The Mission

The Gene Siskel Film Center is Chicago’s premier art house cinema in the heart of the theater district, bringing film lovers together for an unparalleled movie-going experience. We present a curated collection of eclectic international, independent, and classic cinema with festivals and year-round programming while striving to provide a welcoming space reflective of Chicago’s diverse community. As a public program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Film Center fosters dialogue that sets films in historical and cultural context through panels, lectures, and filmmaker conversations.

About the Film Center

Since 1972, the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has presented cutting edge cinema to an annual audience of 100,000. The Film Center’s programming includes annual film festivals that celebrate diverse voices and international cultures, premieres of trailblazing work by today’s independent filmmakers, restorations and revivals of essential films from cinema history, and insightful, provocative discussions with filmmakers and media artists. Altogether, the Film Center hosts over 1,600 screenings and 200 filmmaker appearances every year. The Film Center was renamed the Gene Siskel Film Center in 2000 after the late, nationally celebrated film critic, Gene Siskel.

Gene Siskel

Gene Siskel possessed a laser-like ability to discern quality in everything. He always looked for the finest; expected it and appreciated it. That is what drew him to the Film Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. There, Gene found a superior showcase for the world's greatest films. He championed the Film Center from its very inception, as did his distinguished fellow film critic, Roger Ebert. When asked by a journalist to list his three favorite things about Chicago, Gene named Michael Jordan, Mayor Daley, and the Film Center. As a strong supporter of the Film Center's mission Gene Siskel wrote hundreds of articles applauding the Film Center's distinctive programming, lending the power of his position as one of the world's most respected film critics to urge public funding and audience support.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago

The Gene Siskel Film Center is a public program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). For 150 years, SAIC has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program ranked number two by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, and LeRoy Neiman.