For over six decades, the Chicago International Film Festival has celebrated the art of storytelling, showcasing films across every genre imaginable. This year, the campaign taps into a universal truth – life unfolds in genres.
Find Your Genre invites audiences to recognize themselves in film, not just as spectators, but as protagonists in their own cinematic stories. The campaign turns everyday, relatable truths into genre-coded moments, from the highs of romance to the suspense of mystery, the laughter of comedy to the weight of drama.
Visually, the campaign pays homage to genres by leveraging typefaces that reflect familiar characteristics and emotional attributes found in their respective genres. These typographic choices are designed to further the relatable narrative across a wide variety of applications.
The campaign lives across multiple touchpoints. Out-of-home placements appear throughout Chicago, including transit shelters and on-premise placements, including merchandise.
The local TV and radio spots are narrated by famed actor Michael Shannon, a Chicago native. Shannon has performed on stage in Chicago, at multiple theatres including Steppenwolf.
As the Chicago International Film Festival enters its next chapter, it continues to champion the idea that everyone has a story worth telling and a genre waiting to be discovered.
