CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Festival passes will go on sale Nov. 1 for the seventh annual Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival, to be held April 20-24 at the Virginia Theater in Champaign, Ill., and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The passes, which cover all screenings during the five-day event, are $85. They can be purchased through the theater box office (phone: 217-356-9063; fax: 217-356-5729) or through TicketWeb by way of the festival Web site. Tickets for individual movies will be $9 each and available April 1.
Festival passes for the 2004 festival were sold out, with 800 of the 1,000 purchased before the films were announced in March, according to Mary Susan Britt, the festival’s assistant director. The same number of passes will be available again this year, she said.
Ebert, a 1964 Illinois journalism graduate, adjunct professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, will again host the event and select the films that he believes have been overlooked by audiences, critics and distributors. The lineup of movies, along with additional information on film-associated guests and other festival events, will be announced several weeks before the festival.
Updates on the festival, a special event of Illinois’ College of Communications, will be posted on the festival Web site.
About 18,000 admissions were recorded for the 12 featured films, associated panels and other events at the 2004 festival, most of which was held at the 1,500-seat Virginia Theater, a 1920s-era movie palace. The festival also attracted more than 50 producers, directors, writers, actors and other guests associated with the film industry.
Sponsors and volunteers for the festival are being sought. Those interested should contact Britt at 217-244-0552. Those seeking additional information and updates on films, guests and festival events should contact either Britt or festival director Nate Kohn, at 706-542-4972.
