RESEARCH General Arts

TWO THUMBS UP
Roger Ebert's festival features 12 movies, including five foreign films

Andrea Lynn, Humanities Editor
(217) 333-2177; a-lynn@uiuc.edu

4/1/2001

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Roger Ebert has announced the 12 films he will screen at his third annual film festival, among them Woody Allen’s 1996 musical "Everyone Says I Love You."

"Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival" will be held April 25-29 at two historic Champaign theaters, the Virginia and the Art, and at the University of Illinois, Ebert's alma mater.

"Ebertfest," the off-beat festival focusing on films, genres and formats that Ebert believes deserve wider attention, brings the films and many of their producers, directors and actors to
Champaign-Urbana to showcase them for general audiences, distributors and critics from around the world. It is a special event of the UI College of Communications.

Ebert, a 1964 UI journalism graduate and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is the host and programmer of the festival. He also is the film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and co-host of "Ebert & Roeper and the Movies," a nationally syndicated television program broadcast from Chicago.

Ebert and the festival guests will be on stage before and after each film to join the audience in discussions about the films. Several free public panel discussions – all of them to be held on the UI campus – also are planned, most to be moderated by Ebert. Reviews of the films, the names of the festival guests and ticket information can be found on the film festival Web site at www.ebertfest.com.

The other 11 films: "Girl On the Bridge" (France, 1999); "Jesus' Son" (Canada/United States, 1999); "The King of Masks" (China, 1996); "Maryam" (United States, 2000); "Nosferatu" (Germany, 1922); "On the Ropes" (United States, 1999); "Panic" (United States, 2000); "A Simple Plan" (United States, 1998); "Songs from the Second Floor" (Sweden, 2000); "Such A Long Journey" (United Kingdom/Canada, 1998); and "3 Women" (United States, 1977).

Of Woody Allen's film, Ebert said: "Musicals are a threatened genre and Woody Allen is a gifted filmmaker whose astonishing range deserves more attention. Here is a film in which all of the actors sing their own songs in their own voices (except one, Drew Barrymore, who says her singing is 'hopeless'). There is a freshness in their performances, recapturing the directness of musicals like 'Singin' in the Rain,' which blossomed before the genre sank under the weight of Broadway bloat. Allen stars with Julia Roberts in one of the film's several unlikely love stories."

Festival passes are on sale at the Virginia Theater box office. Passes also may be purchased online at the festival Web site. Tickets for individual screenings also are on sale. The festival is a non-profit production of the College of Communications and is funded by several outside sponsors.

For more information, visit the Web site or contact Melissa McKillip, festival assistant director, at mmckilli@uiuc.edu or (217) 244-0552; Nickie Dalton, festival manager, at n-dalton@uiuc.edu or (217) 333-2350; or Nate Kohn, festival director, at n-kohn@uiuc.edu or (706) 542-4972.