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Press Release: Champaign, Ill. -- Terrence Malick's 1978 film "Days of Heaven" won an Oscar for best cinematography, and Roger Ebert likely found that no surprise. It is "above all one of the most beautiful films ever made," Ebert said in a 1997 review. So it's only appropriate that the film will open the 15th annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival on April 17 in the big-screen, newly renovated Virginia Theater in downtown Champaign.

Also among the 12 features and two shorts to be screened during the five-day "Ebertfest" -- running through April 21 at the Virginia and at the University of Illinois -- will be a kabuki-inspired drama from Japan; a recent silent film from Spain that deserved as much attention as "The Artist," according to Ebert; a sympathetic take on the "mad" painter Vincent Van Gogh, directed by frequent festival guest Paul Cox; and a documentary, which will close the festival, about...

The rain, and later cold, didn’t deter audiences as big numbers turned out for day two of Ebertfest. As evidenced by the pairing of “I Remember” with Days of Heaven, Roger put tremendous thought into his programming of the festival, something clearly on display with his choices for day two. The power and beauty of both family and art were thematic through-lines of the day, starting with the short, “To Music”.

Directed by Sophie Kohn and Feike Santbergen, “To Music” centers on Antwan, a lute player in the midst of depression who is eventually pulled out of it by hearing his pianist friend play Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” and picking up his lute again. There’s a clear sense of family in the film- Henriett, the female lead, can see that Antwan needs help. She tries to draw him out herself, she consults the local priest who tries as well,...

Press Release: Champaign, Ill. -- Terrence Malick's 1978 film "Days of Heaven" won an Oscar for best cinematography, and Roger Ebert likely found that no surprise. It is "above all one of the most beautiful films ever made," Ebert said in a 1997 review. So it's only appropriate that the film will open the 15th annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival on April 17 in the big-screen, newly renovated Virginia Theater in downtown Champaign.

Also among the 12 features and two shorts to be screened during the five-day "Ebertfest" -- running through April 21 at the Virginia and at the University of Illinois -- will be a kabuki-inspired drama from Japan; a recent silent film from Spain that deserved as much attention as "The Artist," according to Ebert; a sympathetic take on the "mad" painter Vincent Van Gogh, directed by frequent festival guest Paul Cox; and a documentary, which will close the festival, about...