New Documentary on Roger Ebert to Premiere During Final Ebertfest

This April marks a bittersweet milestone for lovers of film and film criticism: The final edition of Roger Ebert’s Film Festival — AKA Ebertfest — in the late critic’s hometown of Champaign, Illinois.

Launched by Ebert himself in 1999 as the “Overlooked Film Festival,” Ebertfest was initially designed as a place for the longtime Chicago Sun-Times critic and Siskel & Ebert host to champion movies he felt deserved more love, and to screen them at the gorgeous Virginia Theatre in Champaign, where Ebert grew up and also studied journalism at the University of Illinois. In 2007, the festival dropped the “Overlooked” name and became “Roger Ebert’s Film Festival” — although pretty much everyone just calls it Ebertfest.

Although Ebert passed away in 2013, his widow, Chaz Ebert, has continued the Ebertfest tradition in his honor since then. Although she previously said 2025’s festival would be the final one, at least in its traditional form, a 2026 Ebertfest was eventually announced, billed as “The Last Dance.”

Fittingly, the program for the farewell festival includes a new documentary about Roger Ebert and his festival dubbed The Last Movie Critic. Directed by Luke Boyce and Michael Moreci, the film features footage compiled from 15 different Ebertfests, and includes appearances from other critics, plus filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Werner Herzog, Tilda Swinton, Ava DuVernay, Joachim Trier, and Ramin Bahrani.

Ahead of The Last Movie Critic’s premiere at Ebertfest, here is its poster, by artist Viktor Miller Gausa.

READ MORE: The 50 Best Siskel & Ebert Reviews for Their 50th Anniversary

Here is The Last Movie Critic’s official synopsis:

This is not another Roger Ebert biography. Written and directed by Luke Boyce and Michael Moreci, and based on the writings of Roger Ebert, The Last Movie Critic follows a young film student who arrives at Ebertfest with a question: what was Roger Ebert’s secret? What made him not just the most celebrated film critic in the world, but a singular figure whose love of cinema felt like a calling? Her search leads her through the festival he built and the films he believed in, guided by Roger himself, whose writing becomes the voice of the film, illuminating his philosophies and his lifelong conviction that movies have the power to make us more empathetic, more curious, and more human.

The Last Movie Critic premieres on April 17 at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Illinois during the final Ebertfest. The festival also includes screenings of Buster Keaton’s The General, Jordan Peele’s Get Out, a performance of the stage production Siskel/Ebert, and a screening of The American President in tribute to the late Rob Reiner.

Tickets for the festival available at the Virginia’s website. You can also see the full lineup of films at RogerEbert.com.