C-U Blogfidential

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

7/7: Keenan Dailey (director/producer, BRIM, Visage Entertainment, Champaign-Urbana, IL/Atlanta, GA)
7/9: Jessie Seitz (special effects make-up, SURVIVOR GIRLS, Half Fool Motion Pictures, Birmingham, AL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Many moons ago, I was having a drink in downtown Normal at The Coffeehouse & Deli with a graduate of Illinois State University named Peter James Zielinski. He had formed a troupe called Dependent Films with his friend Christopher Denham, who attended the University of Illinois at the same time he was at ISU, to make their own digital video projects apart from class. When I asked him about the name, given the separate-from-Hollywood mystique that had been built up around the concept of “independent film” through the Nineties, Zielinski told me, and I’m paraphrasing his point a quarter of a century later, that almost no film is independently created because it takes a team to make it happen. The logic stands to reason, even if we consider a handful of friends with a camera and a pocket change budget getting together on a random weekend; they all have a part to play in the common effort to tell their story. When working on a larger scale with more at stake, production groups from the amateur to the A-list rely on their own devices as well as assistance from outside their ranks, and that often includes financial help.

The only Dependent Film that I remember seeing is the one I included in the first independent film show I organized in Champaign-Urbana, hosted at the spot formerly known as The Highdive (now The Venue CU) and featured during the springtime event formerly known as The Octopus Gallery Walk (now the Boneyard Arts Festival), a spoof of the SURVIVOR reality television show called S.U.R.V.I.V.O.R. I’m hard pressed to recall what the acronym stood for, but I think a dance-off on the beach figured into the silliness and its “contestants” were all, tra la, dependent on one other in the outcome. Despite the current status of MFHQ Deux as an outlier in our film culture du C-U, I still take to heart the truism posed by Zielinski, who went on to become a photographer and retouch artist for Getty Images and Paramount Television, and on behalf of Denham, who became a playwright in New York City as well as an actor in features like OPPENHEIMER and BEING THE RICARDOS. Every profession that we’ve mentioned just now is dependent on collaboration and skill between peers to make the creativity click and artistry soar.

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On this Independence Day, we’ll suggest to our dearest philanthropists a handful of options where their money might go to good use in the service of local creators and groups who depend on peripheral support. This can include a pledge, with or without perks, towards the post-production campaign of Horror Dadz Productions’ THE FAIRFIELD COUNTY FOUR, directed by Josh Bruckner of Watseka. or Acrostar Productions’ PERFECT SOUL, directed by the Chicagoan S. J. Hermann and staged incognito in the Princeton area with more filming to go. (Apparently, their “late innings” crowdfunding push is not yet live; watch this space for an announcement.) This can also be a donation towards the initial production budget of Swede Films’ BIG MUDDY, for which an Indiegogo campaign will be launched shortly. This can even involve a gift to one or more nonprofit entities that bring quality culture and unique experience to our communities such as the Virginia Theatre, an outlet of the Champaign Park District, and the Pens to Lens screenwriting competition, a program of the 40 North 88 West arts council in Champaign County. Look closely and listen carefully to what is happening around us for opportunities to chip in, friends and neighbors, and remember the value you add does not necessarily have to add up to a dollar amount.

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

In recent weeks, we’ve shared updates about Acrostar Productions’ current run of fantasy/horror pictures – PERFECT SOUL, RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, NIGHT OF THE DEAD SORORITY BABES – including in the last three Images of the Week entries, so, what else can we share about the Chicagoland micro-studio? Filming has been taking place for new episodes of their web series, SPLINTERED LOVE, in which the company’s actress and make-up effects artist Beth Metcalf stars as “Cupidity,” a spinner of dark relationship stories with TALES FROM THE CRYPT-style endings of moral comeuppance. The second season finale, “Leap of Faith,” is about to go into production and will feature Leonard Peterson III, Joanne Ferbrache, and Steve Morris in a story of lost loves and prices paid; the previous outings of SPLINTERED LOVE, many with familiar Acro-stars in their casts, can be viewed up on YouTube.

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Acrostar producers S. J. Hermann and Ann Myrna, when the former is not writing fiction and screenplays and the latter auditioning for and acting in indie productions from other creative teams, are busy cutting together footage for PERFECT SOUL and fulfilling their distribution commitments with BayView Entertainment. SORORITY BABES is now streaming online and available in print thanks to this arrangement, which we discussed in last week’s Calendar, and CORN ZOMBIES 2 is expected to follow in the coming months. Previously introduced to online platforms by BayView were ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, the Sixties-set origin story of the groovy and starchy undead, and THEY CAME BACK FROM SOMEWHERE, a charming retro sci-fi sequel to the studio’s first full-length venture, IT CAME FROM SOMEWHERE. This movie has inspired today’s key visual, given the holiday at hand and its permanent association with the UFO invasion epic INDEPENDENCE DAY, a smash hit back in 1996.

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When watching CAME BACK for the first time earlier this year, Ye Ed couldn’t help but notice a funny anomaly in an early scene where thrift shop owner Miss Withers (Michele Hefner) encounters the lovelorn alien warrior Luma (Jake Yanko), returned to Earth and seeking his human soul mate Patty (Magdalena Conway). Behind Withers on the wall, one can clearly see the structure closest in nature to a UFO in all of downstate Illinois – the State Farm Center on the University of Illinois campus – and the movie never takes advantage of it for a clever aside or joke! “Aaaaaauuuugh,” blurted Charlie Brown. In time, he realized it would have been a distraction in the storytelling and possibly called undue attention to an anachronism; SOMEWHERE 1 and 2 ostensibly take place in the 1950s while the sports and concert arena, originally called Assembly Hall, did not open until the spring of 1963. We decided to muzzle our inner Art Bell and refrain from manufacturing a conspiracy out of it, since we’re simply happy to see it … hovering there.

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Champaign Public Library, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* presents “Crash Course: Lenses” (7/7, 7 p.m., Robeson Pavilion Room C)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, MALICE (in Mandarin with English sub), 28 YEARS LATER, BALLERINA, ELIO (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, LILO & STITCH, ME3AN 2.0, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (7/4 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (7/7, 7 p.m.), ABRAHAM’S BOYS: A DRACULA STORY, SKILLHOUSE, SUPERMAN (7/10 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, 28 YEARS LATER, ELIO (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, LILO & STITCH, MATERIALISTS, ME3AN 2.0, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, SINNERS (7/4 on), THIS IS SPINAL TAP 41st anniversary (7/5, 4 p.m.; 7/6, 4 & 7 p.m.; 7/7, 7 p.m.), DIRTY DANCING (7/6, 3 & 7 p.m.; 7/9, 7 p.m.), SUPERMAN sneak preview (7/8, 7 p.m., IMAX), SKILLHOUSE, SUPERMAN (7/10 on)

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. THE WOMAN IN THE YARD (7/10, 9 p.m., free)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series and D-BAT Champaign present THE SANDLOT special event (7/5, 12 p.m. Park Avenue outdoor activities, 2 p.m. screening)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

6/27: Eric Spudic (owner, Spudic’s Movie Empire, Los Angeles, CA)
6/27: Joe Sherlock (writer/director, THE HAUNTING OF HEATHER BLACK, Skullface Astronaut, Corvallis, OR)
6/30: Drea Aarons (fine artist, Drea Aarons Art, Champaign, IL)
7/1: Michael Juvinall (editor, Horror Patch website, Channahon, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Let’s talk movie viewing in this Report, dearest readers. The Pens to Lens program, devoted to guiding the youth in our community to explore and learn the craft of screen storytelling, has announced that tickets to their upcoming gala screening on Saturday, August 16, are now available for purchase at the Virginia Theatre website and box office. Believe it or not, this brings the sum total film bookings on Park Street in 2025 to … five: “Ebertfest” and DROP in April, JAWS in May, THE SANDLOT a week from now on Saturday, July 5, and P2L, with no other presentations in the ballpark listed as of this writing. Yes, we remember the venue was closed from January to mid-April for upkeep and, whew, at least they haven’t completely cut out the screen entertainment like the Fischer Theatre of Danville so, hrm, we know you know how to politely inquire and demonstrate renewed interest. Sadly, this also implies the “Arthouse Experience” promotion is likely over after a three-year run. We’ll have to wait and see how the Virginia handles its screen offerings to come as they’re clearly stressing live performances and events for now.

