This April, Roger Deakins comes to Chicago, returning to the Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture following a series of sold-out appearances in 2024 and 2025.
He returns for Team Deakins: Film and Culture Festival, a two-day program of film screenings, live conversation, and emerging filmmakers.
More than a festival, this is an opportunity to encounter cinematography as a living practice. Audiences can see the work on screen, hear directly about the process behind it, and engage with the craft at its highest level.
The Cinematographer’s Eye: Roger Deakins in Chicago
Cinematography is often called the art of “painting with light,” but in practice it is something more precise: the shaping of how we see.
Every frame in a film carries choices. Where the camera is placed. How light falls across a face. How movement reveals or conceals. These decisions guide emotion, define character, and ultimately determine how a story is experienced.
As a result, few artists have shaped that visual language as profoundly as Roger Deakins.
Across films such as The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Skyfall, Blade Runner 2049, and 1917, Deakins has developed a style that is at once restrained and unmistakable. His work resists excess, favoring clarity, composition, and a deep sensitivity to natural light.
The result is imagery that feels both immediate and enduring. These scenes do not call attention to themselves, yet they remain fixed in the memory. This return of Roger Deakins in Chicago places that body of work in a rare live context.
From Screen to Stage: Roger Deakins in Chicago
Here, what makes the Team Deakins festival distinctive is not only the work itself, but how audiences are invited to engage with it.
This kind of appearance, combining screenings, conversation, and direct audience access, rarely happens.
Over the course of the festival, audiences can:
- Watch Deakins’ work on the big screen, where its scale and precision are most fully realized
- Hear directly from Roger and James Deakins about their creative process and long-standing collaborations
- Engage with a community of filmmakers, students, and audiences who share a commitment to the craft
The festival brings viewing and understanding together. The finished image and the thinking behind it meet. This appearance of Roger Deakins in Chicago brings his work into direct conversation with audiences in a rare live setting.
The Next Generation of Filmmakers
At the same time, the festival turns to the next generation.
The Team Deakins Collegiate Short Film Contest brings together student filmmakers from four Chicago institutions. These include Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Finalists will present their work on the Historic Main Stage, with Roger and James Deakins selecting the Grand Prize winner.
This part of the festival reflects a central idea: cinematography is not only a legacy to honor, but a practice to continue.
Reflections on a Career
In addition, the festival coincides with the release of Reflections: On Cinematography, Deakins’ new book.
Part visual memoir, part technical exploration, Reflections offers insight into the decisions behind some of the most celebrated images in film. Through a live Q&A and book signing, audiences can engage directly with the ideas behind the work. In this Chicago appearance, those ideas extend beyond the screen through conversation and shared experience.
Festival Schedule
As part of this Roger Deakins Chicago program, audiences can experience the following events:
Saturday, April 11
3 PM — RANGO (15th Anniversary Screening)
7 PM — Collegiate Short Film Finals
8:30 PM — Live Award Presentation by Team Deakins
9 PM — Reception (in Paradiso Ballroom)
Monday, April 13
4 PM — Reflections Book Signing (in Paradiso Ballroom)
7 PM — Live Q&A with Roger and James Deakins
8 PM — A BEAUTIFUL MIND (25th Anniversary Screening)
An Experience Not to Be Missed
Athenaeum Center has long been a place where art, culture, and intellectual life intersect. With Team Deakins: Film and Culture Festival, that mission continues through the medium of film.
In turn, for Chicago audiences, this is a rare opportunity to experience Deakins’ work on screen. It also offers the chance to hear directly from the artist and encounter the next generation of filmmakers working in the same tradition.
Whether attending a single event or the full two-day festival, the festival invites audiences into a deeper understanding of how films are made, and how they are seen.
Ultimately, this rare appearance of Roger Deakins in Chicago brings together decades of cinematic work in a single, immersive experience.
Team Deakins: Film and Culture Festival
April 11 & 13, 2026
Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture
2936 N Southport Ave, Chicago
Tickets are now available. Advance purchase is recommended, particularly for the live Q&A and book signing.
