Chicago Food Film Festival

If you haven’t made any plans for the weekend, I have something for you. The Chicago Food Film Festival will be held tonight (Nov. 15^th) through Saturday (Nov. 17^th). Festival Director George Motz, an award winning documentary filmmaker, and Harry Hawk created the Food Film Festival. The festival, which is held in both New York and Chicago, showcases the best of the world’s favorite foods through documentaries, features and short films. My favorite part of this festival is it’s a multi-sensory experience; guests are actually served the food that they are watching on the screen. I don’t know how many times I have seen food on TV and wished I had it right in front of me, this festival makes it a reality. At one screening in 2009, acclaimed director Ron Mann followed his film, Know Your Mushrooms, with a 10-course mushroom-inspired tasting menu from Iron Chef Star Brad Farmerie.

The Food Film festival is a competition also, awards are presented for: Best Feature, Best Short, Best Super-Short, Best Food Porn, Food Filmmaker of the Year and the Audience Choice Award. But the main point is you get to eat while watching the movies. Also a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Food Bank, so you can help out while having a good time, which is always nice.

To give you an example of what you can expect from the food festival I want to highlight tonight’s event. Frei Brothers Reserve and Bon Appetit are presenting an evening of sustainable dishes and fine wine at Kendall College (900 N. Branch). The event will feature seven short films and a tasting menu of sustainable dishes from select Chicago restaurants.  Tickets are $45/ VIP $65 and will benefit The Good Food Project. Seems like a good time, for more information about any of the events or to buy tickets click here.