Enjoy the gift of Roger Ebert’s Film Festival
Ebertfest is rolling around again April 23-26 at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, as it has for the last 25 years, and bringing some great films and the community together as it always has.
This year kicks off with the first western movie ever shown at the festival, “The Searchers,” with John Wayne, directed by John Ford and written by Frank Nugent, based on a 1954 novel by Alan Le May. Set during the Texas-Indian Wars, Wayne is a middle-aged Civil War veteran who, with his adopted nephew (Jeffery Hunter), spends years looking for his abducted niece (Natalie Wood).
It has come to be considered a masterpiece and “one of the greatest and most influential films ever made” by film critics and industry publications. It will soon have another distinction of being screened at Ebertfest in a recently remastered 70mm format, which Forbes Magazine and others say can “offer nearly 3.5 times the area of 35mm film prints, delivering images that can be projected on huge screens (like the one at the Virginia) while delivering the brightest and sharpest images.”
In 1989, “The Searchers” was deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the U.S. Library of Congress and was one of the first 25 films selected for preservation in its National Film Registry. Director Martin Scorsese reportedly says it’s one film he watches a half a dozen times a year.
The opportunity to see this film in 70mm on the Virginia screen and talk about it afterward is not to be missed. That’s always been one of the great gifts Ebertfest has given to this community. Roger and Chaz Ebert and Nate Kohn have carefully curated scores of films over the years to bring movie lovers from all over the world to Champaign-Urbana every spring, sparking thoughtful conversation, enlightenment, inspiration and fun.
Although Roger is no longer with us, his vision for his hometown continues to be carried out by Chaz and Nate.
The 2025 festival will conclude with a great American comedy, “The Hangover,” released in 2009. Written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, and produced by Scott Budnick (who will be attending), the film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham and Justin Bartha. It tells the story of four friends who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party to celebrate the impending marriage of Bartha’s character. Needless to say, it’s a wild ride.
Other films and other guests will continue to be announced as the festival approaches. And many familiar faces who have made Ebertfest a must-do event in their lives will fill the theater’s seats and recreate that town-square atmosphere to share their own thoughts about the films. In a handful of days, new friendships are forged and interesting debates take place about culture and art and life. That kind of thing doesn’t happen every day around our community.
So I hope you’ll go to the website at ebertfest.com to learn more about the films, the guests, buy a pass or become a sponsor. Volunteers are also needed.
I attended the first Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival in 1999, then wrote about it a while for the UI College of Communications (now Media) and have hosted and volunteered ever since. I’ve seen movies I wouldn’t otherwise have seen, met people in the community and from around the country, even the world, and people in the film industry I wouldn’t otherwise have met.
My daughter Jessica has attended Ebertfest since she was a young girl and participated in the Q&As Roger moderated for the Saturday Family Movie program that Chaz suggested adding to the festival. Roger was an enthusiastic supporter of it.
Jessica is working on her master’s degree in Theatre Studies at the University of Illinois and recently shared with me her thoughts about Ebertfest’s cultural contributions to our community.
“It inspired you to go throughout the rest of the year with a little more curiosity. You got a better sense of how big the undertaking of making a film is by interacting with the many artists who worked on a project in all sorts of capacities.
“Roger’s picks were really special because he was this world-renowned, award-winning film critic, and he made a point to come back to his hometown and bring things that he thought were worth seeing, worth examining. It was always such an exciting flurry of activity over just a few days, but there was enough time to get into real discussions with guests and community members over lunch or at a party or walking to the theater. Those conversations created deep and lifelong connections for people that exemplify the power and potential that art has in the world.
“I think the festival inspired me to start looking at art with a critical eye early on, and that’s what I do now. Roger really did value young people’s input and Chaz’s children’s panel gave them a space to talk about film, too. In the industry, I think a lot of people don’t give credence to what you have to say until you’ve built yourself up. But they made a space for young, curious minds to talk about what they saw and lean into it. It was a very formative experience for me to participate in two of those children’s panels.”
I asked Jessica to share a memory that really stuck out in her mind.
“My favorite memory was hearing Donald O’Connor speak as the guest for one of my all-time favorite films, ‘Singing in the Rain.’ I grew up knowing every lyric, and to see this iconic actor on a stage in my hometown was surreal to me. Someone asked him (O’Connor being in his 90s at the time) if he could still run up a wall and do a backflip as he does in the number, ‘Make ’Em Laugh.’ With a twinkle in his eye, he quietly responded, ‘One night I thought I could.’”
I’d like to hear favorite memories from others who have attended the festival through the years – some that I could use in another column some time. And I hope a lot more of you will get your passes and plan to attend Ebertfest this year and join in the conversation. It’s a unique gift to our town to consider the world from new and different perspectives, and as Chaz reminds us – to create more understanding and empathy. That alone is worth the price of admission.