CHAMPAIGN — Live organ music filled the vaulted ceilings of the Virginia Theatre in Champaign as attendees sat in wait between Ebertfest film screenings Friday evening. The organist, Steven Ball, played film scores, and in the lobby, movielovers chattered with excitement in line for popcorn, candy and soda.
Ebertfest organizers say thousands of people turned out for the festival’s nine film screenings over two days, plus a play re-enacting an episode of Siskel & Ebert. Following the films, a panel of cast, writers, and directors participated in a live Q&A.
This year, guests included John Goodman, Judy Greer, and Stephen Helstad and Edd Benda, the directors of the dark comedy “Chilli Finger.”
Ebertfest began in 1999 as a star-studded, red-carpet affair showcasing the overlooked indie film darlings in Hollywood at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign. It continued in that legacy for more than two decades.
Last year, Ebertfest organizers had said they wouldn’t be coming back, but they pivoted and made a final return for the “Last Dance” event on April 17 and 18.
“We just wanted to have a chance to do a proper farewell to all of the Ebertfest… family who’ve been coming over the years,” said Chaz Ebert, co-founder of the festival and wife of Roger Ebert, on IPM’s The 21st show.
A tribute to Roger Ebert
The festival hosted its first and only play called “Siskel/Ebert” — a reenactment of an episode of Roger Ebert’s longstanding film criticism TV show with his friend and fellow critic, Gene Siskel.
When introducing the actor Zack Mast, who plays Roger Ebert, Chaz Ebert remarked on how starkly similar they look.
“My daughter tried to prepare me, she said, ‘Mommy, this guy, he’s a pretty good Roger.’ And I said, ‘No, no one’s a good Roger, except Roger.’ And she said, ‘Wait until you see him!’”
Mast said that when writing the play, he and his co-star Stephen Winchell, decided to reenact an episode featuring “Full Metal Jacket” and “Spaceballs” because it was a “quintisessential” episode. The show began with the two playing a hand-clapping game to shake off their nerves.
“We also wrote a few interstitial scenes in there,” Mast said, “but a lot of those scenes are based on their relationship and our research. Shout out to ‘Opposable Thumbs’ by Matt Singer,and ‘Enemies: A Love Story.’”
The festival also showcased a tribute documentary called “The Last Movie Critic” about Roger Ebert’s commitment to the idea that movies allow people to feel a greater kinship with other humans.
The film focuses on Ebert’s life and dedication to the appreciation of film, diving into some of his most well-loved films, his reviews of those films, and his work with Ebertfest.
The documentary looks closely at films like “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Daughters of the Dust” and “The Tree of Life,” which Ebert expressed was the film that most emulated his own life.
Co-writer and director Luke Boyce said that in creating the film, he wanted Ebert’s reviews to be read in his own voice, without generative AI.
“I have hung hours and hours and hours of failed takes trying to emulate the way he spoke,” Boyce said. “And so everything you hear of Roger talking during the movie, that is me basically using a voice model to change it into his tone.”
Boyce said Ebert’s work highlights how movies are so much more than entertainment.
“When you hear Roger talk about movies, really talk about them, he doesn’t sound like a man describing entertainment,” Boyce said. “He sounds like a man describing oxygen, someone who generally believes that the right film seen at the right moment by the right person can change the course of life.”
He said he made his film for the community of people who believe movies are worth showing up for.
‘Chilli Finger,’ shot in Central Illinois
The dark comedy “Chilli Finger” was screened at the festival to a packed house. The dark comedy was filmed in central Illinois, created in part with Flyover Film Studios in Rantoul.
The film focuses on a Midwestern mother who becomes an empty nester and consequently does something radical: She plants a severed human finger in a bowl of fast food chili and attempts to blackmail the establishment.
Stephen Helstad, writer and co-director of the film, and his co-director Edd Benda, said that during the writing process, figuring out that the main character was an empty nester helped propel the story into a drama rather than a “whodunnit” mystery.
“As funny as it is, we always really wanted to approach it as a drama,” Benda said. “It’s about a mother grieving and dealing with this particularly intensive moment in life. And so for us, it was always approaching it as a drama all the way through, and then trusting that the comedy would come from that.”
Helstad said it was important to them to film “Chili Finger” in central Illinois and capture the spirit of the Midwest.
“We knew, just tonally, aesthetically, it was the perfect fit for the story we were trying to tell,” Helstad said. “And then on top of that, it was the city and the area that was a perfect partner in coming alongside us to support us in making the project. ”
Helstad and Benda said they’d like to return to central Illinois, citing Flyover Studios and affordability as a big draw. The directors and cast also expressed their love for local fare like Rose Bowl Tavern and Jarling’s and said they are big fans of radio station WEFT 90.1 FM.
Preserving the legacy of Roger Ebert
Ebertfest completely changed the local film sphere in Champaign-Urbana, and many in the film community say they’re making plans to move forward — picking up the mantle by highlighting overlooked films and creating a space where movie-lovers can gather to watch films they can’t see anywhere else.
The festival was founded in 1999. Nate Kohn, founding director of the festival, said the seeds were planted in the late ‘90s when Roger Ebert was invited to host a special screening of “2001: Space Odyssey.”
Kohn said they met and decided to hold it at the then-closed Virginia Theatre.
“We reopened the theater, discovered that there was still 70-millimeter projection in the theater, and showed the film to a large audience and it was very successful,” said Kohn in a 2024 interview with IPM News.
They began to talk about hosting an annual festival.