Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival

Very poorly run theater. We are here for Cinderella matinée. All seating is unassigned and they sold beyond capacity. Kids sitting in the isles. Impossible to find a seat. This is my second time to the theater. Concessions slow because off no help. Thoroughly poor unorganized venue. Never again.

Really good group volunteer opportunity for U of I and Parkland groups. You get to help out with a great Champaign event and watch some of the movies for free.

No one was sure if Roger Ebert was going to recover in time to host this year’s festival. But alas — the show must go on. And it did.
It is held right here in Champaign in April — tickets go on sale pretty early in the year. I think sometimes even before the movies are listed. And every year, the film festival sells out of passes within a week. Even individual tickets are hard to come by. But if you volunteer, you can earn your way into the Virginia Theater for Ebertfest — Roger Ebert’s Film Festival. Or you can wait in line right before the movie starts — the slacker line. It’s a first-​come first-​serve seating policy. Everyone gets seated — usually.
Now I’m not the biggest fan of the movies Ebert gives «two thumbs up» in his Sun Times column. The Film Festival, however, has the most eclectic lineup and interesting selection of underdog films that you MUST see. Plus, the Virginia Theater is a marvelous place to view a film.