For the previous twenty-five years, Chaz Ebert and the Faculty of Media on the College of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have hosted the Ebertfest Movie Pageant on the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Illinois. Roger Ebert was the primary Movie Critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for movie criticism. He held his colleagues in esteem. Since his loss of life, Chaz Ebert and Pageant Director Nate Kohn have continued a custom of inviting acclaimed movie critics and students to take part at Ebertfest. This 12 months’s competition is devoted to the reminiscence of Roger Ebert and David Bordwell.
Under, in alphabetical order (following the names of Nate Kohn and Chaz Ebert), is a listing of a number of the movie critics and students who’re attending as Presenters:
NATE KOHN
Dr. Nathaniel (“Nate”) Kohn is professor within the Grady Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication on the College of Georgia, competition director of Roger Ebert’s Movie Pageant, director of the College of Georgia MFA program in screenwriting, director of the College of Georgia Cannes Movie Pageant and Cannes Lions Examine Overseas Applications, and an award-winning producer.
Dr. Kohn produced Zulu Daybreak starring Burt Lancaster and Peter O’Toole; the impartial characteristic Somebodies, which premiered at Sundance (2006); Rain, the Bahamas’ first indigenous characteristic which premiered at Toronto (2007) and on Showtime (2010); the characteristic movie Bottleworld (2010); the feature-length documentary Bayou Maharajah which premiered at SXSW (2013); he was Government Producer on the BET tv collection Somebodies (2008); he produced the Emmy Award-winning quick documentary Ebertfest 2012; and he was Government Producer on The 73rd, 74th and seventy fifth Annual Peabody Awards Specials for PivotTV/Participant Media (2014, 2015 and 2016).
He has served on juries and mentored screenwriters on the Atlanta, Hawaii, Kerala, Sizzling Springs and Bahamas Worldwide Movie Festivals. He’s the writer of quite a few scholarly articles and of the guide Pursuing Hollywood: Seduction, Obsession, Dread (AltaMira Press, 2006). And he’s a producer on the impartial characteristic movie No person Needs To Be Right here, No person Needs To Go away at the moment in manufacturing in Georgia and France.
CHAZ EBERT
Chaz Ebert is the Co-founder, Producerand Host of Ebertfest. Please get pleasure from this interview with Chaz previewing the twenty fifth anniversary of Ebertfest, courtesy of Prairie Hearth.
BRENDA BUTLER
Brenda Butler’s skilled journalism profession spans from the historic Johnson Publishing’s Jet Journal to the Chicago Tribune, holding positions as a reporter, copy editor, part editor, newsroom supervisor, and senior options editor.
As a witness to and participant within the sectionalizing of American newspapers within the Nineteen Nineties, she held quite a few modifying positions on the Tribune, changing into the primary African American on the paper to carry the place of affiliate managing editor, the place she was concerned within the conception and improvement of award-winning newspaper sections and magazines, and co-managed a workers of greater than 100 reporters, editors, and assist workers.
Whereas on the Tribune, she gained expertise in TV broadcasting when she wrote, produced, and moderated a 13-week collection for Chicago cable TV titled “Playback: Views from an African American Perspective.”
As an educator, she was the manager director of Columbia Hyperlinks, a journalism, information literacy, and management improvement program for underserved youth in Chicago public excessive colleges, which was then housed at Columbia Faculty Chicago.
Due to a three-year grant from the Ebert Basis, her program graduated the primary set of highschool Ebert Fellows, who discovered learn how to see and critique movies. The stellar work of those teenagers was subsequently printed on rogerebert.com.
Butler served a few years as a board member for the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Journalists-Chicago Chapter, together with a three-term presidency. Underneath her management, the group was named the nationwide NABJ Chapter of the 12 months, one other first.
Butler earned a bachelor’s diploma in English literature and inventive writing from Knox Faculty in Galesburg, In poor health., and graduated from the Maynard Institute for Journalism Training administration program at Kellogg’s Graduate College of Administration at Northwestern College, Evanston, In poor health.
She is an avid and lifelong movie lover, bicyclist, traveler, and theatergoer.
NELL MINOW
Nell Minow is honored to be the Contributing Editor at rogerebert.com. She additionally writes critiques at Moviemom.com and seems on the radio every week to speak about new releases. Her books embody The Film Mother’s Information to Household Motion pictures and 101 Should-See Film Moments. Her husband lets her have 20 films on her all-time high 10 record, and in her spare time, she is a lawyer.
