The Chicago International Film Festival will have a new artistic director for its 53rd edition in October. According to the Chicago Tribune, Mimi Plauche has been promoted from program director to artistic director of the fest and its parent organization, Cinema/Chicago. Plauche will take over from her predecessor, festival founder Michael Kutza, effective immediately.
Plauche, who joined the fest in 2006 as a staffer, plans to create “a stronger industry presence and a broader range of seminars for the festival, as well as connecting Chicago film and television personnel to guests and visitors.”
As the source points out, Plauche’s appointment adds to the “conspicuously short list of female U.S. film festival artistic directors.” Currently, her colleagues include Janet Pierson of SXSW, Beth Barrett of the Seattle International Film Festival, and Melissa Silverstein of the Athena Film Festival, who is also the founder and publisher of Women and Hollywood.
According to Kutza, he has been working on this staffing change since 2014. “My role is to rebrand the entire organization,” he told the Tribune. “As we try to raise money, we always hear: ‘You’re only a two-week festival.’ But that’s not true. We do the TV festival, a tremendous amount of educational programming with the schools, the screenings in the summer. I want people to look at the organization differently.”
Kutza will continue to serve as Cinema/Chicago president and CEO. Chicago film critic and journalist Alissa Simon is set to join the programming team. Simon will work alongside current programming staffers Anthony Kaufman, Sam Flancher, and Alex Vazquez.
The 53rd Chicago International Film Fest will be held October 12–26.
