Ebertfest tix, 49HrFF flix in mix
The end of October is upon us, fellow culture consumers of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond, so you know what that means! This coming Thursday, November 1, festival passes will go on sale at 8 a.m. for the 15th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival which will take place April 17-21, 2013, at the renovated Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign! According to the Virginia Web site – which is in transition itself; here’s the previous design and the currently-under-construction version – passes can be purchased in person at the box office at 203 W. Park Ave., Champaign, IL, over the phone when you call (217) 356-9063, and through the Internet by visiting the aforementioned pages and selecting the proper “Purchase On-line” button. As always, “Ebertfest” is a presentation of the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Those at UIUC who might be interested in making films would do well to look into this weekend’s 49-Hour Film Festival, a popular challenge offered annually by Illini Film & Video. Teams numbering five members or less will have 49 hours, from 5 p.m. on Friday, November 2, to 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 4, to create a short film incorporating prompts chosen by IFV’s board. (Daylight Savings Time kicks in during the challenge, hence the extra hour.) Judges will then award winners based on various criteria at a public screening to be held within the next few weeks! Time is running out if you want in, however. Make sure to hit this Web link and register your group – which does not have to be made up of IFV members but must be made up of currently enrolled UIUC students – by this Thursday, November 1, or e-mail Christian Loera (loera1 [at] illinois [dot] edu) or Chuntanay Phillips (philli24 [at] illinois [dot] edu) to get on the list!
~ Jason Pankoke
p.s. Don’t even ask us what is playing Ebertfest next year. It’s too early. We don’t know. Dankeshön!