Olivia Wilde’s ‘The Invite’ Headlines 12th Chicago Critics Film Festival Lineup

Olivia Wilde’s The Invite will open the 12th annual Chicago Critics Film Festival, set to take place May 1-7, 2026, at the historic Music Box Theatre.

The week-long festival presented by the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) closes with Joe Swanberg’s The Sun Never Sets.

Additional selected films for the 2026 festival include Chicago premieres of John Carney’s Power Ballad (starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas); John Early’s Maddie’s Secret; Adrian Chiarella’s Leviticus; Sara Dosa’s Time and Water; and Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad’s Chili Finger.

In addition to the more than 20 acclaimed new feature films and two short film programs making their Chicago premieres, the festival will present several anniversary screenings, including 40th anniversary screenings of David Cronenberg’s classic The Fly and Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild as well as a 25th anniversary screening of Steven Spielberg’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, all presented on 35mm.

2026 Chicago Critics Film Festival Lineup

A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
(25TH ANNIVERSARY) (35mm)
Director: Steven Spielberg | 146 mins
A highly advanced robotic boy longs to become “real” so that he can regain the love of his human mother.

BLACK ZOMBIE
Director: Maya Annik Bedward | 90 mins
BLACK ZOMBIE digs beneath the blood-soaked spectacle of modern horror to uncover the zombie’s buried and unsettling origins. From flickering Hollywood screens to the haunted cane fields of colonial Haiti, the film traces how a figure born from enslavement, spiritual belief, and resistance was transformed into one of pop culture’s most profitable monsters.

BROKEN ENGLISH
Directors: Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard | 98 mins
From Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard — the BAFTA-nominated directors of the Sundance award-winning 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH — comes a bold documentary portrait of the inimitable singer, songwriter and icon: Marianne Faithfull. A survivor, provocateur, and true original, Marianne has spent more than six decades defying expectations — releasing over 35 albums while constantly reinventing herself. Made with her full involvement, BROKEN ENGLISH is an intimate and unflinching exploration of a fractured yet unbreakable life shaped by fame, creativity and relentless public scrutiny.

CAROLINA CAROLINE
Director: Adam Carter Rehmeier | 105 mins
Acclaimed director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s romantic crime thriller stars Samara Weaving (READY OR NOT, BORDERLINE) as Caroline Daniels, whose desire to leave her small Texas town brings her into the orbit of a charismatic con man (Kyle Gallner, DINNER IN AMERICA), and together they weave a path of crime and passion across the American Southeast. Also starring Kyra Sedgwick, the film features a wide-ranging country music soundtrack, with tracks from artists such as Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, Loretta Lynn, and over a dozen others.

CHILI FINGER
Directors: Edd Benda & Stephen Helstad | 100 mins
When Jessica Lipki discovers a severed human finger in her bowl of chili, she blackmails the regionally-beloved fast-food chain for $100,000 in return that she and her blissfully ignorant husband, Ron, keep quiet about the incident. Unbeknownst to Jess, her stunt has caught the attention of “the” Blake Junior, the plutocratic founder behind the “Blake Junior’s” food empire. He recruits his ex-marine buddy, Dave, to investigate Jess and discover the truth behind the chili finger…

DECORADO
Director: Alberto Vasquez | 95 mins
Something is wrong in the city of Anywhere. Arnold, an unemployed middle-aged mouse, confides to his wife Maria that he suspects his entire world is nothing more than a set, and his life a scripted performance. When his best friend Ramiro dies under mysterious circumstances, he traces the conspiracy to a monolithic corporation whose influence reaches every corner of their daily lives.

THE FLY
(40TH ANNIVERSARY) (35mm)
Director: David Cronenberg | 96 mins
A botched experiment transmutes a man into a monstrous insect.

I WANT YOUR SEX
Director: Gregg Araki | 90 mins
When fresh-faced Elliot lands an exciting job for renowned artist, icon and provocateur Erika Tracy, his fantasies come true as Erika taps him to become her sexual muse. But Elliot soon finds himself out of his depth as Erika takes him on a journey more profound than he ever could have imagined, into a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal and murder.

IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME
Director: Walter Thompson-Hernandez | 95 mins
Twelve-year-old Lil Ant transforms his working-class neighborhood beneath the LAX flight path into a living mythology, where family members become gods and the sky is crowded with endless departures. As he searches for connection with his god-like yet conflicted father, he finds support in his close-knit community that helps him reconcile myth and reality.

THE INVITE (35mm)
Director: Olivia Wilde | 108 mins
Joe and Angela’s marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places. Have they reignited the spark or lit the match that burns it all down.

THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD
Director: Francesco Sossai | 100 mins
Two middle-aged friends, who swear each drink is their last, cross paths with a shy architecture student and take him under their wing on a free-flowing bender through the Italian countryside in a scruffy intergenerational odyssey.

LATE FAME
Director: Kent Jones | 96 mins
Legendary New York poet Ed Saxberger’s forgotten works captivate an eccentric group of young creatives, reigniting his artistic passion. Their intrigue intertwines with the bewitching presence of actress Gloria.

LEVITICUS
Director: Adrian Chiarella | 88 mins
Two teenage boys must escape a violent entity that takes the form of the person they desire most — each other.

LOAFERS
Director: Zach Schnitzer | 87 mins
Amid a post-grad haze, best friends Isaac and Cameron navigate the shifting terrain of their relationships, grappling with the deeper question of whether their once unbreakable friendship can survive the weight of change.

MADDIE’S SECRET
Director: John Early | 98 mins
MADDIE’S SECRET is comedian, writer, and actor John Early’s critically acclaimed directorial debut starring himself as Maddie, a plucky dishwasher who leaps to viral superstardom at a trendy food content creation company. While her life seems picturesque — complete with an adoring husband, ride-or-die best friend and a cupboard full of woman-owned ethically-sourced chili crisp to boot — mounting professional pressures threaten to reawaken a hidden secret from her troubled past. A pitch-perfect blend of satire, melodrama, daring tonal shifts and intimate performances, the film marks a bold new voice in contemporary cinema.

POWER BALLAD
Director: John Carney | 98 mins
When Rick (Paul Rudd), a past-his-prime wedding singer, meets fading boy-band star Danny (Nick Jonas) during a gig, the two bond over music and a late-night jam session. But when Danny turns one of Rick’s songs into the hit that reignites his career, Rick sets out to reclaim the recognition he believes he deserves — even if it means risking everything he cares about. From writer-director John Carney (SING STREET, ONCE), POWER BALLAD is a feel-good story about music, self-respect, friendship, and the price of ambition.

ROMERÍA
Director: Carla Simón | 114 mins
Marina, orphaned at a young age, must travel to Spain’s Atlantic coast to obtain a signature for a scholarship application from the paternal grandparents she has never met. She navigates a sea of new aunts, uncles, and cousins, uncertain whether she will be embraced or met with resistance. Stirring long-buried emotions, reviving tenderness, and uncovering unspoken wounds tied to the past, Marina pieces together the fragmented and often contradictory memories of the parents she barely remembers.

SOMETHING WILD
(40TH ANNIVERSARY) (35mm)
Director: Jonathan Demme | 114 mins
A free-spirited woman “kidnaps” a yuppie for a weekend of adventure. But the fun quickly takes a dangerous turn when her ex-convict husband shows up.

THE SUN NEVER SETS
Director: Joe Swanberg | 102 mins
A woman’s relationship with her older, divorced boyfriend hits a rough patch just as her ex reappears in her life, leading to complicated emotions and messy entanglements in the Alaskan wilderness.

TIME AND WATER
Director: Sara Dosa | 90 mins
Facing the death of his country’s glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away — family, memory, time and water.

TUNER
Director: Daniel Roher | 109 mins
A talented piano tuner’s meticulous skills for tuning pianos lead him to discover an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes, turning his life upside down.

WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS
Director: Dawn Porter | 112 mins
In 1983, noted author Ta-Nehisi Coates remembers learning that a 14-year old boy was murdered in the corridor of his Baltimore middle school. Revisiting the case as an adult, he learns the truth about the three innocent teenagers who were convicted and sentenced to life. After 36 years in prison, it was revealed that false testimony led to their imprisonment. WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS explores the collateral damage the handling of this case had on the community, the wrongfully accused, and the young witnesses pressured to betray them.

YOU HAD TO BE THERE: HOW THE TORONTO GODSPELL IGNITED THE COMEDY REVOLUTION, SPREAD LOVE & OVERALLS, AND CREATED A COMMUNITY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (IN A CANADIAN KIND OF WAY)
Director: Nick Davis | 98 mins
On June 1, 1972, a humble production of a hit musical retelling of the Book of Matthew officially opened its run at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in downtown Toronto. Based solely on the bright futures of so many of the talents who formed the cast during the 14-month run — Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, and Jayne Eastwood plus musical director Paul Shaffer — Godspell’s impact and influence cannot be overstated. The improvisational element of the musical itself helped foster a unique sensibility that comedy fans would soon recognize in Saturday Night Live, SCTV, and countless other TV shows and movies.