Chicago International Film Fest Announces The Pitch Winner ‘A Terrible Sound,’ CIX: Lab Slate

The 61st Chicago International Film Festival today announced A TERRIBLE SOUND as the winner of The Pitch at the 11th edition of Industry Days, the Festival’s annual conference that has become a hub for filmmakers and industry professionals to connect, share ideas, and find inspiration. The Pitch at Industry Days invites filmmakers with narrative features in late stage development to present their projects in front of a live audience and a panel of industry judges, with the winning project receiving an awards package of in-kind services, including consultation, production, and post-production. 

Written and directed by Shiloh Tumo Washington and produced by Fabiola Auxila, A TERRIBLE SOUND follows an innovative jazz pianist who moves up to Chicago from a small, midwestern town in 1959, only to find himself en vogue, in love, and with a new, piercing addiction.

The film was selected by this year’s distinguished Pitch jury, composed of Oscar-nominated producer Christina Oh, co-head of Celadon Pictures; producer and former CAA Media Finance executive Luke Rodgers; and Gabriele Mayers, producer and former head of film at Killer Films.

A TERRIBLE SOUND received an awards package of in-kind goods and services worth over $275,000. Contributors include Panavision, The Fields Studio, IFA Chicago Membership and Shared Workspace Membership, Independent Studio Services, MBS Equipment, Noisefloor, Quicksilver Color, Journeywork Entertainment, Anachrony Post, AJ Casting Consultation, and Ramo Law.

Past projects from the Chicago Industry Exchange and The Pitch have gone on to completion, including Jennifer Reeder’s SIGNATURE MOVE and KNIVES AND SKIN, Haroula Rose’s ONCE UPON A RIVER, and Alex Heller’s THE YEAR BETWEEN.

The Festival has also announced a slate of five narrative feature film projects that will take part in next year’s edition of CIX: Lab, a year-long development program that will culminate at The Pitch at Industry Days in 2026. 

The selected projects for 2025-2026 CIX: Lab, representing a diversity of voices that continue to reinforce the breadth and vitality of Chicago-area filmmakers and projects, are:

18th STREET

Writer, Director: Grecia Aguilar

Producer: Judy Febles

Amid the grit and color of Chicago’s Pilsen, a withdrawn teen watches her two outgoing siblings split onto dangerous and hopeful paths—each choice shaping the family’s fragile future.

DAMAGE CTRL

Producer: Ashley Flowers

Writer, Producer: Farbota Lynn

Director: Julia Kots

A high-strung grad student and her deadbeat roommate join forces to seek revenge, and unwittingly become a vigilante duo plotting against sexual predators.

ETTA LERAE

Writer, Director: Jana Naomi Smith

Producer: Adia Ivey

When a filmmaker’s curiosity becomes invasive, her obsession with a documentary subject who does not want to be bothered leads to compromised morals, jeopardized relationships, and revelations into her complicated past.

ON THE WATER’S EDGE

Writer, Director: Annette Elliot

Summer is coming to a close. A woman drifts like a ghost through the deserted streets, overgrown alleyways and windswept sand dunes of Gary, Indiana. She meets a reclusive gardener and a tenuous relationship unfolds.

PRODIGAL SUN

Writer, Director: Youssef Boucetta

Writer, Director: josh brainin

Writer, Producer: Camille Bacon

In early summer 2026, a young experimental band in Chicago gets an exciting record deal. As they struggle to focus, they decide to travel to Morocco to renew their inspiration and visit the lead singer’s terminally ill grandmother.