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Festivities at this year's Block Party include live music by Chicago artists, Chicago-made short films shown on outdoor screens, booths featuring local vendors, and food trucks and stands offering a variety of cuisine from local businesses.

"The Block Party is now in its second year, and quickly becoming a beloved Festival tradition thanks to the community's embrace and passion for it," said Chicago International Film Festival Managing Director Vivian Teng. "What better way to celebrate Opening Night, and to celebrate Chicago's rich film history, than with a Chicago-style block party outside the doors of the Music Box Theatre, with the partnership and enthusiasm of DCASE, Choose Chicago, and the Lakeview Roscoe Village Chamber of Commerce, whose support allows our Block Party to be free and open to the public."

The live music stage features performances from Chicago artists including ESSO Afrojam Funk, Living Thing, Omar Coleman & West Side Soul, and Senya, playing live sets from 5 p.m. until the party closes at 10 p.m.

On the video wall, highlights from the Festival's City & State program will be shown, including the delightfully idiosyncratic VARIATIONS ON A THEME which sees a s couple literally splitting into multiple versions of themselves; ETHAN LIM: CAMBODIAN FUTURES, following a chef with a mission to share and elevate Cambodian cuisine; and an animated journey through a 1960s perceptual art-inspired experience in PHOTOSYNTHESIS.

Along with City & State selections, highlights of CineYouth's past festivals celebrating the work of young directors between 14 and 22 years old unspool, as a teenage girl confronts the trials of adolescence through her dreams of becoming an athlete in the animated short STARTLINE; delicious food and bakeries on Chicago's South Side are featured in the celebratory TASTE OF 75th; two astronauts race to plant their flag on the moon in SPACE RACE; the color blue is taking over a woman's life in BLUE; single parents get the spotlight in SOUL PROVIDER; and the animated musical EARTH'S SECOND MOON follows parents whose baby seems to never stop growing.

The 59th Chicago International Film Festival runs Oct. 11 - 22, 2023 with film screenings and programs presented at venues across the city including AMC NEWCITY 14, the Music Box Theatre, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Chicago History Museum, the Hamilton Park Cultural Center in Englewood, Harrison Park in Pilsen, the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Tickets for Opening Night are on sale now at www.chicagofilmfestival.com .