Ebertfest honors founder ten years after his passing

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) —Starting in 1999 as "Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival," Ebertfest is still going strong.

Ebertfest Director Nate Kohn said this year is especially important.

“This year, we're particularly looking at Roger's list of great movies. It's the 10th anniversary of Roger's passing. And we thought one of the ways to celebrate Roger, will be to show a couple of films from his list of great movies,” said Kohn.

International, independent, and studio films will be shown April 19-22 at the Virginia Theater. Passes start at $200. University of Illinois student passes start at $150. 

The festival team will look over certain films to determine which ones will be shown.

"We don't accept submissions. We're not like most festivals, Chaz Ebert and I select the 12 films that are going to be in the festival every year, from films that we've seen over the past year, films that we think would satisfy the everyone at the moment and also, we have a list of films that Roger always wanted to show at the festival.”

Kohn also mentions how the festival is bigger than Champaign.

"Well, it's important not only to Champaign, but to the entire East Central Illinois area. It brings films to that region that sometimes never make it to commercial theaters. It's an opportunity for folks from that area to meet actual filmmakers and to meet other film fans from around the world,” said Kohn.

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