Almost Time for Ebertfest

Roger Ebert will soon be back in Champaign, the place where it all began for him and his film-reviewing self, for his annual film festival. Ebert himself selects the movies; they're all films he likes and thinks deserve another screening or two. Ebertfest happens at the historic Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign, beginning Wednesday, April 27, with the 2010 restored version of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" and ending Sunday, May 1, with "Louder Than a Bomb," a documentary about a 2008 poetry slam in Chicago, directed by Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel, who happens to be the nephew of Ebert's old partner-in-criticism, Gene Siskel.

In between, you'll find everything from Vittorio De Sica's 1952 neorealist classic "Umberto D" to last year's "Tiny Furniture," about a modern young woman drifting through post-college life, with director Lena Durham starring as that young woman. There are lots of different choices if you want to look over the whole schedule.

The Ebertfest website tells us that they have long since sold out all the all-Festival passes, but you can still buy tickets to individual films at the Virginia Theatre box office. Directions, guidelines and ticket info are located here.