Tickets On Sale, Full Lineup Announced For 2018 Ebertfest

A science fiction movie presented on 70 millimeter film and a director’s debut that makes use of the modern architecture of an Indiana town are the final movies to be announced for the 20th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival.

Tickets went on sale Monday for the festival known as Ebertfest for short. It runs April 18-22 at the Virginia Theater in Champaign.

The science fiction movie is “Interstellar” (2014), directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, about a group of astronauts who travel through wormhole in search of a new home for humanity.

The director’s debut is “Columbus” (2017), directed by Kogonada, which follows the romance of an architecture-obsessed couple, in Columbus, Indiana, a small city known for its modern architecture.

Other movies announced Monday for this year’s Ebertfest include:

“American Splendor” (2003), named for and about the autobiographical comic book series written by Harvey Pekar. Paul Giamatti plays Pekar in the movie directed by Shari springer Berman and Robert Pulcini.

“Selena” (1997), starring Jennifer Lopez as singer-songwriter Selena Quintanilla-Perez, directed by Gregory Nava.

“Rumble: Indians Who Rocked the World” (2017), Catherine Bainbridge’s and Alfonso Maiorana’s documentary about Native Americans in rock music.

“Rambling Rose” (1991), based on Calder Willingham’s novel, directed by Martha Coolidge, about the romantic disruption that ensues when a Depression-era family takes in a young woman as a live-in servant. In his review, Roger Ebert called the movie “as light as air, as delicate as a flower”. It stars Laura Dern and her real-life mother Diane Ladd, Robert Duvall and Lukas Haas.

This year’s silent feature is “A Page of Madness” or”Kurutta Ippeji” (1926), directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. The movie from Japan’s avant-garde Shinkankakuha group centers around a man who comes to work at an insane asylum in order to be near his wife, an inmate at the asylum that he feels he has driven into madness. The Alloy Orchestra, a frequent guest at Ebertfest, will perform original music for the film.

Roger Ebert’s Film Festival was founded by the late film critic Roger Ebert, a Champaign-Urbana native and alumnus of the University of Illinois. The festival often gives second looks to films that may not have received the recognition they deserved during their original runs. (The festival was originally called Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival).

Since Ebert’s death in 2013, his wife and festival co-founder, Chaz Ebert, has continued to produce and host Eberfest, in collaboration with the University of Illinois College of Media (the college also includes Illinois Public Media).

Complete Ebertfest Film Schedule (more details at www.ebertfest.com/film-schedule)

Wednesday 4/18

7 PM: The Fugitive

Thursday, 4/19

12 PM: Interstellar

4 PM: Selena

8:30 PM: Belle

Friday, 4/20

12 PM: Columbus

3:30 PM: A Page of Madness (with the Alloy Orchestra)

8:30 PM: American Splendor

Saturday 4/21

10:30 AM: 13th

2:30 PM: Daughters of the Dust

5:30 PM: Rambling Rose

9:30 PM: The Big Lebowski

Sunday 4/22

12 PM: Rumble