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In serious need of patronage and funding is the Chicago Underground Film Festival, one of the many arts organizations nationwide to have its National Endowment for the Arts funding cancelled in supremely knee-jerk fashion earlier this year; passes for the longest-running showcase of its kind in the United States, scheduled to hold court September 17-21 at the ACX Harper Theater-Hyde Park, can be bought through their website for a reasonable $50 while donations can also be made to help their ongoing mission. We’re voting hard for the Windy City and beyond to support the continued efforts of CUFF director Bryan Wendorf and his crew in the face of an administration that is hell-bent on making life as uncomfortable as possible for American artists and creatives – and, well, all of us – who choose not to embrace their blinding white brand of “patriotism.” Keep making, saying, doing, and being you, friends.

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Recently opening a call for entries is the Screaming Mad Film Festival, a welcome sideshow of the annual Dark History and Horror Con that will haunt the Orpheum Champaign on November 8-9, and the submission window is live through October 10; be aware there is an early bird deadline of Thursday, July 31, so you might want to visit their FilmFreeway account and find out what the perks are for turning in your work sooner rather than later. And finally, we didn’t preview or get to attend the Kevin Smith-Jason Mewes show at the Virginia this past Wednesday like a fair amount of our former neighbors did as evidenced on the socials, but it was nice to see these Indiewood favorites stop in the C-U for their tour; we also really appreciated Smith’s post-show nod to the late Roger Ebert while he sat out front with the popular bronze likeness, sculpted by the artist Rick Harney and installed in 2014. Good feels, man.

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

Ye Ed has apparently decreed that Acrostar Productions, LLC, will figure into a month’s worth of “Images” entries, and that is A-OK with us. Today’s gallery also serves as a belated follow-up to a Report we filed in late April where we went over several movies about to be released on physical media and elsewhere that happened to sport a Confidential pedigree. Since then, the whole bunch has been made available and what we didn’t manage to spit out fast enough was that, while skimming the online sites at the time to confirm details about those titles, we found several more videos to tell you about. Gotta catch ‘em all!

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Let’s begin with the witchy horror-comedy, NIGHT OF THE DEAD SORORITY BABES, which the Acrostar team produced on the shores of Lake Decatur down in Macon County prior to launching both PERFECT SOUL and RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES. Stacked with a gaggle of scream queens and a frisky sense of humor, BABES was released as a BD-R on March 25 by BayView Entertainment after the label had already found streaming homes for the ladies and their deadly pledging. Included on the disc is a few minutes’ worth of behind-the-scenes smart phone footage and that’s it for special features.

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UNTITLED FOOTAGE, the full-length sequel to the “Illinois Valley Murder Tapes” portion of Horror Dadz Productions’ duology, SPLIT SCREEN, has also been assigned to haunt BD-R as of April 29. Joshua Brucker’s follow-up was filmed in the Watseka area like the original and involves the sister of one of the original characters who attempts to learn what really happened with the Claw Hammer Killer and unwittingly walks right into danger. 105ive Films handled the release of FOOTAGE as they did another Horror Dadz adventure, THE WOODMEN, and the intense flick can also be watched on a brand-new service devoted to first-person genre films and shows, Found TV. Brucker announced on social media that his group’s latest found-footage horror, THE FAIRFIELD COUNTY FOUR, has wrapped on the East Coast as of this week; a werewolf tangles with mere mortals as well as Joe Bob Briggs in the Connecticut woods!

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We have reason to bring up LGBTQ+ themed indies as well. Specialist label Wolfe Video, which used to count the C-U produced “dance family” comedy LEADING LADIES among its roster, seems to be winding down its in-house wares in favor of streaming if one looks carefully at their website. However, they have been re-releasing through merchants some of their titles in the DVD-R format such as the 2010 lesbian drama BLOOMINGTON; originally filmed on location in Bloomington, Indiana, the trade headlines about its production at the time kept throwing off Ye Ed since it wasn’t in reference to Bloomington, Illinois. The feature, directed by the veteran television editor Fernanda Cardoso, is a story of student-professor romance in a sleepy Midwest college town with Sarah Stouffer and Alison McAtee in the leads.

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And, made available as a DVD-R just two weeks ago by Freestyle Digital Media is the feature SPARK, directed by Nicholas Giuricich and starring the talented Theo Germaine as Aaron, who must navigate a recurring time loop and transforming relationships with an intimately close friend, Dani (Vico Ortiz), and a desirable fling who becomes something more, Trevor (Danell Leyva). Germane talked about their performance in this film and in another challenging work, DESIRE LINES, along with efforts by the separate productions to portray nonbinary and transmasculine characters with a compelling focus, in early 2024 via the online magazine Xtra. Formerly a resident of the C-U and a welcome participant in our arts scene, Germaine has received a good amount of critical notice since making the segue from stage to screen in projects like the Peacock thriller THEY/THEM and television series like THE POLITICIAN on Netflix and WORK IN PROGRESS on Apple TV. We certainly wish them continued success and a full recovery in their health.

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

40 Years Ago … Saturday, June 1, 1985: Geoff Merritt opens the Campustown media rental store, That’s Rentertainment, in Johnstown Center, at first stressing a large library of music LPs and CDs before changing course to concentrate on home video. The comprehensive offerings on their shelves, inviting and helpful “Rentarians” behind the front counter, customer-friendly memberships and “Renter Blocks,” a willingness to quickly incorporate the progression of products from VHS to DVD to LaserDisc to Blu-ray, and a personal touch scattered throughout in the form of decorative ephemera, hand-drawn section markers, and more would endear the shop to movie lovers far and wide. After bouncing around the building for their first decade, Rentertainment ultimately settled on the location at 512 E. John Street in Champaign. A second location would open in 1998 next to Caffe Paradiso in Urbana and only last a few years. Facebook [R] [Rev. 6/29/25]

10 Years Ago … Monday, June 1, 2015: Owner and local small business advocate Geoff Merritt announces that his Campustown staple, That’s Rentertainment, will immediately start selling off its inventory in anticipation of closing down. Thousands of home videos and miscellany would be adopted by loyal customers and community members, hundreds more titles would be integrated into the holdings of the University of Illinois Library system, and the remaining thousands would migrate over to the “rec room” of Merritt’s other location, hidden on Griggs Street in downtown Urbana, which houses the Parasol Label Group and the Itty Bitty Bike Shop. Their flagship location at the corner of John and Sixth streets in Champaign eventually had its front door locked for good at the end of Sunday, August 16.

