Ebertfest 2018, Days 4 & 5: Daughters of the Dust, The Big Lebowski, 13th and More One of the most rapturous ovations I’ve seen in the six years I’ve been attending Ebertfest was received by Ava DuVernay, the celebrated director who flew to Champaign, Illinois, amidst a busy schedule, in order to attend the Saturday … Read more
For the past twenty-five years, Chaz Ebert and the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have hosted the Ebertfest Film Festival at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Illinois. Roger Ebert was the first Film Critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism. He held his colleagues in esteem. Since his death, Chaz Ebert … Read more
1:30PM – ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004): For its twentieth anniversary, Ebertfest screens Michel Gondry’s sci-fi romantic fantasia, about a separating couple (Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet) who choose to erase their memories of each other through experimental technology. 4:30PM – LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING (2023): The soul sensation gets a suitably kaleidoscopic … Read more
Dear Ebertfest Movie Lovers, In celebration of our 25th Anniversary, several of our longtime audience members have shared their testimonials with us about what drew them to Ebertfest and why they keep coming back. These snapshots of what makes Ebertfest such a joyous occasion are so special, that we had to share them with you! … Read more
Lisa Cortes, the Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning producer and director, will attend Ebertfest to discuss her film “Little Richard: I Am Everything,” a documentary about Little Richard, the unique, flamboyant, rock ‘n’ roll icon who shaped the world of music with hits like “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally” (Read Sheila O’Malley’s review of the … Read more
“I cannot believe that it was almost 25 years ago that Roger and I started the Roger Ebert Film Festival at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana,” said Ebert. “And I am pleased to be installed as an Honorary Alumnus. Over these years our mission of encouraging empathy through the movies has grown to include … Read more
He loved Ebertfest and savored every minute of planning it. This year, to honor his legacy, we chose the theme of “Empathy at the Movies.” Empathy, he often said, is the most essential element of civilization. It helps us to put ourselves in the shoes of someone who is different from us. We both believed … Read more
The screening of “Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself” at Ebertfest 2023 this past Friday evening was preceded by a special pre-tapped intro from Stephen Colbert, who executive produced the film with his wife, Evie. During their onstage Q&A with RogerEbert.com Literary Editor Matt Fagerholm, the film’s director Frank Oz and writer/star Derek DelGaudio affirmed … Read more
Oz has directed “The Dark Crystal” (With Jim Henson), “The Muppets Take Manhattan”, “Little Shop of Horrors”, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, “Housesitter”, “What About Bob?”, “The Indian in the Cupboard”, “In & Out”, “The Score”, “Bowfinger”, “The Stepford Wives”, “Death at a Funeral”, and “In & Of Itself”. DEREK DELGAUDIO, creator/subject Derek DelGaudio is an author, … Read more
The first thing everyone notices and best remembers about “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920) is the film’s bizarre look. The actors inhabit a jagged landscape of sharp angles and tilted walls and windows, staircases climbing crazy diagonals, trees with spiky leaves, grass that looks like knives. These radical distortions immediately set the film apart … Read more