2022

PARK CITY, UTAH – The 2023 Sundance Film Festival announced their Grand Jury Prizes on January 27th, and the top films were “A Thousand and One” (U.S. Dramatic), “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” (U.S. Documentary), ‘Scrapper’ (World Cinema Dramatic) and “The Eternal Memory” (World Cinema Documentary).

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Barbara Walters, December 30th, 2022.

CHICAGO – The grim reaper spares no one, despite even having a celebrity status. But photographer Joe Arce, who has taken thousands of Exclusive Portraits of famous folks, gives some notables one more memorial image as we say adios to last year. Through his lens, from Barbara Walters at the end of December back to January, below is the Slideshow of Celebrities who passed away in 2022.

CHICAGO – 2022 was a year of change and transformation. The former leader of the free world morphed into a horribly photoshopped digital trading card spokesmodel and pitch man. That and a full on spy challenging the DOJ to find the stolen classified documents in a shell game of 3 card monte exactly like a subway car hustler.

CHICAGO – Lists are very arbitrary, but the exercise in determining a personal 10 BEST FILMS list of any year is a celebration of what I love, and there ain’t nothing wrong with that. The filtering of experiences that form our opinions is a great gift, and the journey I’ve had with film criticism and reporting has been the greatest of my life.

CHICAGO – Jessica Lange’s long career as actor is on the record … from “King Kong” to “American Horror Story.” But her new book “Dérive” focuses on the photo artist in her, and she discussed it at the the 2022 Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) on November 12th. Photographer Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com was there to get the Exclusive Portrait.

CHICAGO – Media journalist Kate Couric came to the 58th Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) as an Executive Producer for the film “No Ordinary Campaign,” the story of Brian Wallach and wife Sandra Abrevaya, who decided to use their political acumen to create change when Brian was diagnosed with ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

CHICAGO – Season 15 of the Asian Pop-Up Cinema (APUC) is wrapping up its Fall Edition with Hong Kong Week, and this final weekend is packed with films and in-person events. Click links for details, the following two are on Saturday, November 5th … FAR FAR AWAY, THE FIRST GIRL I LOVED. And on Sunday, November 6th … PRETTY HEART, SEPTET and SCREENINGS WITH THE STARS

CHICAGO – Season 15 of the Asian Pop-Up Cinema (APUC) is wrapping up its Fall Edition with Hong Kong Week, and this final weekend is packed with films and in-person events. Click links for details, the following two are on Saturday, November 5th … FAR FAR AWAY, THE FIRST GIRL I LOVED. And on Sunday, November 6th … PRETTY HEART, SEPTET and SCREENINGS WITH THE STARS.

CHICAGO – One of the longest running and most important Black film festivals is right here in Chicago, as the 28th edition of the Black Harvest Film Festival has Opening Night on Friday, November 4th, and runs in-person until November 20th at the Gene Siskel Film Center in the downtown Loop. For Opening Night details and ticket information, 28th BHFF OPENING.

CHICAGO – The “Best of the Midwest,” the Awards Ceremony of Chicago’s Midwest Film Festival, were presented on November 3rd, 2022, at CineCity Studios in Chicago. The Grand Prize film was the short “Period Drama,” a clever twist on a woman’s coming of age. Emma Thatcher was a two-trophy BMA recipient, garnering Best Actress and Best Director for her debut feature “Provo.”