Once a year (for the last 3 years) I head to Champaign-Urbana for an amazing week of film. Roger Ebert, one of my personal film heroes, puts on a festival for the films that he feels were overlooked in some way or another. This festival often brings attention to films that were never released (like Maryam, which went on to a theatrical release after the festival) and films that nobody really saw when they came out (like 13 Conversations About One Thing, which is playing in this year's festival). The festival also makes it point to promote overlooked formats, like 70mm or ToddAO Vision.

Five days of all things overlooked has turned out to be a successful formula, as this year's festival looks to draw the biggest crowd yet. Many of the filmmakers and actors will be attending to give question and answer sessions with Ebert after the showings. Ticket prices have gone up every year, but nobody seems to mind because they know they will discover special films and have a great time. Please check out the official site and read

Ebert's statement on why this year's films were chosen.

I will be reporting on the festival starting on Wednesday with The Right Stuff. You will be able to find my daily updates on the FilmBrats Hotline, so please check those out. If you are able to attend this year's festival I strongly recommend that you do. It's becoming such a hot ticket that by next year you may have to camp out just to get seats.

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