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
F1 THE MOVIE, HOT MILK*, ME3AN 2.0, 28 YEARS LATER, BRIDE HARD*, ELIO (animation), BALLERINA, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, LILO & STITCH, MATERIALISTS, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (6/27 on), JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH (7/2 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
F1 THE MOVIE, ME3AN 2.0, 28 YEARS LATER, BRIDE HARD*, ELIO (animation), BALLERINA, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, LILO & STITCH, MATERIALISTS, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, SINNERS (6/27 on), UFC 317: Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliviera, more (mixed martial arts) (6/28, 9 p.m., simulcast), GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) (6/28, 2 & 7:30 p.m.; 6/29, 3 & 7 p.m.; 7/2, 7 p.m.), JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH (7/2 on) *single screenings daily

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. THE PATRIOT (7/3, 9 p.m., free)

@ Prairie Farm/Centennial Park, Champaign, IL
Champaign Park District presents “Moo-vie Nights at Prairie Farm” feat. OPEN SEASON; (6/27, 8 p.m., free)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Filing early on this week’s Report since Ye Ed is attending a wedding, so wethinks another textbook edition will fit the bill just fine. To start, Amy Penne of Smile Politely has once again delivered in the quest to document the current state of our film culture du C-U; her recent article discusses a significant aspect of the groundwork that Shatterglass Films, Flyover Film Studios, and their partners, such as Parkland College in this instance, have been laying for a sustainable production hub here in Champaign County, and that is a program to train a workforce of local residents to competently handle the necessary below-the-line jobs on a set or at the soundstage being developed up in Rantoul. Next, we caught a social media pitch by Ben Harl of Silver Compass Studios in Decatur for casting a proof-of-concept reel his team will be filming this summer for THE DARK ONES, a horror-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods story that can’t help but suggest Lovecraftian overtones; follow this dedicated Facebook account to get future announcements about casting and more. And, yes, we noticed, but the concept art is temporary in both cases according to the respective filmmakers on their own socials and will be replaced with appropriate visuals in due time…

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Then, we also caught fleeting glimpses on social media related to the surprise indie DARK SOUL RIVER, filmed in the late spring at Flyover and elsewhere, and decided to investigate; this Instagram account is promoting Vijay M. Rajan’s serial killer chamber piece, introducing us to the primary cast members and several behind-the-camera talents, while this Internet Movie Database entry has a selection of behind-the-scenes photographs that may be our dearest readers’ first look at movie sets constructed in the Flyover facilities, formerly one of the Octave Chanute Air Force Base hangars. To close, Mr. JaPan had a nice chat at the location shoot of Acrostar Productions’ PERFECT SOUL with Michele Hefner, a resident of Peoria and dedicated stage mother for her actress daughter Delilah “Dee” Hefner, who is putting on a producer’s hat for an upcoming episodic saga called PEORIA JOAN; the all-ages melding of Dora and Indiana Jones will star the younger Hefner as “Joni,” also known as “Peoria Joan,” who goes on a quest to keep the ruthless contractor “Victor Crane,” played by veteran Illinois stage actor Dave Krostal, from destroying the valuable history and secrets ingrained in Peoria River country. Some casting has been revealed on Facebook and additional roles need to be filled as detailed on this website. Go, Joan!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

In today’s outing, inspired by Ye Ed’s set visit and brief participation in the filming of PERFECT SOUL this past week, we’ll share yet another example of promotional artwork for a project in the early goings, although S. J. Hermann’s adaptation of his own novel is clearly much further along than either THE DARK ONES or John Isberg and Swede Films’ BIG MUDDY. Debuted on Facebook at the Acrostar Productions fan group back in April, the devilishly eerie creation is by the artist Erik W. Wilson and based on a picture of lead actress Chloe Lutz taken by the movie’s director of photography, Ashley Hefner. (And, yes, you noticed; the Hefners are all related and very active in downstate filmmaking!) Immediately below, you will find an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek at Lutz in costume as “Nikki Strange,” makeup effects artist Beth Metcalf, and Hefner snapped by yours truly in between takes of a pivotal sermon sequence. We’ll soon share more images with you in service of articles recounting the making of PERFECT SOUL this year – the production has a second round of filming scheduled at their rural Illinois location in the fall – and RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, which is on the cusp of commercial release through BayView Entertainment after its filming last year in Champaign County. Hopefully, it will be an interesting read about the life cycles of low-budget independent film creation as seen through the Acrostar lens, and we thank their producer Ann Myrna for being generous in accommodating us to experience what they do.

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NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
28 YEARS LATER, BRIDE HARD, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN 20th anniversary (re-release), ELIO (animation), SITAARE ZAMEEN PAR* (in Hindi with English sub), BALLERINA, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES*, LILO & STITCH, MATERIALISTS, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (6/20 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY (animé) (6/22, 4 & 7 p.m., 6/24, 7 p.m., English sub; 6/23, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (6/23, 7 p.m.), F1 THE MOVIE sneak preview (6/25, 7 p.m.), F1 THE MOVIE, ME3AN 2.0 (6/26 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
28 YEARS LATER, BRIDE HARD, ELIO (animation), BALLERINA, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, THE LIFE OF CHUCK, LILO & STITCH, MATERIALISTS, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING. THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (6/20 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY (animé) (6/22, 4 & 7 p.m., 6/24, 7 p.m., English sub; 6/23, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), TOP GUN (6/22, 3 & 7 p.m.; 6/25, 7 p.m.), “‘Critical Role’ Live” (role-playing game competition) (6/25, 7 p.m., simulcast from Sydney, Australia), F1 THE MOVIE (6/26 on)

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. A MINECRAFT MOVIE (6/26, 9 p.m., free)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
J-GEE & T Presents present “Jay & Silent Bob Aural Sects Tour” starring Kevin Smith & Jay Mewes (6/25, 7:30 p.m.)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

6/18: Perry C. Morris (vice president, board of trustees, Champaign County Historical Museum, Champaign, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Just some quick hits for this Report because Mr. JaPan is running on fumes and nervous anticipation. (We’ll explain the happier aspects of that in a future filing.) First, Champaign Movie Makers is meeting on Monday, June 16, 7 p.m., at their home away from home and film sets, the Esquire Lounge in downtown Champaign, where you’ll be guaranteed to hear all about Pens to Lens movies in the works. Second, our friend Bob Zimmerman of R.A.Z. Films has been on the scene this last week videotaping the practice sessions and sightseeing of the returning members of REO Speedwagon, just like seemingly every other media outlet in the C-U, leading up to the band’s charity concert at the UI State Farm Center tomorrow night, Saturday, June 14; we’ll eventually learn what REO and R.A.Z.’s plans for the footage will be. Third, the Illinois Film Office has announced the annual Shortcuts short film competition for Illinois-based students and young people age 22 and under with a submission deadline of August 31. Unlike in the past where the end goal for entrants was to be selected and possibly awarded at a Shortcuts screening, the current iteration is promising the overall Shortcuts winner will play (and a few other Shortcuts films might play) at an event scheduled for November in Rockford that is called 815HORTS and is casting its own net for content worldwide; you can read more about that at the website of what we take is the promotions and marketing firm behind 815HORTS, Plus Seven Company. Fourth and finally, Acrostar Productions has announced the horror-adventure they filmed covertly in the Champaign County outskirts the summer of last year, RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, is completed and the assets delivered to their distributor, BayView Entertainment, which will soon offer the film on streaming sites and BD-R media. Corntastic!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

