The Byron Grush Collection contains experimental and animation films made by Chicago filmmaker and animator, Byron Grush. Byron has ties to numerous local universities and organizations including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Academy of Fine Art, Goldsholl Design Associates, and Center Cinema Coop. This collection’s experimental films consist of hand drawn animated works and abstract short films, made primarily between the years 1961 and 1976. Films by other local filmmakers and artists are included in this collection. Also found in this collection are: an original drawing from Byron's film Why We Fight, a signed copy of The Shoestring Animator, newspaper clippings of Byron’s work, and other ephemera.

The Camille Cook Collection consists of outtakes, work prints, original negatives, collected films, home movies, and edited diary films of the experimental and personal work of Camille Cook, filmmaker and founder of The Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (now The Gene Siskel Film Center). The films depict various aspects of Cook’s life in Chicago throughout the mid 1960s, ranging from images of city street life to moments with her friends and family in Western Springs, IL, as well as her experiments in structural filmmaking.

The Charles E. Krosse Collection contains films produced and/or distributed by a Peoria film production company, C.L. Venard Productions, a company that became known for its educational films dealing with agricultural subject matter. It was donated to CFA by Charles E. Krosse, who previously worked in the Marketing division at Caterpillar. The collection contains both 16mm and 35mm films, a number of which may also be titles that Venard employees collected. Included in the collection are promotional and in-house training films made for Caterpillar, a fundraising film made for the city of Peoria, some soft-core erotic shorts, unrelated animated shorts, silent film comedies, and unidentified home movies.