Michael Kutza
| Michael Kutza | |
|---|---|
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| Occupation | Festival director |
| Years active | 1964 – present |
Michael Kutza (born 1942) is an award-winning filmmaker, a graphic designer and the founder of the Chicago International Film Festival. In addition, he has been involved in other film festivals internationally, in such diverse locations as Taormina, Tehran, Moscow, Manila, Bogota, Los Angeles, Cannes, Berlin and Jerusalem, and has served as an advisor to a number of other festivals, including the Berlin International Film Festival and the Locarno International Film Festival. In 1977 he was a member of the jury at the 10th Moscow International Film Festival. From 1979 to 1991, he served Italian journal II Tempo as its American film correspondent. He has received numerous honors for cultural achievements.
In 1964, at the age of 22, Michael Kutza founded the Chicago International Film Festival, subsequently serving as its director.
Through its early years, Kutza personally screened and selected the films that would be shown at the Festival. It was during this period, in 1967, that Kutza viewed and selected for its world-premiere I Call First, the first film of director Martin Scorsese, which would later be expanded and rereleased as Who's That Knocking at My Door. Kutza has been an outspoken proponent of foreign-language films, and as of 2013 remained the Festival's artistic director.
Kutza has received a number of honors for his cultural achievements. Among them, in 1972, Kutza received the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, and in 1978, the Chicago Sun-Times' "Exceptional Contribution to Chicago" award. In 1985, Jack Lang, then the French Minister of Culture, bestowed the Chevalier de L'ordre des Arts et des Lettres upon him during the Cannes Film Festival for his work in promoting fine arts.
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