Friday, November 20, 2009 East Central Illinois

11th Annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival 2009

Film critics join lineup for annual film festival event

By: Melissa Merli
Friday, April 04, 2008

CHAMPAIGN – Roger Ebert will be getting a little help from his friends during his 10th annual film festival in Champaign.

Time magazine movie critic Richard Corliss, Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips and Richard Roeper, Ebert's Sun-Times colleague and partner in the weekly movie-review television program "Ebert & Roeper," will fill in for him onstage during Ebertfest, or Roger Ebert's Film Festival, April 23-27 at the Virginia Theatre. They will take turns questioning festival guests after the screenings.

Among the other onstage participants will be film expert Mary Corliss; film scholars David Bordwell, Hannah Fisher and Kristin Thompson; RogerEbert.com editor Jim Emerson; Movie City News editor David Poland; Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker; and Sports Illustrated writer and University of Illinois graduate Bill Nack.

Ebert, who had surgery earlier this year, is now at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. He plans to attend his festival and after it ends, he will resume writing movie reviews for The Chicago Sun-Times. Ebert will not resume his television series until his voice, lost during previous cancer surgeries and subsequent complications, is restored through further surgery.

Added to the previously announced schedule of 13 film screenings at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign are two Ebertfest panel discussions on the UI campus, both free and open to the public:

– 9:30 to 11 a.m. April 24, "What Does the Future Hold for Independent Film?" moderated by Nate Kohn, director of the film festival and a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Georgia, in the Pine Lounge of the Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., U.

– 9 to 10:15 a.m. April 25, "Today's Writer/Director – It's Not Just Business, It's Personal," moderated by Eric Pierson, a professor of communication studies at the University of San Diego, Pine Lounge.

Also, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. April 26, Hadjii, writer-director of the film "Somebodies," shown at the 2006 Ebertfest and a frequent festival guest, will sign copies of his book "Don't Let My Mama Read This: A Southern Fried Memoir," in the General Lounge on the second floor of the Illini Union.

Tickets for individual films were to go on sale at 9:30 a.m. today at the Virginia Theatre box office. Call 356-9063 or fax 356-5729 for tickets. They are $10 for adults and $8 for students and senior citizens. Visit www.ebertfest.com for more information.

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