What, we never shared the supremely moody poster for RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES with you? Let’s remedy that right now! Co-directed by Mia Katz, who has contributed to several Acrostar sets in various capacities and acted in the predecessor now available to view on Tubi and elsewhere, ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, and S. J. Hermann, the Acrostar founder and horror-crime novelist whose writings have formed the basis for most of the company’s films to date, RETURN is set in the Seventies and follows an all-new cast of characters as they navigate the heartland of America invaded by the corn-fed undead. In a previous Calendar, we shared some early stills from the various scenes filmed by the cast and crew of RETURN when they were working in east central Illinois last September. Your humble editor, who visited the set during that active time, is about to do it again as less a wallflower and more a direct participant on Acrostar’s newest feature, PERFECT SOUL, which began production this week and continues for at least one more week on location before a hiatus. He’ll tell you how it went in due time.

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (6/16, 7 p.m.)

@ Illini Union Ballroom, UIUC, Urbana, IL
The African Kinship Reunion (TAKiR) present BOUND: AFRICANS VS. AFRICAN-AMERICANS documentary screening w/filmmaker Peres Owino (6/14, 5 p.m., free w/reservation) Tickets

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, MATERIALISTS, THE UNHOLY TRINITY, BALLERINA, BRING HER BACK, DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (6/13 on), DOGMA 25th anniversary (re-release) (6/13-6/15), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (6/16, 7 p.m.), SINNERS (6/19, 7 p.m.), 28 YEARS LATER, ELIO (animation) (6/19 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, THE LIFE OF CHUCK, MATERIALISTS, THE UNHOLY THREE, BALLERINA, BRING HER BACK, DANGEROUS ANIMALS*, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, FRIENDSHIP*, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, THE LAST RODEO*, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, THE RITUAL*, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (6/13 on), RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (6/14, 2:30 p.m.; 6/15, 3 & 7 p.m.; 6/18, 7 p.m.), FINDING FAITH (faith film) (6/16-6/17, 7 p.m.), “‘Critical Role’ Live” (role-playing game competition) (6/19, 7 p.m., simulcast from Sydney, Australia), 28 YEARS LATER, ELIO (animation) (6/19 on) *single screenings daily except for THUNDERBOLTS*

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. SNOW WHITE (6/19, 9 p.m., free)

@ Prairie Farm/Centennial Park, Champaign, IL
Champaign Park District presents “Moo-vie Nights at Prairie Farm” feat. CHICKEN LITTLE (6/13, 8 p.m., free)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

6/10: Allen Richards (publisher, B-Independent.com, VA)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Now that we’re back in this space, Ye Ed tells us that we should Report. So, Report we shall. First up is the obvious one – there’s a new feature film that is currently on location in Piatt and Ford counties, as many of you have probably seen by now on social media and through the local press. CHILI FINGER is described as a dark comedy in previous articles by The Hollywood Reporter and Reel Chicago and is directed by Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad of Beyond the Porch, LLC, in Los Angeles, who are teaming with the LA post-production house Gold Tree Studios on the picture. Written by Helstad, the story is about a woman played by Judy Greer who claims to find a human finger in her order at a fast-food restaurant and attempts to cash in on it; John Goodman, Sean Astin, and Bryan Cranston also have roles in the film, the rights for which will be sold internationally at the American Film Market and so on once it’s finished. There is no word that we’ve found about how long the production will be in the area or if they might hit the C-U, but the residents and city leaders of Monticello and Paxton are clearly loving the limelight so far.

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While it will be some time before CHILI FINGER can be seen, we have mere days to wait before we can start watching the television series REVIVAL, a pet project of prolific indie producer Aaron B. Koontz and our own Luke Boyce of Shatterglass Films and Flyover Film Studios, on SyFy. Adapted from the acclaimed series by writer Tim Seely, artist Mike Norton, and publisher Image Comics, the Canada-lensed show will debut next Thursday, June 12, at 9 p.m. CST on the cable channel and each episode will be available to stream on Peacock one week after its debut. The show follows a rural Wisconsin police officer played by Melanie Scrofano, star of SyFy’s previous hit WYNONNA EARP, as she witnesses the phenomena of the recently deceased coming back to life including her sister. Executive producers and showrunners Boyce and Koontz talked with Tara Bennett of SyFy Wire about switching gears from an independently mounted, feature-length treatment to serialized storytelling for the NBC sister network and briefly brought up REVEALER, the religion-and-end-times thriller that Shatterglass and The Line Film Co. made covertly in the C-U during a low ebb in pursuing this project. REVIVAL also stars David James Elliott, Romy Weltman, and Stephen Ogg along with Chicago native Phil Brooks, famously known as CM Punk.

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Finally, John Isberg of Swede Films in Champaign announced during our hiatus that, despite all signs leading many to believe that FINAL SUMMER PART II was on deck, his next production will actually be a horror-comedy called BIG MUDDY and take its inspiration from the regional legends of sasquatch-type creatures. Isberg and team are gearing up for a late summer shoot this year and will launch an Indiegogo campaign on July 3, right after they venture to southern Illinois and partake in the annual Big Muddy Monster Fest of Murphrysboro on Saturday, June 21. According to the Internet Movie Database, Isberg has already cast a good group of Midwest indie horror regulars for BIG MUDDY such as FINAL SUMMER actors Myles Valentine, Seth Boyer, and Bishop Stevens, ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES and GRINNERS standout Magdalena Conway, STRANGER THINGS veteran and UIUC professor Aaron Muñoz, BLACK MOLD’s Andrew Bailes, and Nathan Brandon Gaik, the towering talent from Bloomington-Normal who will portray “Big Muddy” akin to his turn as the title fiend in Paul A. Brooks’ HUNTING FOR THE HAG, albeit with a more mellow vibe. Also set to appear are Ari Lehman from the original FRIDAY THE 13TH and Oliver Robbins from the original POLTERGEIST. Look for more “Big” news when we get it in…

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

Well, that was inspiring to see. Your humble editor escaped the house on the edge of an American small town for a spell and attended the first Savoy Lumière at the Savoy 16 + IMAX over the weekend. I only was able to sit in for three shows, but I saw good things and said hello to a few familiar faces. It will be of great interest to see how this endeavor matures and the C-U responds over time. An admirably devoted Daily Illini student writer, Anna Williams, went as well and filed multiple reports on all days of the event starting with this one. Amy Penne has also had the Lumière pulse and shared this notice at Smile Politely on the Audience Award winners tallied up after the screening of SALLY. Below are a few pictures I took on Saturday, May 31, before and during the last show of the day, THE OTHER PEOPLE, a very low-key spooker about a family who gets more than they bargained for in their new home. Seated at the check-in table is Thomas Nicol, who has coordinated with the Savoy 16 in the past on behalf of his sadly departed Krampusnacht Freeky Film Festival, and sitting up front with festival director Nat Dykeman in Theater 8 is the festival guest Chad McClarnon who directed, co-wrote, and co-produced THE OTHER PEOPLE for his company, Best Part Productions of Nashville, Tennessee. We’re still going to look at a few aspects of the Lumière and cinema-going in the C-U over the next few weeks before moving on, so stay tuned.

