Film News: ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ Added to 48th Chicago International Film Festival

CHICAGO – The 48th Annual Chicago International Film Festival has announced four new additions to this year’s schedule, including David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook.” The comedic drama has garnered immense praise on the festival circuit and is currently one of the top Oscar contenders. It will screen at 7pm Wednesday, October 24 at the AMC River East 21, 322 E. Illinois St.

Bradley Cooper stars as a troubled man fresh out of an institution who moves back in with his parents (played by Robert De Niro and Jackie Weaver) and ends up forming an unlikely bond with a similarly quirky young woman (Jennifer Lawrence of “Winter’s Bone” and “Hunger Games” fame). Russell’s prolific career has ranged from ensemble comedies (“Flirting with Disaster,” “I Heart Huckabees”), war blockbusters (“Three Kings”) and sports dramas (“The Fighter”), all linked by the common thread of dysfunctional human relationships, often of the familial variety. The Oscar-nominated director will be on hand for a live Q&A following the October 24th screening.

Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper star in David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook.
Photo credit: The Weinstein Company

The other recent additions to this year’s CIFF schedule are Leslie Zemeckis’s “Bound By Flesh,” a documentary about conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton (who starred in Tod Browning’s “Freaks”), Dheeraj Akolkar’s “Liv & Ingmar,” a documentary on the titular longtime collaborators who made cinematic masterpieces such as “Persona” and “Scenes from a Marriage,” and Darezhan Omirbayev’s “Student,” an adaptation of “Crime and Punishment” set in modern-day Kazakhstan.

By MATT FAGERHOLM Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com matt@hollywoodchicago.com