Award-winning Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (pictured) was on October 5, announced to be part of the jury of the Oscars qualifying 56th Chicago International Film Festival alongside other filmmakers from around the world. The film festival is slated for October 14-25 in Chicago, United States. The annual film festival is North America’s longest-running competitive film festival, presented by its parent organisation, Cinema/Chicago founded in 1964 by filmmaker and graphic artist Michael Kutza to provide an alternative to the commercial Hollywood movies that dominated the city’s theatres. Umuhire was selected to be part of this year’s jury at the festival following her international breakthrough role in “Birds Are Singing in Kigali” won her Best Actress Awards at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival and the Polish Film Festival, among other honours. The Chicago International Film Festival opened in 1965 at the Carnegie Theatre, where King Vidor, Bette Davis, and Stanley Kramer were honoured for their contributions to American cinema and has since grown to become a world-renowned annual event. Seeking out the best in international cinema, the Festival has discovered new talents and opened windows to a world of film previously or otherwise unavailable in Chicago. Over the years, the festival has introduced creative new directors like Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders, Bertrand Tavernier, Margarethe von Trotta, and Krzysztof Kieslowski, among many others, to Chicago. The Festival is also dedicated to showcasing films made by filmmakers from across the state of Illinois. Umuhire’s jury features among six key juries for the festival’s film competitions in different categories. Each jury will feature a host of acclaimed filmmakers and film professionals from across the globe. The juries will review films competing for prizes in different categories namely; International Competition, New Directors Competition, International Documentary Competition, Out-Look; City and State and Short Film Competitions. The International Competition Jury, which features Umuhire, will particularly award the Gold Hugo for Best Film as well as a range of Silver Hugos and Plaques for awards, including Best Director, Best Actor/Actress, Best Cinematography, and Best Screenplay. Umuhire is part of a five-person jury for the International Competition jury that includes Chinonye Chukwu a Nigerian-American film director best known for the drama film Clemency and Dutch film writer Boyd Van Hoeij, Argentinian female film producer Violeta Bava and American production designer Adam Stockhausen.
