Ebertfest is an annual film festival held every April in Champaign, Illinois, United States, organized by the College of Media at the University of Illinois. Roger Ebert, the TV and Chicago Sun-Times film critic, was a native of the adjoining town of Urbana, Illinois and is an alumnus of the University. Founded in 1999 as Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival, this event is the only long-running film festival created by a critic. Despite Ebert's death in 2013, the festival continues to operate based on Ebert's notes and vision for the kinds of films he championed.
The 2020 festival was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 22nd edition of the event was rescheduled three times, eventually opening on April 20, 2022.
Origins
The festival is a direct descendant of a program put on at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1997 called Cyberfest which used the supposed birthday of HAL (the computer in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey) to highlight the University's involvement in the history of computers and computing. The film was to be shown as part of Cyberfest, Roger Ebert had agreed to host and actor Gary Lockwood was a special guest.
It was suggested that the film should ideally be shown as it was originally, in 70 mm format. The original plan was to have the screening at the University's performing arts center but time constraints vs. the need to install projection equipment and elaborate six channel sound made this impossible. Someone suggested looking at the Virginia Theatre, as 70 mm films had been shown there in the past. At this point the theatre was in the hands of a local live theatre group and had not run films since sold by a theatre chain. All concerned were pleasantly surprised to learn the chain had left behind not only what is reputed to be the finest 35/70 mm projector made but also the screen and speakers. The rest of the equipment was brought in for the special showing which went perfectly.
Venue
Since its inception in 1999, Ebertfest has been held at the Virginia Theatre, an old-time movie palace in Champaign built in 1921 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The theatre is now owned by the Champaign Park District. Ebert spoke of having attended films at the Virginia while growing up in Champaign-Urbana and attending the University. It was Ebert's intention that all festival attendees see all of the films in a single theatre in order to create a sense of community among film lovers.
In 2014, a bronze statue of Roger Ebert was unveiled outside of the Virginia Theatre as tribute to both Ebert and Ebertfest.
Growth
Through donations, the Virginia has been able to fully equip its projection and sound system with a second projector, the latest in digital sound equipment and top quality lenses. The theatre's screen is 56 feet wide by 23 feet high, with a viewable image of up to 50 feet wide x 21½ feet high. The main speakers sit directly behind the screen during film presentations and are augmented by 36 surround sound speakers.
Instrumental in these upgrades has been notable Chicago-based projection expert James Bond who doubles as one of the projectionists during the festival.
Capacity
Since 2013, the Virginia Theatre has a seating capacity of 1,463. The theatre was closed from 2012 until April 2013 for renovations that included replacing all of the seats. Capacity dropped from about 1,550 to 1,463 but the new seats are more comfortable and the theatre offers wheelchair and companion access.
Name change
In April 2007 it was announced that beginning in 2008 with the tenth festival "Overlooked" would be dropped from the name and subsequent events would be known as "Roger Ebert's Film Festival", but commonly referred to as simply Ebertfest. This did not necessarily indicate any change in the philosophy or theme but simply eliminated the need to explain when current or even unreleased films were included which had sometimes been the case. They had sometimes been jokingly referred to as "pre-overlooked."
Selection criteria
Unlike typical film festivals, Ebertfest does not accept submissions. Roger Ebert selected films for the festival which in his opinion are excellent, but have been overlooked by the public or by film distribution companies. All films were selected from those that Ebert saw in the course of his normal reviewing work. Since Ebert's death, all films have been selected by the Festival Committee.