See you at Ebertfest
If movie-goers and community residents respond to all the publicity about the outstanding films Chaz Ebert and Nate Kohn have selected for Ebertfest 2025, and if all I’ve heard from people about attending the festival pans out, the 1,500-seat Virginia Theatre will be full to the rafters from the first moment of the 1956 John Wayne/John Ford movie “The Searchers” on April 23 to the end credits of the 2008 comedy “The Hangover” on April 26.
As a prelude to the festival, the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies will screen Spike Jonze’s award-winning film “Her” at 7 p.m. April 22 in the Knight Auditorium at the Spurlock Museum. The screening is free and open to the public as part of the museum’s theme for the year: “Artificial Intelligence Imagined and Realized.”
Stories have been published in recent weeks announcing additional films for Ebertfest, including a 40th anniversary screening of Susan Seidelman’s “Desperately Seeking Susan,” Azazel Jacobs’ “His Three Daughters” and Baltasar Kormakur’s “Touch.” Next on the list: Barbara Kopple’s “Harlan County USA,” Angus MacLachlan’s “A Little Prayer” and David Fortune’s “Color Book.”
Letters have been sent out to the Ebertfest mailing list announcing the films to be screened, and the festival’s assistant director, Molly Cornyn, has been making presentations to local clubs and groups. The good folks at Experience Champaign-Urbana, headed by Ebertfest advisory committee member Jayne DeLuce, widely promote the event to visitors and residents.
“Nate, Molly and I are getting more excited about the festival as we get closer to the date,” Chaz Ebert said. “Every year someone says to me, ‘This was the best Ebertfest ever!’ We are working hard so that we can have at least one person say it again this April.”
With the current lineup of films and guests, others will undoubtedly say it again. One response from the Bay Area to my blog said, “Outstanding! Wish I could be there.”
Flights arrive at Willard Airport daily, I advised, for guests and festival attendees.
“The Searchers” will be the opening film at this year’s Roger Ebert Film Festival.
Another California resident, Ron Yates, who was here at the University of Illinois when the festival was first being considered, responded, “Ebertfest has always been one of my favorite events. When I joined the College of Media in 1997 (it was the College of Communications back then) as Journalism Department Head, Dean Kim Rotzoll, Roger, Chaz, Nancy Casey and a few others in the college were in discussions about getting Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival off the ground. I can recall how elated Kim Rotzoll was in 1999 when the first film festival was launched. Kim was a huge fan of films and loved talking about them.
“The following year, I had lunch with Roger and suggested he consider ‘The Searchers’ as one of his overlooked films. I always felt it was one of John Wayne’s finest performances, and it dealt with issues not widely discussed in Hollywood films in the mid-1950s. I am glad that ‘The Searchers’ will be screened at this year’s festival. What we now call Ebertfest is not only a legacy of Roger Ebert’s enormous talent as a film critic, but of the vision and persistence of Dean Kim Rotzoll, who innately knew the festival would grow into the huge event it is today.”
From the other side of the country, I received a response from John Henry, a retired Marine warrant officer in Alabama I served with in the Philippines, who shared a comment about “Singing in the Rain.”
“In the early-to-mid-1950s,” he wrote, “I worked as an usher/ticket taker at our movie theaters here in Dothan, Alabama. I have probably seen ‘Singing in the Rain’ at the Martin Theatre here in Dothan at least a dozen times. My all-time favorite dance-and-sing movie. Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly and (Danville native) Donald O’Connor were top performers in those days. However, Fred Astaire was the finest dancer I have ever seen dance.
“In regards to John Wayne and the movie, ‘The Searchers,’ absolutely one of the all-time favorites of thousands of fans. I have seen this movie at least a dozen times, as recently as about a month ago. Simply the finest Western movie of its time.”
None of those three will be attending Ebertfest this year, but it’s good to know how they feel about the movies that will be shown. It’s good to know that movie-goers nationwide appreciate what Chaz and Nate have selected.
See you at Ebertfest.