/Us) and Stephen Tronicek (One Sentence)
MADDIE’S SECRET – 4:15pm (98 minutes)
Director: John Early
A food influencer secretly struggles with bulimia as she navigates online fame, close friendships, and a painful past.
LATE FAME – 6:30pm (96 minutes)
Director: Kent Jones
Ed Saxberger, a forgotten New York poet, works in the post office. After an eager and flattering young admirer appears on his doorstep, Saxberger is beckoned into a coterie of twentysomething admirers who anoint him as a rediscovered genius. Intoxicated by the attention — and by the alluring presence of Gloria, the group’s “tragic heroine” — Saxberger gradually reckons with the authenticity of his newfound poetic circle. This thoughtful, witty film is a wistful yet unromantic look at a lost idea of downtown New York.
A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (25th Anniversary in 35mm) – 08:45pm (146 minutes)
Director: Steven Spielberg
David, a robotic boy who is the first programmed to love, is adopted as a test case by a Cybertronics employee and his wife. Though he gradually becomes their child, a series of unexpected circumstances make this life impossible for David. Without final acceptance by humans or machines, David embarks on a journey to discover where he truly belongs, uncovering a world in which the line between robot and machine is both vast and profoundly thin.
Monday, May 4
THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD – 4:15pm (100 minutes)
Director: Francesco Sossai
Two middle-aged friends, who swear each drink is their last, cross paths with a shy architecture student and take him under their wing on a free-flowing bender through the Italian countryside in a scruffy intergenerational odyssey.
WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS – 6:30pm (112 minutes)
Director: Dawn Porter
Revisiting a 1983 school murder from his youth, Ta-Nehisi Coates joins Dawn Porter to expose how three innocent boys were framed, imprisoned for 36 years, and forever shaped by a justice system that failed them and their community.
Special Appearance and Q&A with Director Dawn Porter
TIME AND WATER – 9:30pm (90 minutes)
Director: Sara Dosa
Facing the death of his country’s glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away — family, memory, time, and water.
Tuesday, May 5
IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME – 4:30pm (95 minutes)
Director: Walter Thompson-Hernandez
Twelve-year-old Lil Ant struggles to connect with his father when he begins to see surreal, almost spectral visions of boys drifting around his neighborhood. Their presence reveals a link between father and son, laying bare the threads that bind family, legacy, and place.
CHILI FINGER – 7:00pm (100 minutes)
Director: Edd Benda & Stephen Helstad
When a small town lawyer discovers a severed finger in her chili, she blackmails the restaurant for a cash payout in an effort to regain control over her mundane life. The situation quickly spirals out of control, and her life descends into chaos.
Special Appearance and Q&A with Director Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad.
BLACK ZOMBIE – 9:45pm (90 minutes)
Director: Maya Annik Bedward
A journey through cinema and history reveals how zombies evolved from Haitian spiritual traditions into Hollywood horror, exploring their deeper cultural significance as symbols of resilience.
Wednesday, May 6
ROMERÍA – 4:30pm (114 minutes)
Director: Carla Simón
Marina, 18, orphaned at a young age, must travel to Spain’s Atlantic coast to obtain a signature for a scholarship application from the paternal grandparents she has never met. She navigates a sea of new aunts, uncles, and cousins, uncertain whether she will be embraced or met with resistance. Stirring long-buried emotions, reviving tenderness, and uncovering unspoken wounds tied to the past, Marina pieces together the fragmented and often contradictory memories of the parents she barely remembers.
LOAFERS – 7:00pm (87 minutes)
Director: Zach Schnitzer
Amid a post-grad haze, best friends Isaac and Cameron navigate the shifting terrain of their relationships, grappling with the deeper question of whether their once unbreakable friendship can survive the weight of change.
Special Appearance and Q&A with Director and Star Zach Schnitzer and producer Nate Simon.
SOMETHING WILD (40th Anniversary in 35mm)– 9:30pm (114 minutes)
Director: Jonathan Demme
Free-spirited Lulu (Melanie Griffith) sets her sights on uptight banker Charles (Jeff Daniels) for a little bit of fun. Their relationship starts off simple enough with a tryst and some modest adventure, but Lulu wants Charles to pose as her husband at a high school reunion. It seems harmless enough to Charles, but that all changes when Lulu’s actual husband, Ray (Ray Liotta), confronts them at the event. Understandably, Ray isn’t content to let Charles and Lulu ride off into the sunset.
Thursday, May 7
BROKEN ENGLISH – 5:00pm (99 minutes)
Director: Shannon Triplett
From the BAFTA nominated directors of the Sundance award-winning 20,000 Days on Earth comes a bold documentary portrait of the inimitable singer, songwriter and icon: Marianne Faithfull. Made with her full involvement, Broken English is an intimate and unflinching exploration of a fractured yet unbreakable life shaped by fame, creativity, and relentless public scrutiny. With powerful performances from friends and collaborators including Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Courtney Love, and Suki Waterhouse, this is a genre-defying act of resilience and rebellion. Marianne Faithfull’s final fearless declaration – her defiant swan song.
THE SUN NEVER SETS – 7:30pm (102 minutes)
Director: Joe Swanberg
In the South, a man tests the limits of patriarchal interference to protect his daughter-in-law when he discovers that his son is having an affair.
Special Appearance and Q&A with Director Joe Swanberg & Star Cory Michael Smith
