From Cannes to Sundance Film Festival, veteran movie critic Roger Ebert may attend dozens of movie festivals every year, but for the U. Illinois alumnus, nothing beats the vibe at his own movie festival.
“We aren’t selling anything, the sponsors are mostly local, the volunteers all are,” the Pulitzer Prize winning author said. “It’s all about the films, and thanking their makers.”
As the 12th annual Eberfest kicks-off today, movie critics, actors, directors, writers, producers and audience from all over the world will be making their way to Champaign’s Virginia Theatre to watch films personally selected by Mr. Ebert. This year, 13 films will be shown over the course of five days, with the sold-out festival concluding on Sunday.
Formerly known as “Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival,” the movie festival started when the University asked Ebert to host the screening of “2001: A Space Odyssey” in 1997 during Cyberfest, a birthday celebration of the HAL computer featured in the film.
“It was such a tremendous success that we started talking about starting hosting a festival at Virginia Theatre in Champaign,” said Dr. Nate Kohn, one of the organizers of the Cyberfest.
According to Dr. Kohn, the festival director of Eberfest since its inauguration in 1999 and U of I alumnus, much of the festival’s theme and philosophy has not changed over the years.
“Roger wants to get the very mix of films”,” Dr. Kohn said. “We can bring in as many guests as we can for each film.”
According to Ebert, the most overlooked films this year, not only within the film industry but also among the public, are the documentaries. Documentaries shown this year include “Vincent: A Life in Color,” a film about a man who has been performing in colored suits on the bridges of Chicago for years, and “Song Sung Blue,” which chronicles a love story of two singers through good and bad times.
Dr. Kohn admits, however, that this year they’re doing something a little differently.
“This year we’re doing something we’ve never done before,” Dr. Kohn said. “Roger, through blogs, has developed relations with young critics from all over the world.”
Joining in the panelists and guests speakers from across the nation are 10 film critics from around the world, including South Korea, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey
“It brings international voices into the festival — that’s very much a good thing,” Dr. Kohn said. “It also brings a whole new generation of film-goers to the festival.”
For Dr. Kohn, a media professor at the University of Georgia, much of the planning of the film festival takes place over the Internet.
“Roger and I discuss possible films by e-mail,” Dr. Kohn said. “And then I invite the guests, locate the films and supervise the work that goes on to fill up to festival.”
Dr. Kohn said the planning for each year’s festival begins as soon as the previous one finishes. However, for him and Ebert, narrowing down the films to a dozen or so is the hardest part.
“We never finalize the list until after the Sundance Film Festival, which is in last week in January,” Dr. Kohn said. “This year we didn’t finalize the list until sometime in March.”
For Ebert himself, timing wasn’t the issue.
“I wish we had 20 slots!” Ebert said.
For audience members coming from local areas and abroad, the event is not only a gathering of avid movie fans, but a chance to gain a better appreciation of movies.
“When I first started coming, I loved Roger’s interviews after each film, even if I didn’t like the film,” said Ginny Boyd, a festival attendee from California. “I love to hear from the filmmakers.”
Boyd particularly recalls watching “The Weatherman” during the festival in 2005.
“I had rented it before and didn’t like it much,” Boyd said. “But, after seeing it on the big screen with a full audience and hearing the discussion after the showing, I got more out of it and understood it better.”
For University employee and local native Elizabeth Cook, the festival is not only a celebration of film, “but of the human spirit and our very primal need to share our stories.”
Having attended Eberbest since its beginnings in 1999, Cook can still remember vividly attending the first festival with her mother.
“About halfway through the first film that I viewed during that festival, I looked around at the silhouettes of other audience members who were completely captivated by the film and it gave me goose bumps,” Cook said. “It was obvious that something very, very special was taking place.”
For Ebert himself, he remembers watching “many, many movies” at the Virgina Theatre while growing up in Urbana. In fact, he can still recall the first performance he ever caught at the theatre.
“I remember seeing ‘Look Homeward, Angel’ on the stage, starring Miriam Hopkins,” Ebert said.
But for Ebert, the best of both worlds came together at the 2003 Ebertfest, when upon the showing of “Singin’ in the Rain,” actor Donald O’Connor, who played Cosmo, the piano player in the movie, said, “I danced in vaudeville on this stage.”
“It was his last public appearance,” Ebert said. “Anyone reading this who hasn’t seen the greatest of all Hollywood musicals: What are you waiting for?”