Gorton Center

2026 OSCAR SHORTS
2026-03-01 13:00 - 21:30, 2026-03-14 13:00 - 21:30 (America/Chicago) | Gorton Center – John & Nancy Hughes Theater, 400 E. Illinois Road, Lake Forest, IL, 60045, United States
Showcasing the best short films from around the world, the 2026 Oscar®-Nominated Shorts presents feature-length programs dedicated to each Academy Award® Short Film category: Animated, Documentary and Live Action.
Animated Short Film Nominees:
Butterfly – Florence Miailhe and Ron Dyens
Forevergreen – Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears
The Girl Who Cried Pearls – Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
Retirement Plan – John Kelly and Andrew Freedman
The Three Sisters – Konstantin Bronzit
Documentary Short Film Nominees:
All the Empty Rooms – Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones
Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud – Craig Renaud and Juan Arredondo
Children No More: “Were and Are Gone” – Hilla Medalia and Sheila Nevins
The Devil Is Busy – Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir
Perfectly a Strangeness – Alison McAlpine

Live Action Short Film Nominees:
Butcher’s Stain – Meyer Levinson-Blount and Oron Caspi
A Friend of Dorothy – Lee Knight and James Dean
Jane Austen’s Period Drama – Julia Aks and Steve Pinder
The Singers – Sam A. Davis and Jack Piatt
Two People Exchanging Saliva – Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata

IN BRUGES
2026-03-05 15:00 - 17:00, 2026-03-05 19:00 - 21:00
In Bruges
After a job goes badly wrong, Irish hitmen Ray and Ken are sent away by their boss, Harry. Their destination is Bruges, Belgium. It is quiet, old, and almost frozen in time. Ken finds it beautiful. Ray hates it immediately.
Ray is young, angry, and drowning in guilt over what happened on the job. Bruges feels less like a hiding place and more like a punishment. He is impatient and reckless. He wants to leave as soon as possible. Ken, older and calmer, sees things differently. He enjoys the city’s calm streets and historic beauty. He also hopes the trip will give Ray time to think and reflect.
As they wait for instructions, the days stretch on. The stillness forces both men to sit with their thoughts. Ray tries to escape his guilt through bad behavior and dark humor. He meets Chloë, a local woman with her own complicated life. Their connection is awkward but meaningful. It offers Ray a brief sense of normalcy.
Ken watches Ray closely. He believes people should be judged by their intentions, not only their mistakes. Bruges becomes a turning point for him. It makes him question loyalty, responsibility, and right and wrong. Meanwhile, Harry remains a looming presence. His strict moral code leaves no room for mercy.
When Harry’s final orders arrive, everything changes. The calm of Bruges collapses into chaos. Each character is forced to act. Their choices reveal who they truly are.
In Bruges mixes dark comedy with tragedy. The humor is sharp and uncomfortable. The violence is sudden and meaningful. Beneath it all is a story about guilt and consequence. It asks whether redemption is possible. It also asks what justice really means. Bruges itself stands as a quiet contrast to the brutality of the characters’ lives.
Director: Martin McDonagh
Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ciarán Hinds

Lake County Film Festival: THE LAST DIVE
2026-03-20 19:00 - 21:00
The Lake County Film Festival returns in 2026 for its Sweet 16 edition, celebrating sixteen years of independent cinema with a diverse, ambitious, and international slate of feature and short films. The festival runs March 12–23, 2026.
This year’s festival will screen films at three venues: the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Gorton Center in Lake Forest, and — for the first time — the Antioch Theater in Antioch, expanding the festival’s footprint and access across Lake County.
Gorton Center is proud to be one of the screening venues for “The Last Dive”!
Terry is a legendary figure in Baja Mexico, an American veteran who has spent decades living on—and in—the water. Once a man burdened by a troubled past, Terry’s life was transformed by an unlikely friendship with Willy, a 22-foot oceanic manta ray. For nearly two decades, Willy would slap his wings against the hull of Terry’s sailboat to signal their next dive, and together they explored the ocean’s depths—an extraordinary bond that turned Terry into an unexpected conservationist.
Now in his 80’s, Terry embarks on one final journey to a remote island in hopes of reuniting with his old friend. But he’s also searching for something deeper: peace, closure, and a chance to say goodbye.
Documentary • USA • 2025 • 91 Minutes
Director: Cody Sheehy
Writer: Mark Monroe
Producers: Randy Gebhardt, Christopher Gebhardt,
Editor: Lauren Brinkman
Composer: Paul Leonard-Morgan
Cast: Terrance Kennedy
Festivals: Tribeca, DocEdge, Boston Film Festival, Newport Beach, Anchorage

