CHICAGO — Last year, the opening night of the Chicago International Film Festival told it like it was. One film (Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch”) played indoors, at the Music Box Theatre. That same night, across town, another film (Todd Haynes’ “The Velvet Underground”) played outdoors at the Pilsen drive-in known as ChiTown Movies, also known as the parking lot outside ChiTown Futbol, also known as the city’s standout boutique outdoor screening venue.
That was 19 months into the pandemic. Audience surveys taken during the 2021 festival, recalls CIFF artistic director Mimi Plauche, indicated that for “over 40% of ticket holders attending an in-person screening that year, it was their first time inside a theater — any theater — since March 2020.”
But, she notes, “they came back. For the festival.”
