{"id":699924,"date":"2026-04-02T15:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/699924\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:52:13","slug":"beyond-film-fest-the-biggest-genre-festival-in-us-makes-its-chicago-debut-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/699924\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Film Fest, The Biggest Genre Festival In US, Makes Its Chicago Debut This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAKEVIEW \u2014 There\u2019s no paucity of film programming in Chicago; April alone sees the return of the Chicago Latino Film Festival <\/a>and the Chicago Palestine Film Festival<\/a>. This weekend the festival scene expands in a significant way \u2014 and in a manner that may put Chicago\u2019s film-loving audience on a bigger stage with the inaugural Beyond Chicago Film Festival.<\/p>\n

Beyond Fest is the biggest genre festival in the U.S., usually taking place in L.A. in the fall. Now the festival is bringing 31 features, which are \u201call-killer-no-filler cinematic chaos and carnage<\/a>\u201d to the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. Thursday through Sunday for \u201cBeyond Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Music Box Films president Ryan Oestreich, the presence of Beyond Fest enables the larger conversation around film festivals to finally catch up with the great work being done in Chicago. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a very hungry, ambitious, excited movie scene,\u201d Oestreich told Block Club Chicago. \u201cWe do great things year-round, but for some reason, the national industry doesn\u2019t pay attention to us. A big festival like this introduces Chicago as a great market for a film festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

The partnership made sense on a philosophical level, with Oestreich sharing how Beyond Fest eschews the hierarchy and exclusivity that is often a staple of other film festivals. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor Beyond Fest folks, they have this strategy of \u2018These are movies and events for the people,\u2019\u201d Oestreich said. So unlike other film festivals where people can \u201cpay to be treated differently,\u201d everyone is on an equal playing field, and everyone has a chance to see the movies, he said. \u201cIt felt like Beyond Fest\u2019s ethos and their strategy were aligned with how the Music Box works.\u201d<\/p>\n

All screenings in the Music Box\u2019s smaller Theater 2 are free; passes are already available for Music Box members and will be available to the general public noon Thursday. Tickets for screenings in Theater 1 are available for purchase, although some screenings are already sold out.<\/p>\n

The festival will host several guests, most notably Japanese actor Meiko Kaji making her first-ever Chicago appearance to discuss her four-decade career. She will attend special restoration screenings of her films \u201cFemale Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41,\u201d \u201cLady Snowblood,\u201d and \u201cWandering Ginza Butterfly 2: She-Cat Gambler.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/p>\n

For Chicagoans, some guests of note have deep ties to the city. Bob Odenkirk\u2014 who grew up in the suburbs and started his career in Chicago \u2014 will be at the festival with the Midwest premiere of his action film \u201cNormal<\/a>.\u201d Chicago native Lilly Wachowski brings the world premiere of the 4K restoration of her 2008 film \u201cSpeed Racer<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

Oestreich said that from the beginning of Beyond Chicago, there was always going to be a Chicago component, and these events are hopefully a preview of more Chicago-focused elements to come to fruition for a future edition.<\/p>\n

Further highlighting the ambience of cinematic enthusiasm that characterizes the fest, some of the talent will be doing double duty: In addition to doing a Q&A for \u201cNormal\u201d with writer Derek Kolstad, Odenkirk will provide an introduction to Joseph Sargent\u2019s 1974 film \u201cThe Taking of Pelham One Two Three.\u201d Rapper and filmmaker RZA will be at the festival with his film, \u201cOne Spoon of Chocolate<\/a>,\u201d and will give an introduction for a repertory screening of the Shaw Brothers\u2019 \u201cThe Kid with the Golden Arm<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Oestreich, the fact that talent like Odenkirk and RZA will speak not only for their own film embodies the welcoming spirit of Chicago audiences. Both \u201cThe Taking of Pelham One Two Three\u201d and \u201cThe Kid with the Golden Arm\u201d were selected by Odenkirk and RZA as films in conversation with the movies they\u2019re bringing to the festival. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople forget that moviemakers or actors also like movies,\u201d Oestreich said. \u201cOne of the great things is when you can hear an actor talk passionately about a movie that they had nothing to do with. When you have an intro from somebody you respect, or maybe you admire, when they give you their take on their movie, you\u2019re going to watch it differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the festival will be home to several exciting Midwest premieres of beloved films that have already made their festival debuts \u2014 from martial arts extravaganzas such as \u201cThe Furious\u201d and \u201cIkatan Darah\u201d to Sundance, SXSW and TIFF favorites like \u201cImposters\u201d and \u201cObsession\u201d \u2014 the festival is also going to house several world premieres. <\/p>\n

One of the most notable is the long-awaited \u201cFaces of Death,\u201d a reimagining of the 1978 film, which acts as the closing night movie. It promises to be a grisly, thought-provoking conclusion to the festival, and its creative team is thrilled to bring the film to Chicago.<\/p>\n

Director and co-writer Daniel Goldhaber and co-writer and producer Isa Mazzei will be present for a post-film Q&A for \u201cFaces of Death,\u201d and they\u2019re grateful to share the world premiere with genre-loving Chicago audiences. <\/p>\n

\u201cChicago is an amazing film city, and the Music Box is one of the premier screens in the world,\u201d they wrote in a joint statement to Block Club Chicago. \u201cWe made this movie to be a big, loud, scary theatrical experience. We\u2019re thrilled to have the opportunity to premiere it in front of this audience and honored to be closing out this first edition of the fest.\u201d<\/p>\n

See the full festival lineup and buy tickets on the Music Box website<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKEVIEW \u2014 There\u2019s no paucity of film programming in Chicago; April alone sees the return of the Chicago…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":699925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[648,960,5386,1818,1072],"class_list":{"0":"post-699924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-things-to-do"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116335919552682238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}