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Fire Doll Studio, Champaign, IL
UI Flatlands Dance Film Festival and Krannert Art Museum present “Good House Keep Film Screening” feat. Laura Chiaramonte (6/11, 6:30 p.m., free)

@ Gallery Art Bar, Urbana, IL
UI Flatlands Dance Film Festival presents “Experimental Dance Film Performance and Talkback” feat Laura Chiaramonte, Matt Harsh, and Tessa Olson (6/10, 7 p.m., free)

@ Illini Union Ballroom, UIUC, Urbana, IL
The African Kinship Reunion (TAKiR) present BOUND: AFRICANS VS. AFRICAN-AMERICANS documentary screening w/filmmaker Peres Owino (6/14, 5 p.m., free w/reservation) Tickets

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BALLERINA, DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), DANGEROUS ANIMALS, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, THE RITUAL, BRING HER BACK, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, FRIENDSHIP, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, SINNERS*, THUNDERBOLTS** (6/6 on), DOGMA 25th anniversary (re-release) (6/6-6/8), ESCAPE FROM THE 21ST CENTURY (6/9, 8 p.m., in Mandarin with English sub), HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (6/11 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BALLERINA, DANGEROUS ANIMALS, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, THE RITUAL, BRING HER BACK, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, FRIENDSHIP, JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE*, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, A MINECRAFT MOVIE*, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (6/6 on), UFC 316: Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O’Malley, more (mixed martial arts) (6/7, 9 p.m., simulcast), TWILIGHT (6/8, 3 & 7 p.m.; 6/11, 7 p.m.), THE AMERICAN MIRACLE: OUR NATION IS NO ACCIDENT (faith docudrama) (6/9-6/11, 7 p.m.), HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (6/11 on) *single screenings daily

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. PADDINGTON IN PERU (6/12, 9 p.m., free)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

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Since we covered all the base tenets of the brand-new-to-Champaign County film festival, Savoy Lumière, in our previous report, we’ve decided for this installment of our coverage to let you in on our conversation with its founder and director, Nat Dykeman. Now residing in Sidney with his wife, children, and fur babies while taking advantage of the “micro-urban” spoils in the immediate Champaign-Urbana region, Dykeman has a fresh sandbox to play in with his entrepreneurial verve and organizational strengths. He’s lived throughout the state of Illinois and fleshed out his interests in many ways –lasting accomplishments include the Lake County Film Festival, which is still going strong in its Grayslake home, and the Chicago independent feature QWERTY directed by Bill Sebastian and starring Dana Pupkin-Sebastian and the late Eric Hailey, which is still available to enjoy in all its modest charm – so we can expect him to find new ways in our neck of the cornfields to expand on his activities. The last year’s worth of single-show screenings held at the Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX in Savoy has led up to Lumière and, as Dykeman hints more than once in our exclusive interview, the possibility is real he will branch out with his Chambana Film Society label to the benefit of those in our communities who dare to “look elsewhere” for their arts, entertainment, and culture. Film Society films are not mass-produced product, that is guaranteed.

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We’re grateful to have had the chance to get reacquainted with Dykeman. Not unlike with our friend in DIY film David Gracon, who we met long distance in the halcyon MICRO-FILM days well before he moved into the C-U area for several years and taught at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, our man Dykeman has circled around in our world. Early on in his tenure with the Lake County Film Festival and during the course of yours truly preparing what would be the final issue of MICRO-FILM, we both moonlighted as guest jurors to watch many hours’ worth of DVD screeners with films that would play the first Illinois Independent Film Festival at the Arcadia Theatre of St. Charles in 2005. Meeting onsite at the venue and jabbering briefly between screenings, we did not keep in touch much after that due to your humble editor’s general avoidance of the Windy City hubbub. So now, we’ve met again and begun catching up about our lives and the movies. It’s been a treat, to be honest. Dykeman sports a big energy and loves to pour over whatever is on the table at the moment; you will get his honest thoughts at all times and he is not afraid to champion what he loves and call out when something sucks hard. It is with this seasoned blend of working experience and discerning taste that we root for his hard work to pay off and for Champaign-Urbana-Savoy to not only take note of it, but join him on an exciting film-filled journey.

The first Savoy Lumière runs through Monday, June 2, at the Savoy 16. Please visit the festival website for daily schedules as well as options to purchase your tickets in advance. Our talk about the impetus behind his new adventures in the C-U can be read below when you’re not living it up at the Lumière!

~ Jason Pankoke

Read on, MacDuff…

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C-U Blogfidential: Greetings, Nat, and thank you for speaking with us! The first Savoy Lumière film festival at the Savoy 16 theaters, organized under the Chambana Film Society umbrella, will also be the first movie showcase of scope to premiere in Champaign-Urbana-Savoy in more than a decade. What kind of experiences and opportunities do you hope our cities and residents might get from attending Lumière?

Nat Dykeman: Ah ha! I will probably be using this phrase, “of scope,” more often.

I love how many short film festivals there are in town [although a] singular screening every year is not what many people picture as a festival. On the one hand, you have to remember that the Lake County Film Festival is still pretty much the only festival “of scope” where I’m from, so I’m kind of used to this situation. And, I’m new to the area, so I only have a sense of what’s come before and what I’m trying to live up to.

Where I’m from [in the Grayslake, Illinois region north of Chicago], there was no basis for something like this. People would hear about the film festival and ask, “What’s a film festival?” My standard answer is, “It’s like Bonnaroo [Music & Arts Festival] but for movies.” Someone asked me once if they had to make a movie to attend.

The history of film festivals and art theaters and an art scene in general [in Champaign-Urbana-Savoy] is mostly a relief to me, so I don’t have to hope that attendees are going to discover the magical world of film festivals and/or independent film [like they’re an unknown quantity]. I just hope they enjoy the movies and the experience, and [then] get excited about all of the other ideas for screenings I have.

Unlike the film festivals I’m used to, being once-a-year affairs, the fact that I’ve already had twenty screenings since last year also eases some of the pressure of the [Lumière] film festival. Recently, I’ve started thinking of this festival like a birthday party. It’s a celebration, certainly, but it’s not just celebrating itself but the whole year that’s come before.

Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

5/31: Joshua Brucker (filmmaker, THE FAIRFIELD COUNTY FOUR, Horror Dadz Productions, Watseka, IL)
6/1: William Pace (faculty associate of digital media production, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ)
6/1: Bill Yauch (producer/cinematographer, AMBER ROSE, Shut Up and Do It Productions, Champaign, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Why not lift our Report embargo a couple of weeks early to allow for a full-on Savoy Lumière takeover? “Glad to oblige!” shouts Ye Ed from across the MFHQ office. Since we’ve been late in getting our festival coverage filed for your planning needs, dearest readers, we’re going to point you to a few other media sources where publicity for the event have already appeared. First, Smile Politely’s Amy Penne gives the Lumière a giant vote of confidence in her preview and interview with organizer Nat Dykeman and, if you don’t already realize the movies and local movie mavens hit a sweet spot for her, it is made very clear in this article. Also adding to the visibility of Lumière is this nice overview provided by Sam Rink at the IPM Newsroom in which he talks with Dykeman as well as Keenan Dailey and Trude Namara of BRIM (Thursday, May 29, 6 p.m.) and Chase Todd of AN AFFAIR AT THE END OF TIME (Sunday, June 1, 3:15 p.m.). WCIS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Springfield, ran this notice and it reads like a press release sent over by the Village of Savoy, which signed on as the first major sponsor of Lumière, as it directly quotes village president John Brown and trustee Larry Kanfer ahead of our man Dykeman. (In fact, it is a press release; we had to look on the Savoy municipal website to find a link to a PDF of it as it was not readily appearing in Google searches.) We know through the grapevine that at least a couple of radio segments were had at places like WEFT-FM and the Lumière is being name-checked by organizations who always have one eye on community activity that can translate into economic gains, such as the Champaign County Film Office and Experience Champaign-Urbana. All in all, a passable first-time showing for the C-U at large to afford the Lumière their time and attention in advance. They’ll get the hang of it…

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

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Why not push back our archives photo series yet one more week to allow for a full-on Savoy Lumière takeover? “Sounds just dandy!” yells Ye Ed from across the MFHQ commissary. We’re taking the simple route with this department and dressing up the Calendar with one-sheet art for features playing this weekend at the Savoy 16 + IMAX as a part of Lumière: FREE LEONARD PELTIER (Saturday, May 31, 1:30 p.m.), NEVER NOT YOURS (Sunday, June 1, 5:30 p.m.), and INBETWEENING (Sunday, June 1, 7:30 p.m.). Let’s also mention the two animated films pictured here that will appear in the all-ages show, QUELM SALVA directly above and BIRD DRONE at the top (Saturday, May 31, 11 a.m.) Visit the festival subsite up at Chambana Film Society for more details about these and all the other films scheduled throughout the weekend. Please enjoy yourselves, take your friends, and share the good times online!

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society presents the 2025 Savoy Lumière* film festival (5/29-6/2) Information

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BRING HER BACK, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, TORNADO, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, FRIENDSHIP, THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (5/30 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (6/2, 7 p.m.), DANGEROUS ANIMALS sneak preview (6/3, 7 p.m.), BALLERINA sneak preview (6/4, 7 p.m.), BALLERINA, DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), DOGMA 25th anniversary (re-release), THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (6/5 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BRING HER BACK, JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, THE ACCOUNTANT 2*, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, FRIENDSHIP, THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (5/30 on), The Metropolitan Opera: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (5/31, 12 p.m., simulcast; 6/4, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), GREASE (6/1, 3 & 7 p.m.; 6/4, 7 p.m.), BALLERINA (6/5 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. THE UNBREAKABLE BOY (6/5, 9 p.m., free)

@ Prairie Farm/Centennial Park, Champaign, IL
Champaign Park District presents “Moo-vie Nights at Prairie Farm” feat. A BUG’S LIFE (5/30, 8 p.m., free)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

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C-U Blogfidential has recently written up summaries of what went down at several film events in downstate Illinois, from the Illinois Student Film Festival to the Foxtail Film Festival to Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, and now the one we’ve been eagerly awaiting is upon us and will conclude this informal “spring cinema season” in Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. The Sidney-based promoter Nat Dykeman and his colleagues have organized the inaugural Savoy Lumière film festival and it will be held at the Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX theater in Savoy for the next five days starting tonight, Friday, May 29, and concluding the evening of Monday, June 2. A slate of 14 programs and approximately 40 films made across the United States and around the world, the Lumière is a grand and independent effort that is being produced under the aegis of the Chambana Film Society, which Dykeman formed a little more than a year ago as the umbrella for his efforts in public presentation and education, and will hopefully build into something notable and unique for our area. Of course, the nature of the Lumière is very appealing at first glance – cross our humble efforts at the dearly departed New Art Film Festival with the worldly aims of our friends at the long-running Route 66 International Film Festival in Springfield and you have a good idea of what to expect – while it is distinct enough from the other cinema showcases that are staged in the immediate area to be complementary. We hope our dearest viewers will choose to show up and be enlightened by what Lumière has to offer, for the C-U has sorely needed a film happening like this one.

While there are minutiae aplenty that we could detail in regards to the selections, we’d rather encourage you to explore Lumière with as few preconceived notions as possible. That said, we direct you to the Lumière subsite at the online home of the Film Society to dig in if you wish and decide what shows might sound enticing to you. There are no overlapping events a la “Ebertfest” so one could reasonably attend as much as is desired. We will hint there is a wide range of material in the program – comedies, dramas, thrillers, science fiction, and documentaries are well represented – and all the titles with C-U or Bloomington-Normal ties that we’re aware of have been marked with an asterisk in our patented schedule compilation, which you will see below and can reference throughout the weekend. Dykeman has stated in his social media publicity for Lumière that filmmakers will be present and discussing their work at a good amount of the screenings. Tickets for individual shows will cost $12 and a festival pass will cost $140; visit this page to purchase them in advance of heading out to the Savoy 16.

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For those who might look at the options and not know where to start with a cinema smorgasbord like this, especially if one’s time and funds are limited, we asked Dykeman via email for a little guidance prior to showtime. “I very much try not to play favorites,” he admits to CUBlog, so the following comments are from the perspective of attendees picking wisely for the sake of being introduced to what Lumière and the Film Society are all about. Dykeman describes the opening night feature, BRIM, as “a strong, distinct film, filmed locally, mostly with local people,” such as the director Keenan Dailey and writer Trude Namara, in a stylized exploration of systemic racism in American health care and across generations. He was able to schedule for Saturday night a recent festival favorite, AJ GOES TO THE DOG PARK, which is “probably unlike any movie you’ve ever seen before,” per Dykeman. “[It’s] a no-budget, surreal comedy from Fargo, North Dakota [with] a higher jokes-per-minute (JPM) than the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker movies [such as AIRPLANE!] and is more absurd than an evening of Adult Swim programming.” Also on tap is the National Geographic presentation, SALLY. “This documentary came to me late in the process,” says Dykeman, “and as soon as I saw it, I knew this would make a fantastic closing to the festival” in recounting the personal struggles and triumphs of the late NASA astronaut and physicist Sally Ride.

As we’ve stated over our many years in publishing CUBlog, one has to see a film for themselves to know if they will like it or get something out of it, and we trust the tastes of Dykeman to not lead attendees astray. In recent months, we’ve also talked a bit about the Savoy Lumière founder’s history in all things cinema that include his similar leadership role with the Lake County Film Festival, which has taken place in the north Chicago suburb of Grayslake for more than two decades, a brief run as a video store proprietor up in the Windy City proper, and occasional dabbling in movie production. We originally met as fellow jurors in 2005 at a start-up festival in St. Charles and I could not have foreseen our paths crossing again in this new world of Champaign-Urbana-Savoy-Rantoul film culture. Residents and creatives living in east central Illinois can only benefit from his experience, connections, and make-it-happen spirit, so we’re doubly excited to see the Lumière shine bright and learn more about what comes next. Stay tuned for a follow-up post sharing our conversation with Nat Dykeman. See you in Savoy, tra la!

