The Chicago International Film Festival closed the 60th edition of North America’s longest-running competitive film festival on Sunday, October 27, and today announces the winners of its Audience Awards in four categories: U.S. Feature, International Feature, Documentary, and Short Film. 

The Audience Award for U.S. Feature is presented to David Fortune’s subtle and elegantly conceived feature debut, COLOR BOOK, which follows single father Lucky as he takes his 11-year-old son Mason to experience an American rite of passage: his first baseball game. But Lucky, bereft after a recent personal tragedy and navigating his son’s Down syndrome on his own, encounters a series of obstacles that test his patience and confidence as the two set out across Atlanta. 

LONG GOOD THURSDAY (Finland), Mika Kaurismaki’s gentle comedy of growing older and accepting the never-ending possibility of finding joy, earns the Audience Award for International Feature. 

“This year’s Audience Award winners reflect diverse and resonant themes – themes that have been captivating audiences for six decades,” said Mimi Plauché, Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation Artistic Director of the Chicago International Film Festival. “From a moving portrayal of family and resilience, to an exploration of joy and connection across generations, to a powerful tribute celebrating  art as a reflection of and catalyst for social change, these films speak to the experiences that move and unite us.”

Chicago documentary THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: RICHARD HUNT’S MONUMENT TO IDA B. WELLS picks up the Audience Award for Documentary. A moving testament to influential artist Hunt, as well as to suffragist and anti-lynching organizer Wells, Rana Segal’s film is a monument to public art, the spirit of protest, and two essential Black Chicago pioneers dedicated to freedom and perseverance. 

Short film HOOFS ON SKATES, directed by Ignas Meilūnas, receives the Audience Award for Short Film. The tale of two friends who encounter a surprise lurking beneath the surface of their ice skating lake screened in the Family Animated Shorts: Me and Magical You program.

On Friday October 25, the Festival announced the winners of this year’s jury competitions with the Gold Hugo in the International Competition going to Maura Delpero’s VERMIGLIO and ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT, by director Payal Kapadia, receiving the Silver Hugo Jury Award. Miguel Gomes took the Silver Hugo for Best Director for his GRAND TOUR, with the film also earning the Silver Hugo for Best Editing for Telmo Churro and Pedro Filipe Marques. Mo Harawe’s THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE took the Gold Hugo in the New Directors Competition; Elizabeth Lo’s MISTRESS DISPELLER won the Gold Hugo for International Documentary; and World Premiere title THESIS ON A DOMESTICATION by Javier Van de Couter earned the Gold Q-Hugo in the OutLook program.

The complete list of Hugo-winning titles can be found here.

The 60th Chicago International Film Festival ran October 16 - 27, 2024, with 122 feature films and 63 short films presented in 9 programs, screened at venues across the city including AMC NEWCITY 14, the Music Box Theatre, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Chicago History Museum, and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, with community screenings at the Hamilton Park Cultural Center in Englewood and the National Museum of Mexican Art. For more information, visit www.chicagofilmfestival.com.