The 2024 Chicago Critics Film Festival Filmmaker Questionnaire
Ahead of this year’s festival, the Chicago Film Critics Association asked all the incoming feature directors the same set of questions and are, with great gratitude, publishing their insightful, often surprising and personal responses.
This year’s questions were as follows:
1. How did you first become interested in filmmaking? What was your path toward directing your first film?
2. What inspired you to make the film you're bringing to the festival?
3. Tell us about a film that you consider a guiding influence (whether it has informed your overarching vision as a filmmaker, directly informed the title you're bringing to the festival, or both).
4. Tell us about a location that's held significance to the film you're bringing to the festival: a setting where filming took place, a geographic area that provided a source of inspiration, or another type of space that comes to mind for you in thinking about the film. What made this place so special?
5. The theatrical experience brings us together to celebrate artistic experience and expand our horizons as human beings. Tell us about a memorable theatrical experience from your life.
Below, find links to each director’s individual responses to the questionnaire:
“We All Danced Out of That Theater Into the Night” | Greg Kwedar, Sing Sing
“A Feeling of Fear and Sadness and Mystery” | Tilman Singer, Cuckoo
“Something Terrible Might Happen” | Jason Yu, Sleep
“Sheer Force of Will” | Josh Margolin, Thelma
“Get A Sitter, For Crying Out Loud” | Pamela Adlon, Babes
“Follow Films” | Chris Nash, In A Violent Nature
“On The Edge of My Seat” | Damian McCarthy, Oddity
“‘Movie Houses Are Temples For Me” | Viggo Mortensen, The Dead Don’t Hurt
“What Would Hitchcock Do?” | Francis Galluppi, The Last Stop in Yuma County
“Process, Not Results” | Nicole Riegel, Dandelion
“Is This What Police Are For?” | Yance Ford, POWER
“Stopped In Time” | Chris Wilcha, Flipside
“No Permission” | Nicholas Tomnay, What You Wish For
“Laughing, Screaming, Crying with Joy” | Bill and Turner Ross, Gasoline Rainbow
“Find My Own Voice” | India Donaldson, Good One
“Mixing Realism with the Supernatural” | Thea Hvistendahl, Handling the Undead
“These Spaces Are Sacred” | Luke Gilford, National Anthem
“A Production Miracle” | Alex Thompson, Ghostlight
“A Safe Space to Heal and Play” | Kelly O’Sullivan, Ghostlight
Keep checking back, as we’ll be publishing more interviews—in addition to essays authored by Chicago critics on the retrospective titles in our lineup—over the coming days, in our newly launched Spotlight section of the festival website. And don’t forget to purchase a pass, or individual tickets, to attend this year’s Chicago Critics Film Festival.