Founded in 1994, the Chicago Underground Film Festival (popularly known by the acronym CUFF) occurs each August at various venues in Chicago, Illinois in the USA. The festival's stated goal is "to focus on the artistc, aesthetic and fun side of independent filmmaking. CUFF promotes works that dissent radically in form, content and technique from both the tired conventions of Hollywood and the increasingly stagnant IndieWood mainstream". While the festival has always explored the many different definitions of underground film, in it's early years the festival's programming consisted mainly of low-budget b-movies and films in the tradition of the Cinema of Transgression but more recently moved its to focus more toward experimental and avant-garde films and videos and documentaries.

2005 CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS

Narrative Feature: WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN? Director Travis Wilkerson

Narrative Short: WANNABE Director Frances Bathory

Documentary Feature: THE WILL OF DEAN SNIDER Director Jamie Kibben

Documentary Short: NEW SCHOOL UNION DIARY Director Joel Schlemowitz

Experimental: KOSMOS director Thorsten Fleisch

Animation: CONE EATER director Takashi Murata

"Made In Chicago": LAND MARKED/MARQUETTE director Thomas Comerford

Audience Award: USO JUSTO directed by Coleman Miller

Special Jury Prizes: A FAMILY FINDS ENTERTAINMENT directed by Ryan Trecartin

AMERICA'S BIGGEST DICK directed by Bryan Boyce

External links

---

Official Chicago Underground Film Festival website ^*