Exciting news on the Ebertfest front (the film festival started by Roger Ebert in his hometown Champagne-Urbana): Guillermo del Toro\u2019s Crimson Peak<\/i> will open the festival<\/a>, and Del Toro himself is the honorary guest. The Fest is held in the Virginia Theatre, a gorgeous old-school (for real) movie palace that seats 1500 people. To see that film on such a huge screen with such a rapt crowd is going to be a great pleasure!<\/p>\n Ebertfest started out as Roger Ebert’s “Overlooked Film Festival,” a 5-day festival hand-curated by Roger himself to highlight films (current and past) that he felt had been overlooked for whatever reason. I was aware of the Overlooked Film Festival long before Ebert reached out to me in 2013 to review for him, because my favorite ex-boyfriend (we’re still good friends) Michael Gilio, wrote\/directed\/starred in a beautiful film called Kwik Stop<\/i>, that Roger chose to present at the 2002 Overlooked Film Festival. Complete with QA with Michael onstage. It was a huge moment for him. Here is Roger’s review of Kwik Stop<\/i><\/a>, here are some things I wrote about it<\/a>, and it was a great pleasure to have the chance to celebrate Roger’s championing of my friend’s film on Rogerebert.com in the “My Favorite Roger” series<\/a>. So to now be a regular at this Fest, as a contributor and participant, is great because once upon a time it honored my friend, a friend who really deserved that kind of championing. (See Kwik Stop<\/i> if you haven’t. Michael is so talented.)<\/p>\n I gave Crimson Peak<\/i> 4 stars in my Ebert review<\/a>, and so much look forward to meeting Guillermo del Toro! Jim Beaver (well known to Deadwood<\/i> and Supernatural<\/i> fans, of course – but absolutely wonderful in Crimson Peak<\/i> as the concerned father) may – slight chance – attend too – if he can swing it. Either way: The onstage QA after the film will be amazing!<\/p>\n The rest of the docket for Ebertfest has not been announced yet, but the Crimson Peak<\/i> news, as well as the news of Del Toro flying in for it, is a thrilling start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Exciting news on the Ebertfest front (the film festival started by Roger Ebert in his hometown Champagne-Urbana): Guillermo del Toro\u2019s Crimson Peak will open the festival, and Del Toro himself is the honorary guest. The Fest is held in the … Continue reading