~ Jason Pankoke

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2025 Savoy Lumière Film Festival schedule
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL

Thursday, May 29
6:00 p.m. BRIM* (2025, 105 min., Dir. Keenan Dailey, USA, drama)

w/shorts:
CONTAGIOUS SWAGGER (2023, 12 min., USA, comedy)
THE ALLY (2023, 11 min., USA, comedy)
A MIND OF ITS OWN (2023, 12 min., USA, comedy)
ROCK ISLAND PRISON 1864* (2025, 7 min., USA, drama)

Friday, May 30
6:45 p.m. Short Films, “Science Fiction”

feat.:
FIGMENT (2024, 20 min., NZ, drama)
TSKACKAPHIS (2023, 7 min., USA, comedy)
HOMEPLANET (2025, 26 min., USA, drama)
SWEET DREAMING* (2024, 12 min., USA, drama)
AS EASY AS CLOSING YOUR EYES* (2024, 22 min., USA, drama)

9:00 p.m. GUNMAN (GATILLERO) (2025, 80 min., Dir. Cris Tapia Marchiori, Argentina, action)

w/short:
LOOSE CHANGE (2024, 15 min., USA, drama)

Saturday, May 31
11:00 a.m. Short Films, “Animated” + “Shorts with Kids”

feat.:
QUEM SALVA (2023, 7 min., France, action)
LEARNING TO FLY (2024, 3 min., USA, action)
AUTOPHAGY (2024, 11 min., UK, drama)
FAMILY PORTRAIT OF THE BLACK EARTH (2024, 10 min., Bulgaria, drama)
PLUNGE (2024, 8 min., UK, docu.)
BIRD DRONE (2023, 9 min., Australia, drama)
HANG (2025, 3 min., USA, music video)
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CALICO (2024, 15 min., UK, drama)
RUBY (2024, 13 min., USA, comedy)
WOLF (2024, 16 min., UK, drama)

1:30 p.m. FREE LEONARD PELTIER (2025, 110 min., Dir. Jesse Short Bull, David France, USA, human rights docu.)

4:00 p.m. THE PREMIERE (2024, 81 min., Dir. Jon Silver, USA, dramedy)

w/short:
CABARET SPECTACULAR (2024, 12 min., USA, comedy)

6:15 p.m. AJ GOES TO THE DOG PARK (2024, 78 min, Dir. Toby Jones, USA, comedy)

w/short:
THE DAY KEEPER (2024, 8 min., USA, mockumentary)

8:30 p.m. THE OTHER PEOPLE (2025, 113 min., Dir. Chad McClarnon, USA, thriller)

Sunday, June 1
11:00 a.m. CATCHING BULLETS (2024, 85 min., Dir. Ben Scholle, USA, inner city life docu.)

w/shorts:
SAVIOR (2024, 4 min., USA, immigration docu.)
IT’S TIME* (2024, 4 min., nature docu.)

1:15 p.m. PAPER MARRIAGE (2024, 90 min., Dir. Jeff Man, USA, comedy)

3:15 p.m. Short Films, “Chambana to Chicago”

feat.:
HIGH STANDARDS* (2024, 14 min., USA, comedy)
AN AFFAIR AT THE END OF TIME* (2025, 15 min., USA, drama)
KAL-HAVEN* (2025, 12 min., USA, horror)
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ANHEDONIA (2025, 8 min., USA, horror)
FRAGMENTS OF A CRIME (2025, 8 min., USA, thriller)
THE CANCER CARD (2025, 14 min., USA, dramedy)
CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY (2020, 18 min., USA, satire)
HAIR (2024, 6 min., USA, dramedy)

5:30 p.m. NEVER NOT YOURS (2024, 81 min., Dir. John Klein, Stephen Kniss, USA, drama)

w/short:
WHEN EVERYTHING WENT BLUE (2024, 14 min., USA, drama)

7:30 p.m. INBETWEENING (2024, 118 min., Dir. Mel House, USA, dramedy)

Monday, June 2
7:00 p.m. SALLY (2025, 103 min. Dir. Christina Costantini, USA, biography docu.)

w/short:
AS LONG AS WE CAN (2024, 11 min., USA, health docu.)

Publicity still from BRIM is courtesy Visage Entertainment via Chambana Film Society. | Publicity still from GATILLERO is courtesy Dukkah Producciones via Chambana Film Society. | Other artwork is courtesy Chambana Film Society and illustrated by Kat Jacobsen.

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Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

5/26: Lana Hinshaw-Klann (photojournalist, WBBM Channel 2 (CBS), Chicago, IL)
5/29: Amy Penne (arts editor, Smile Politely, Champaign-Urbana, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until June. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society presents the 2025 Savoy Lumière* film festival (5/29-6/2) Information

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
FRIENDSHIP, THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE ACCOUNTANT 2*, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, HURRY UP TOMORROW, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (5/23 on), BRING HER BACK, KARATE KID: LEGENDS (5/29 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, HURRY UP TOMORROW*, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (5/23 on), BLAZING SADDLES (5/25, 3 & 7 p.m.; 5/28, 7 p.m.), KARATE KID: LEGENDS (5/29 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

NEW! @ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. ONE OF THEM DAYS (5/29, 9 p.m., free)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents JAWS (5/25, 2 p.m.; 5/26, 7 p.m.)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

5/17: Nat Dykeman (founder, Chambana Film Society/The Savoy Lumierè, Sidney, IL)
5/21: Katherine Bokenkamp (actress, AN AFFAIR AT THE END OF TIME, Earth-217 Studios, Fairmount, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until June. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My Old Scene on Your Screen

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Yes, it’s a bit of a ruse. We still need one more week before we begin our archive show-and-tell. Sorry. We were torn between writing one or two bonus CUBlog posts this week and didn’t finish any of it, so the Calendar got the short end of the stick. Therefore, as a from-the-hip aside to keep everyone guessing what we have in store, let’s give you another preview starring the closest thing we have to a literal stick figure. This handmade Fighting Guy with (cocktail!) sword was entrusted to Ye Ed many moons ago by our friend and former Urbana resident, John May. We will come back around to them later in the photo sequence and, if you don’t already know why we’re including them, you will soon find out. It’s high time to weekend, don’t you think? Soak it in and be good out there, dearest adventurers and cultural archaeologists du C-U!

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

JIMMY IN SAIGON* U.S. streaming release: Tuesday, 5/13, nationwide via Dark Star Pictures, Los Angeles, CA/Peter McDowell Productions, Los Angeles, CA

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
23 (IRAVAI MOODU) (in Telugu with English sub), FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, HURRY UP TOMORROW, THE RUSE, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, FIGHT OR FLIGHT, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SHADOW FORCE, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS*, UNTIL DAWN (5/16 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (animé) (5/17, 4 p.m., 5/18, 4 & 7 p.m., 5/21, 7 p.m., English dub; 5/19-5/20, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Scream Unseen” (mystery movie) (5/19, 7 p.m.), FRIENDSHIP, THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (5/22 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, HURRY UP TOMORROW, THE RUSE, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, FIGHT OR FLIGHT*, JULIET & ROMEO*, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SHADOW FORCE, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS*, UNTIL DAWN, WARFARE (5/16 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (animé) (5/17, 2 p.m., 5/18, 4 & 7 p.m., 5/21, 7 p.m., English dub; 5/19-5/20, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), The Metropolitan Opera: Salome (5/17, 12 p.m., simulcast; 5/21, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), LABYRINTH (5/18, 3 & 7 p.m.; 5/21, 7 p.m.), LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (5/22 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

5/13: Casey Wayne Hupp (actor, RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, Acrostar Productions LLC, Chicago, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until June. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My Old Scene on Your Screen

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We suppose this gets the point across, yes?

