Although the weather may finally be cooling off a bit, the Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) appears to be only just heating up.

Yet, due to the longevity—14 days—of the festival, the widely dispersed logistical set-up, the CIFF has a knack for losing steam outside of its highlighted ‘Gala Presentations.’

And even though countless CIFF banners are widely scattered across the city, the festival tends to lack the centralized concentration that other major urban festivals have. Rather than people clustering in one concentric location; attendees, VIPs, and press tend to mostly congregate after a film has managed to create a strong pre-screening ‘buzz.’

For example, Lars and the Real Girl directed by Craig Gillespie, the film, on account of its credible cast: Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling and Indy-film favorites—Patricia Clarkson and Emily Mortimer, had a great deal of advance fanfare.

This being said, when I attended the screening on Tuesday night at Chicago’s AMC River East Theatre nearby Navy Pier, I was impressed to find a packed house.

And in true Hollywood style, following the screening, Gillespie and entourage headed out to the Melting Pot, a European fondue restaurant located in Chicago’s ritzy Gold Coast neighborhood.

Yet, due to the high-profile nature of some films showing at the festival and the more obscure nature of others, more often than not many of the international and smaller productions often get overlooked (hence, the formation of Roger

Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival which takes place annually each April in downstate Champaign, Ill.

Coming under the heading of another ‘Gala Presentation,’ tomorrow (Wednesday, October 10, 2007) evening’s big event is the debut of Gone Baby Gone, directed by Ben Affleck, the film stars his ‘lil brother Casey and the relative newcomer actress Michelle Monaghan.

Rivaling the attention of the Affleck brothers is the fact that the film seems to eerily parallel the real life events of the British girl Madeleine McCann who, while on vacation, mysteriously disappeared in May of this year.

In wrapping up tonight’s commentary, I do not mean to imply that the more mainstream films debuting at this year’s CIFF do not warrant the attention they are receiving. Rather, my hope is that along with the more publicity-driven films, those with less recognizable names and storylines also are able to generate sufficient amounts of interest to support their presence.