Lake County Film Festival: Gorton Selected Shorts
2026-03-22 15:00 - 16:30
The Lake County Film Festival returns in 2026 for its Sweet 16 edition, celebrating sixteen years of independent cinema with a diverse, ambitious, and international slate of feature and short films. The festival runs March 12–23, 2026.
This year’s festival will screen films at three venues: the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Gorton Center in Lake Forest, and — for the first time — the Antioch Theater in Antioch, expanding the festival’s footprint and access across Lake County.
Gorton Center is proud to be one of the screening venues and offer a curated selection of short films from the festival catalogue! Some filmmakers will be in attendance for a post-show Q & A!
Neo-Dome – Narrative • Action/Thriller/Science-Fiction • USA • 2025 • 15 Minutes
A woman hitchhikes to a utopia on the horizon. When she negotiates a ride we learn: trust no one on the road to the Dome.
Good Luck To All Of You – Narrative • Comedy/Drama • France • 2025 • 7 Minutes
A young girl plays with her toys, unaware that she might just be holding humanity’s remote control. Voices of tech experts blend innocence, hope and mild panic about AI. This whimsical yet cautionary tale asks: Who controls AI, who profits, and who’s still waiting for the manual?
No Clean Hammer – Narrative • Bosnia/USA • 2025 • 16 Minutes
No Clean Hammer follows Izet, a solitary man from Bosnia, as he drives from Tuzla to Sweden to recover his mother’s body. Based on a story passed down generations in diaspora, the short unfolds as folktale, capturing the surreal and absurdist aftermath of the Bosnian wars.
Two Ships –Narrative • Horror • Portugal • 2025 • 6 Minutes
While working opposite schedules, a couple attempts to maintain their connection through fleeting encounters.
Oh Yeah! – Documentary • USA • 2025 • 17 Minutes
The story of the iconic electronic music group Yello and their classic 1980’s hit song. Oh Yeah is one of the most recognizable songs of all time, made famous by Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and embodies 80’s American culture more than any other song.
Shell Yeah – Documentary • USA • 2025 • 6 Minutes
A musician, his shells, and the surprising sounds they create.
Hāfu – Narrative • Drama • USA • 2025 • 16 Minutes
When an American bride-to-be spends the day reuniting with her Japanese grandmother, she discovers through the dance of communication that she is more connected to her heritage than she realized.
Permanent Residence –Narrative • USA • 2025 • 10 Minutes
An ordinary immigration interview. What could possibly go wrong?

Lake County Film Festival: Nuisance Bear
2026-03-22 19:00 - 20:30
The Lake County Film Festival returns in 2026 for its Sweet 16 edition, celebrating sixteen years of independent cinema with a diverse, ambitious, and international slate of feature and short films. The festival runs March 12–23, 2026.
This year’s festival will screen films at three venues: the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Gorton Center in Lake Forest, and — for the first time — the Antioch Theater in Antioch, expanding the festival’s footprint and access across Lake County.
Gorton Center is proud to be one of the screening venues for “Nuisance Bear”!
From the Sundance Film Festival program:
A polar bear is forced to navigate a human world of tourists, wildlife officers, and hunters as its ancient migration collides with modern life. When a sacred predator is branded a nuisance, it becomes unclear who truly belongs in this shared landscape.
Filmmakers Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman return to Churchill, Manitoba — affectionately known as the “Polar Bear Capital of the World” — to deepen the inquiry begun in their award-winning short film. The result is a striking portrait of the fraught coexistence between polar bears and humans, guided by an Inuit narrator whose insights resist simplification.
The film traces this relationship with nuance, revealing how these arctic creatures deal with being constantly monitored, photographed, and redirected. There is a thrill in watching a polar bear outwit human efforts to contain it, underscoring the bears’ resilience and the fragility of the systems that attempt to control them.
By challenging the conventions of a nature documentary and favoring confrontation over moralism, Nuisance Bear invites us to reconsider our assumptions about wildlife as spectacle.
Documentary • USA • 2026 • 90 Minutes
Directors: Gabriela Osio Vanden & Jack Weisman
Producers: Michael Code, Will N. Miller, Teddy Leifer
Executive Producers: Joe Karetak, Eric Anoee, Nicole Stott, Emily Osborne, Harry Go, Nicole Quintero Ochoa, Moudhy Al-Rashid, Sam Frohman, Alex Pritz
Cinematographers: Joel Herrera, Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman, Michael Code, Sam Holling, Ian Kerr, Jack Gawthrop
Editor: Andres Landau
Composer: Cristóbal Tapia de Veer

Lake County Film Festival Closing Night Feature: ALL SKATE
2026-03-23 19:00 - 21:00
The Lake County Film Festival returns in 2026 for its Sweet 16 edition, celebrating sixteen years of independent cinema with a diverse, ambitious, and international slate of feature and short films. The festival runs March 12–23, 2026.
This year’s festival will screen films at three venues: the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Gorton Center in Lake Forest, and — for the first time — the Antioch Theater in Antioch, expanding the festival’s footprint and access across Lake County.
Gorton Center is proud to be hosting the closing night feature film, “All Skate”!
ALL SKATE is the full history of roller rinks and roller skating as told by a diverse group of people who are currently involved with roller skating and rinks, and through my point of view having grown up in a roller rink built by my grandfather.​
We cover everything from the early inline skating inventions, the patented Plimpton four-wheel design which prevailed, and then go though multiple phases of popularity including 1920s skaters including vaudeville performers and silent films, professional roller sports, the Skating Vanities, the 40s/50s during and post WWII when we expanded to over 5000 mostly family-owned roller rinks in the US, to the huge 1970s roller disco era, the return of roller blades in the 80s.​
We also visit the times of decline over the years, especially since the 2000s, and the reasons many rinks couldn’t survive, visiting many former roller rinks to see what the buildings hold today, including retail stores, homeless shelters, and a sad return to my family’s rink which is now an indoor shooting range. But we end on a high note, with the amazing roller skating resurgence brought on by Covid, including skating in the Super Bowl for the first time ever in 2024.
Documentary • USA • 2026 • 102 Minutes
Director: April Wright
Writer: April Wright
Producer: April Wright
Editor: April Wright
Cinematographers: Joe Farris, Dustin Perlman, Bryan Sarkinen, JT Seaton, April Wright
Archivist: Ronda Nissen
Subjects: Park Roller Rink (Zion, IL), Myesha McCaskill “The Skate Guru of Chicago,” Jim Turner (Co-Founder National Museum of Roller Skating) at Butler Skateland (Racine, WI), Guptill’s Arena (Albany, NY – Guinness Book World’s Largest), Roller Wave in Brooklyn NY, Moonlight Rollerway (Glendale, CA), Oaks Park Rink (Portland, OR – open since 1906)
