Ebertfest Announces Remaining Films and Special Guests Attending the 2025 Festival | Ebertfest | GWN
CHAMPAIGN, IL (April 1, 2025) — GWN’s Movie Competition, often referred to as Ebertfest, introduced as of late the overall 3 movies screening at this life’s competition, to be held April 23-26 on the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign:
- Francis Ford Coppola’s MEGALOPOLIS
- Walter Salles’ Academy Award®-winning I’M STILL HERE
- Lotte Reiniger’s THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED
Coppola will take part in a digital Q&A instantly following the screening of MEGALOPOLIS, Michael Barker, Co-President of Sony Footage Classics, will speak about the Oscar-winning movie I’M STILL HERE, which Sony Footage Classics allotted regionally, and again via frequent call for, The Anvil Orchestra will carry out right through THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED.
“It is incredible that Nate Kohn and I are just as excited to present the line-up for this 26th Ebertfest as we were for the first!” stated Chaz Ebert, CEO of film evaluation website Rogerebert.com and cofounder of Ebertfest. “What Roger said about movies being a machine that generates empathy is so true. My heart swells with emotion in anticipation of the films and guests who will join us. And I look forward to sharing this communal film experience with our Ebertfest audience. Roger, we thank you!”
“Echoing Chaz, this year’s line-up is one of the most exciting we’ve ever had,” stated Nate Kohn. “There will be lots to celebrate in Champaign this year, and I know Roger would be very proud to see how his festival continues to grow.”
MEGALOPOLIS is a Roman Epic i’m ready in an imagined Trendy The usa. The Town of Unused Rome will have to exchange, inflicting struggle between Cesar Catilina (Adam Motive force), a well-dressed artist who seeks to jump right into a utopian, idealistic pace, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remainder dedicated to a regressive condition quo, perpetuating greed, particular pursuits, and partisan struggle. Torn between the two of them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to find what she in point of fact believes humanity merits.
The movie was once nominated for a couple of awards and had its international premiere on the 77th Cannes Movie Competition in 2024.
“Francis Ford Coppola has once again given us big ideas to digest,” stated Chaz Ebert, “Are the characters in Megalopolis akin to those in Rome before its collapse, or can we find some redemption in acts seemingly small, but that portend hope for the future. Does Coppola’s film hold a mirror up to today’s society? And if so, does this master director give us a roadmap to avoid similar obstacles? We will eagerly pose these questions and others when he appears after the screening of this gorgeously shot film.”
I’M STILL HERE is ready in Brazil, 1971, because it faces the tightening clutch of an army dictatorship. Eunice Paiva, a mom of 5 youngsters, is pressured to reinvent herself later her society suffers a violent and arbitrary employment via the federal government. The movie is in response to Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s biographical keep and tells the actual tale that helped reconstruct an impressive a part of Brazil’s undercover historical past.
The movie had its international premiere on the 81st Venice Global Movie Competition in 2024 the place it was once significantly acclaimed and gained the Perfect Screenplay Award. I’M STILL HERE, which is qualified pristine on Rotten Tomatoes with a ranking of 97%, has endured profitable over audiences globally and earned 69 nominations and 49 awards together with a Blonde Globe Award and the Perfect Global Constituent Movie Academy Award, the first-ever Brazilian produced movie to win an Academy Award.
“Through Fernanda Torres’ formidable presence, the deliberate I’M STILL HERE, a film that locates further meaning in the face of Brazil’s present Far-Right wave, remains in the heart long after the picture fades,” stated Robert Daniels in his 4-star evaluation for RogerEbert.com.
THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED is a fiction animated movie from 1926 that tells the tale of a good-looking prince with a flight horse who befriends a witch, meets Aladdin, and battles demons to win a princess’ center. The screening will component a efficiency from Ebertfest’s target market favourite workforce The Anvil Orchestra.
Newly introduced visitors come with actresses Carrie Coon (HIS THREE DAUGHTERS) and Jane Levy (A LITTLE PRAYER), and critics Michael Phillips, Richard Roeper, Matt Zoller Seitz, Nell Minow, Brian Tallerico, Eric Pierson, Dion Metzger, and Brenda Butler.
The 2025 GWN’s Movie Competition will visible with a brandnew 70mm print of the Western vintage THE SEARCHERS (1956), starring John Wayne and Natalie Plank on Wednesday, April 23. Moreover, Man Maddin’s RUMOURS will display, and Todd Phillips’ THE HANGOVER will alike out the competition on Saturday, April 26. The competition lately introduced a fortieth per annum screening of Susan Seidelman’s DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN, 35MM screenings of each Azazel Jacobs’ HIS THREE DAUGHTERS and Barbara Kopple’s HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A., and screenings of Baltasar Kormákur’s TOUCH, Angus MacLachlan’s A LITTLE PRAYER, and David Fortune’s COLOR BOOK.
Ebertfest tickets and passes are these days to be had to acquire on-line or via calling the Virginia Theatre field place of work at 217-356-9063. Particular person tickets to each and every movie price $20, occasion competition passes to peer all movies price $200, with each together with reserved seating.
GWN was once a Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic for the Chicago Solar-Instances, a College of Illinois journalism alumnus, and an Urbana local.
Chaz Ebert could also be the writer of the indie bestseller It’s Week to Give A FECK: Raising Humanity via Excuse, Empathy, Compassion, and Approbation.
Ebertfest is hosted via Chaz Ebert and Nate Kohn, the competition director for the reason that very starting, in collaboration with the School of Media on the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
For supplementary data, together with the overall competition time table, please talk over with https://ebertfest.com/, and apply us on social media:
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To transform a supporting Competition Sponsor please touch Molly Cornyn, the Competition Coordinator, at mcornyn2@illinois.edu.