XL Film Festival Runs August 18-20

The newly formed XL Film Festival will run from Friday, August 18th, to Sunday, August 20th in Chicago. The festival, formerly known as the Chicago South Side Film Festival, was recently acquired by Troy Pryor's entertainment company, Creative Cypher, and will host speakers including Robert Townsend, Lil Rel Howery, Jackie Taylor and many others. The festival is part of a larger DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) effort to empower BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) ownership in media, and will be included in a doc series with BRON Studios. 

Highlighting Chicago’s history, the festival will occur in Bronzeville and Hyde Park, with pop-up events happening throughout the city during the year with partners including Ava DuVernay’s Array, EventNoire, BMOA of Chicago, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago and Silver Room. 

The three-day festival will kick off on August 18th with a 9am conversation between Louis Carr, the President of Media Sales at BET, and moderator Rufus Sims at the University of Chicago's Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship, located at 1452 E. 53rd St. An 11am lunch will be followed by panels with speakers including Robert Townsend, Louis Carr, Jackie Taylor, George Daniels, Dana Gills (Monkeypaw Productions), Dave Jeff (Phli), Diallo Riddle (South Side), Brenda Gilbert (BRON Studios), Korporate and more.

On August 19th, the festival will feature a conversation between legendary filmmaker and producer, Robert Townsend, hosted by radio personality Leon Rogers. The final day of the festival on August 20th will feature "The Making of the 5 Heartbeats" with Robert Townsend & Rooftop Cinema x The TRiiBE at Emily Hotel, located at 311 N. Morgan Street. 

After the Creative Cypher acquisition of The Chicago South Side Film Festival, Cypher has created a platform for other festivals to plug into as well. XL Festival & Creative Cypher Founder Troy Pryor is an advisor for the Chicago Alliance of Film Festivals, Co-Chair of Black Harvest Film Festival, and Chicago International Film Festival/Black Perspectives team member.

“After working for years as a talent, starting with background work on a Tyler Perry project, I knew my path would lead towards building infrastructure," said Pryor. "The festival was a natural progression in a much larger ecosystem that we’ve established and provides creatives a level of access, previously not seen in Chicago. This is now even more valuable due to the state of our creative industry. In addition to Chicago having a scaling Black-owned festival, we are providing a pathway for other festivals and programs to optimize their own DEI efforts. This will help them attract greater resources to scale as well.”

Creative Cypher founder Troy Pryor

The XL Film Festival will also feature Mansa, a free, ad-supported streaming platform highlighting Black content for a global audience. It was founded by award-winning filmmakers and actors David Oyelowo, Nate Parker and Chiké Okonkwo, as well as tech entrepreneur and film financier Zak Tanjeloff, with backing by VCs like Robert F. Smith. 

“As independent creators, we are constantly looking for ways to reach a new audience,” said Patrick Wimp, creator of “Brothers from the Suburb.” “Mansa provides an incredible opportunity to reach those audiences, and add a stamp of credibility as series like ours join the wealth of amazing content on the platform. I hope many more people will see our show and walk away with a smile on their face.”

Pryor is grateful that the festival will get support from the City of Chicago. A letter provided by the Chicago Film Office states, “Each filmmaking endeavor brings with it the potential to foster creative growth; cultural relevancy; inventive storytelling; diversity equity and inclusion; employment opportunities and business opportunities for film industry and industry-adjacent businesses.”

Reserve your XL Film Festival tickets here. For more info, visit creativecypher.org.