MICHAEL PHILLIPS
Michael Phillips is the movie critic of the Chicago Tribune, appointed in 2006 after serving because the Tribune theater critic since 2002. Beforehand, he labored as a theater critic for the Los Angeles Instances, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and the Dallas Instances-Herald. He began out as arts editor and movie critic for the Twin Cities weekly Metropolis Pages, whereas serving as movie critic for Minnesota Public Radio. Since 2015, Phillips has been the advisor/mentor for the U of I Faculty of Media Roger Ebert Fellowship and had the glory to co-host the nationally syndicated TV collection “On the Motion pictures,” first reverse Richard Roeper and, later, A.O. Scott. He additionally launched 100+ movies, from “Citizen Kane” to “Whole Recall,” on the common goodwill machine generally known as Turner Traditional Motion pictures.
ERIC PIERSON
Eric Pierson is a professor of Communication on the College of San Diego. He has been a part of the school at USD for twenty-four years. As a scholar, he has written on a wide range of matters that embody movie distribution within the Nineteen Seventies, hate group recruiting through the Web, movie competition pedagogy, minority photos in media, and tv historical past. His work has appeared in each the scholarly and widespread press.
His aim is to create scholarship that engages in conversations with those that are each inside and out of doors of the academy. He’s drawn to conversations specializing in the methods during which the enterprise practices of the movie and tv industries form and current content material related to problems with race, class, gender, and marginalized teams.”
He may be seen within the documentaries Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise and Fall of the Spook Who Sat by The Door and Cowl Story: The Press Your Luck Scandal. In 2018, he collaborated with Academy Award winner Ruth E. Carter on Heroes and Sheroes: The Artwork and Affect of Ruth E. Carter in Black Cinema, a touring exhibition of her costume designs; his movie histories accompanied the designs.
Eric holds two levels from the College of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a BFA in Nice Arts, and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Communications Analysis.
CARLA RENATA
Carla Renata, aka The Curvy Critic, is thrilled to return to Ebertfest. Her critiques and/or op-eds have been printed in Selection, The Wrap, The Cherry Picks, Sundance.org, Sotheby’s, and RogerEbert.com.
She is a extremely sought-after host/moderator who had the privilege to host a night of The Black Expertise on Movie for Turner Traditional Motion pictures sponsored by AAFCA, in addition to a frequent Visitor Movie Professional contributor for Fox 11 LA, Good Day LA, NBC Information, REELZ Channel, The Stream Workforce, ITV, BBC, Dwell Now on Fox and Fox Soul’s The Black Report.
A graduate of Howard College, Carla is a proud member of AAFCA (African American Movie Critics Affiliation), (OAFFC), The On-line Affiliation of Feminine Movie Critics, Tomato-meter accredited critic on Rotten Tomatoes and (CCA) Critics Alternative Affiliation, the place she serves as a member of their Board of Administrators and Co-President of their Documentary Department.
Her award-winning podcast, The Curvy Critic with Carla Renata, has garnered over 13 million views and streams stay weekly. It options critiques, information, and interviews with expertise in entrance and behind the digital camera.
TODD RENDLEMAN
Todd Rendleman is the Director of Movie Research and Professor of Communication at Seattle Pacific College the place he teaches movie artwork, historical past, and criticism. He’s the writer of Rule of Thumb: Ebert on the Motion pictures (Bloomsbury, 2012) and an alumnus of the College of Illinois. He deposited his dissertation the morning of the primary day of the primary Ebertfest in April 1999. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
MATT SINGER
Matt Singer is the editor and movie critic of ScreenCrush and a member of the New York Movie Critics Circle. He’s additionally the writer of a number of books, together with Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Modified Motion pictures Eternally and Marvel’s Spider-Man: From Superb to Spectacular. He lives in Brooklyn together with his spouse and daughters.
DANA STEVENS
Dana Stevens is the movie critic at Slate and a co-host of the Slate Tradition Gabfest, the journal’s weekly tradition podcast. She has additionally written for the New York Instances, the Washington Publish, the Atlantic and Bookforum. Her first guide, Digital camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Daybreak of Cinema and the Invention of the Twentieth Century, got here out in 2022 and is now out in paperback.
BRIAN TALLERICO
Brian Tallerico, the Editor of RogerEbert.com, has lined tv, movie, video video games, Blu-ray/DVD, interviews, and leisure information for twenty years on-line, on radio, and in print.
As well as, he’s a TV/streaming author for Vulture.com & The Playlist, and freelancer for a number of retailers, together with The New York Instances. He additionally serves as President of the Chicago Movie Critics Affiliation, co-produces the Chicago Critics Movie Pageant each Might, and is a daily visitor on radio stations and podcasts.
You may comply with him on Twitter @Brian_Tallerico. Learn his solutions to our Film Love Questionnaire right here.