PHOTO CREDIT Left: Suzette, John, & Judy Bross at FACETS’ Screen Gems benefit.

Every year, FACETS awards scholarships to under-resourced Chicago youth, providing access to the best, most innovative international films. Free tickets are distributed for our annual Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (CICFF), and low-cost camp tuition is offered for those wanting to develop their own creative filmmaker voices. Chicago’s youth must be allowed to see themselves in an empowering light and provided the opportunity to tell their own stories.

In Fall 2021, the Bross Family stepped forward to establish the John A. Bross Student Scholarship Fund in honor of our beloved long-time board member who passed away in 2020. Many donors joined in to raise $25,000 in its inaugural year, allowing us to serve more youth than ever before. The result was 1,782 students benefited from free screenings, camps, or workshops throughout 2022. We awarded 1,308 scholarship tickets to students across the city to enjoy in-person and virtual screenings at our 39th Annual Chicago International Children’s Film Festival; awarded free week-long film camps to children from the Pilsen, Austin, Irving Park, and Rogers Park neighborhoods; and piloted a new program at Chicago’s Prosser Career Academy, which served 470 students.

This year, our goal is to raise a minimum of $50,000, allowing us to award camps or film festival tickets to 2,500 students this Summer and Fall.

Your gift of $100 or $250 or more can help a child, a family, a classroom, or even an entire school. Every $20 starts one child down a life-changing path. Donations of $250 or more include the benefit of a custom message on FACETS’ historic Fullerton Ave Marquee.