CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — Ebertfest has announced their last batch of films and guests, officially rounding the schedule for the film festival’s silver jubilee.

The final announcement comes exactly a month after festival officials gave a first look into some of the event’s special guests and film highlights. Now, they are adding documentary “Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi,” a panel with the Little Indian Girl Collective, indie cult classic “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” this year’s Audience Choice film, “Cookie’s Fortune,” and more.

The 2024 festival will take place from April 17 – 20 at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign.

Kaoru Ishibashi, known as renowned multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi, co-directed “Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi.” In this documentary, a media interview comparing modern U.S. immigration crises with the WWII incarceration of Japanese-Americans launches Ishibashi into a personal journey of understanding history and his identity as a bi-cultural American. Ishibashi will be joining Ebertfest to discuss the film.

A panel will be hosted by the Little Indian Girl Collective on “Women Who Embody Revolution Through Storytelling.” Little Indian Girl is a new storytelling collective that focuses on agency and taking control of one’s own stories, as well as the future of revolutionary storytelling through art. At the panel, Indian and Intuit throat singing traditions will also be featured.

One of the most recognizable titles in this year’s lineup is the 2004 sci-fi romantic drama “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” After heartbreak, two individuals undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories in this film directed by Michel Gondry. The film stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.

“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is critically-acclaimed, with many calling it one of the best films of the 2000s. Robert Ebert gave the film four stars: “The wisdom in ‘Eternal Sunshine’ is how it illuminates the way memory interacts with love. We more readily recall pleasure than pain,” he wrote. Ebert praised Charlie Kaufman’s screenplay, who was a guest at the 2010 Ebertfest with his directorial debut, “Synecdoche, New York.” Ebert also praised the story by Michel Gondry, Kaufman, and Pierre Bismuth, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Winslet was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

As for this year’s Audience Choice — Ebertfest fans voted, and now 1999 American noir comedy “Cookie’s Fortune” will be showcased at this year’s Ebertfest. The award-winning film was directed by Robert Altman and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999. Roger Ebert described the film as the “kind of comedy with a lot of laughs, and even more smiles.” It is about a dysfunctional family in small-town Mississippi and the conflicts that arise after the death of their rich aunt.

Author Matthew Singer will also appear as a special Ebertfest guest, signing copies of his book, “Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever.”

For complete details on the filmmakers and musicians attending this year’s festival, see previous updates on ebertfest.com. Here is the full film schedule:

Wednesday, April 17
6:30 p.m. — “Star 80”

Thursday, April 18
11 a.m. — Double short film presentation: “Conducting Life” / “The Light of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument to Ida B. Wells”
3 p.m. — “Stony Island”
8 p.m. — “The Teachers’ Lounge”

Friday, April 19
9 a.m. — “Cookie’s Fortune”
1:30 p.m. — “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” 
4:30 p.m. — “Little Richard: I Am Everything”
9:30 p.m. — “The Best Man”

Saturday, April 20
9:30 a.m. — “Blackmail” featuring the Anvil Orchestra
1 p.m. — “Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi”
4 p.m. — “Albany Road”
9 p.m. — “Man on the Moon”

Festival officials are dedicating the 25th Annual Ebertfest to the festival’s namesake, Roger Ebert, as well as film historian and past Ebertfest guest David Bordwell, who passed on Feb. 29. Bordwell wrote the foreword for two of Roger Ebert’s books, “Awake in the Dark” and “The Great Movies III” and was Jacques Ledoux Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Ebertfest celebrates Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Robert Ebert and the movies he loved. Ebert, an Urbana native and University of Illinois journalism graduate, wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times. It comes as a collaboration between the U of I College of Media and Chaz Ebert, who is Ebert’s widow and CEO of Ebert Digital.

Individual tickets will go on sale April 1. Ebertfest passes can currently be purchased online or by calling the box office at 217-356-9063. For the first time, four-film passes are also available. Four-film passes allow visitors to choose between an Evening Pass or a Saturday Pass.

Festival Sponsors are also being accepted. To sponsor, email Festival Coordinator Molly Cornyn at mcornyn2@illinois.edu.

For more Ebertfest updates and information, visit ebertfest.com and follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram and X.