Rubaiyat Hossain’s The Difficult Bride is adding another major international festival to its remarkable 2026 journey, with the Bangladeshi film selected for the International Feature Competition at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival.
The selection comes soon after the film made history at Venice and continued its international run at Toronto. At Venice, The Difficult Bride became the first Bangladeshi feature selected for the Orizzonti Competition. Its latest Chicago selection now places it in another prestigious international competition, alongside films by some of the world’s best-known contemporary filmmakers.
The 13-film International Feature Competition includes Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Look Back, Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love, Radu Jude’s The Diary of a Chambermaid, Clio Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Valeska Grisebach’s The Dreamed Adventure and Andrea Pallaoro’s The Echo Chamber, which will have its North American premiere in Chicago.
The lineup also features Sandra Wollner’s Everytime, Meritxell Colell Aparicio’s Far From the Trees, Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva, Paolo Strippoli’s The Spiral and Clarissa, directed by Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri.
The films will compete for the Gold Hugo in the International Feature Competition. Four selections—All of a Sudden, Everytime, Citizen Osama and Possible Love—have also been submitted by their respective countries for the Best International Feature Oscar.
The 62nd Chicago International Film Festival will run from 14 to 25 October. Its competitive programme includes 25 North American or US premieres across the International Feature, New Directors, Documentary and OutLook sections. Films from Germany, Japan, Spain, the Central African Republic, Brazil, Nigeria and Turkey feature across the programme.
The New Directors Competition includes Clarissa, Al Baraneya, Congo Boy, Marie Madeleine, The Riverbank, A Common Story, Forever Your Maternal Animal and Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building.
The Documentary Competition features The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer, Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing, The Ultra Runner, Citizen Osama, Mariinka, Summer Drift and Tricontinental, Letter to Open in Case Of.
The festival’s OutLook Competition, which focuses on LGBTQ+ stories and perspectives, includes Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love, Kōji Fukada’s Nagi Notes, Corrin Evans’ Corpus, Abinash Bikram Shah’s Elephants in the Fog and Kris Rey’s Trash Mountain.
The festival will also hold its fourth annual International Contenders Panel on 17 October, bringing together filmmakers behind national Oscar submissions. The Hollywood Reporter’s Seth Abramovitch will moderate the panel.
Chicago has a notable recent record of films going on to Academy Award recognition. Previous festival selections including Sirāt, The Voice of Hind Rajab, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Close, Drive My Car and The Worst Person in the World received Best International Feature nominations, while Four Daughters was nominated for Best Documentary.
The complete festival lineup will be announced on 17 September. Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid will open the festival, while Mouse, from Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, will serve as the centrepiece presentation. Tickets for the remaining programmes go on sale on 28 September, following a Cinema/Chicago members’ presale from 18 September.
For The Difficult Bride, the Chicago selection marks another significant step after its history-making Venice premiere and Toronto appearance. The film is now travelling through yet another major international festival, placing a Bangladeshi feature in competition alongside films from some of the most prominent names in world cinema.
