The Chicago Latino Film Festival (CLFF) announced on Wednesday that Polish graphic artist Dominika Czerniak-Chojnacka, winner of the 2017 Chicago Latino Film Festival Poster Contest, is the artist behind the design of the official poster for its 38th edition. The poster will be the face of the Festival, as it will be on the cover of program, digital schedules, invitations, and digital program books, Festival Trailer, Festival’s website and more. 

“Coming up with an idea for the Chicago Latino Film Festival’s official poster was not an easy task. I was thinking and drawing for many days, and suddenly – as it sometimes happens when it comes to art – I drew the Sun, a very simple object, even obvious. Yet it is a common image across all Latino cultures. And when its rays turn into celluloid strips it becomes a powerful, radiating symbol of the 38th Chicago Latino Film Festival. Transferring this poster to other media will be easy: even in different formats it will be eye-catching. It’s like the poster is moving and also moves everyone who sees it,” wrote Czerniak-Chijnacka in her artist’s statement.

“This year we decided to do something different by asking the winners of the last five poster contests to submit their ideas and concepts for the image that would be the face of this year’s Festival. The choices were difficult; each submission spoke in their own unique way to the multiethnic nature of the pan-Latino diaspora. But we were in the end captivated by Dominika’s bright, cheerful, and optimistic design” said Pepe Vargas, founder and executive director of the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, the organization that produces the Chicago Latino Film Festival.

Featuring close to 100 feature length and short films from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal and the United States, the 38th Chicago Latino Film Festival, April 21st – May 1st, will be presented in a hybrid format with in-person screenings, several Drive-In presentations at ChiTown Movies Drive-In, 2343 S. Throop St., and online through Eventive’s virtual platform. The full program, as well as additional theaters, will be announced in March.