The setup is not professional grade but it’ll do and is better than, say, placing valuable items from the MFHQ Deux archive on the stove top for a photo op. Lighting will be tweaked and arrangements varied as we take the shots in order to show you the stuffs and tell you a few tales beginning next week in the Calendar. These videos are just stand-ins to test it out. When in Walmart country, make Walmart due…

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Champaign County History Museum, Champaign, IL
“Downtown Champaign Historic Theater Tour” (5/10, 1-2:30 p.m.) Register

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, FIGHT OR FLIGHT, JULIET & ROMEO, SHADOW FORCE, #SINGLE (in Telugu with English sub), THE ACCOUNTANT 2, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, SNOW WHITE, THE SURFER, THUNDERBOLTS*, UNTIL DAWN (5/9 on), SHOW ME YOUR GLORY (religious documentary) (5/13-5/15, 7 p.m.), Blumhouse 15th anniversary “Halfway to Halloween” feat. MA (5/14, 7 & 9 p.m.), HURRY UP TOMORROW sneak preview (5/14, 6 & 6:30 p.m.), KINGDOM OF HEAVEN “director’s cut” (5/14, 6 p.m.), FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, HURRY UP TOMORROW (5/15 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, FIGHT OR FLIGHT, JULIET & ROMEO, SHADOW FORCE, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, THE AMATEUR, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, SNOW WHITE*, THUNDERBOLTS*, WARFARE (5/9 on), UNTIL DAWN (5/9-5/12), THE SURFER* (5/9, 5/12-5/13), UFC 315: Belal Muhammed vs. Jack Della Maddalena, more (mixed martial arts) (5/10, 9 p.m., simulcast), THE WIZARD OF OZ (5/10-5/11, 2, 4:30 & 7 p.m.; 5/14, 7 p.m.), SHOW ME YOUR GLORY (religious documentary) (5/13-5/15, 7 p.m.), HURRY UP TOMORROW sneak preview (5/14, 6 & 6:30 p.m.), HURRY UP TOMORROW (5/15 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

~~~~~

Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

~~~~~

MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

5/4: Andrew J. Rausch (author, Generation Tarantino: The Last Wave of Young Turks in Hollywood, Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, NY)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until June. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My Old Scene on Your Screen

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Sigh. Since we’re spending extra time away from our makeshift still life studio here at MFHQ Deux to write even more about the current movie events du C-U and to bring you a follow-up report on relevant home video releases, we have to postpone the start of our gallery series of local film goodies yet again. However, in the spirit of the beloved Detective Columbo, this gives us an opportunity to address just one more thing that we’ve thought about in recent days before we get started. Mrs. Columbo would approve.

As you’ve seen, we’ve gathered physical evidence of the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond that we intend to use as a storytelling vehicle in the coming weeks. Practically all of this material was brought directly to MFHQ Deux from the original MFHQ or acquired in the few years that your humble editor has been living here full time. However, as he digs deeper in the hallowed halls of Momkoke Manor, remnants of his movie life once shared with the late Ma JaPan have begun to reappear.

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There are pieces in plain sight, like the tenth anniversary “Ebertfest” magnet on the refrigerator door that was formerly on display in the same location at MFHQ. There are other pieces tucked away for safe keeping, such as the memorial issue of the Chicago Sun-Times that marked the passing of Roger Ebert in 2013. And, there are the inadvertent discoveries as in the interview tape and CDs jammed in the back of the filing cabinet drawer that Ye Ed was cleaning; how they managed to not fall out while being moved from the covert MFHQ Annex in C-U to the house on the edge of an American small town, who knows?

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It always pays to keep your eyes open as well as your ears, nose, mind, and heart. “You never know,” as Ma used to say, and that truism can apply across the board in our lives from sunup to sundown. It does feel sometimes like the pieces of the film culture puzzle pertaining to us are simply not a priority in the cultural space of Champaign-Urbana. Therefore, now is the time to start to put it all together. Onward.

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Parkland Theatre, Parkland College, Champaign, IL
Compass Casting “photo open call” (5/3, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.)

@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
UIUC College of Media presents MACS Illinois Student Film Festival* (5/2, doors 6 p.m., event 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE DUMPLING QUEEN (in Mandarin with English sub), RAID 2 (in Hindi with English sub), ROSARIO, THE SURFER, THUNDERBOLTS*, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, THE AMATEUR, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), THE LEGEND OF OCHI*, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, UNTIL DAWN (5/2 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (5/5, 7 p.m.), Blumhouse 15th anniversary “Halfway to Halloween” feat. ANNABELLE (5/7, 7 & 9 p.m.), CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD sneak preview (5/7, 6:30 p.m.), CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, FIGHT OR FLIGHT, JULIET & ROMEO, SHADOW FORCE (5/8 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE SURFER, THUNDERBOLTS*, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, THE AMATEUR, CHEECH & CHONG’S LAST MOVIE* (documentary), THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), THE LEGEND OF OCHI*, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, UNTIL DAWN, WARFARE, THE WOMAN IN THE YARD (5/2 on), ON SWIFT HORSES* (5/2, 5/4-5/8), MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL 50th anniversary (5/4, 5/7, 4 & 7 p.m.), SCREAM (1996) (5/4, 3 & 7 p.m.; 5/7, 7 p.m.) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (5/2-5/3, 7 p.m., free w/i-card), 5/4: STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (5/4, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

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Last week, we gave you a brief overview of Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, which provides behind-the-scenes opportunities for undergraduates and graduates attending the University of Illinois who have an interest in the cinema, and Foxtail Film Festival, which positions high school and college students from Illinois State University and other institutions front and center with their work. So, where does that leave our enrolled Illini in having their own work seen, heard, and celebrated? You can find out pretty easily at the UI Spurlock Center for World Cultures, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, this coming Friday, May 2, when the classmates of MACS (Media and Cinema Studies unit in the College of Media) and faculty supervisor Jonathan Knipp put on the newest Illinois Student Film Festival. Doors will open at 6 p.m. for mingling and the lights will go down soon after 7 p.m. for movie-gazing as the free showing will offer its audience an intimate look at the stories and sensations that young people on campus have teamed up to relate on the big screen.

In this Daily Illini article, Makenna Norman visits with Knipp and his students about what the show will entail. Yearly variations planned by those who take the spring semester “Film Festivals” course, MACS 366, have entertained the campus community for more than a decade under previous guises like the Illini Film Festival, Golden Corn Film Festival, Illini Independent Film Festival, Illinifest, and UIUC Student Film Festival as it was known last year. Unlike the formulated consistency of the other events, Illinois FF is as much a presentation as it is a lab project that is experimented with by its revolving group of organizers.

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Also, unlike with Foxtail and ‘Ebertfest,’ we can’t tell you what exactly will be shown other than the obvious; copy found on Illinois FF’s social media states “the event will contain screenings, concessions, trivia, interviews, and more for all to enjoy,” so it’s clear that “big fun” is a selling point. We’re not even sure if movies from past years are available to watch or if there still is a dedicated website for Illinois FF, as the only link from Facebook leads to an online submission form. A hint at the variety of approach can be gleaned from the 2024 award winners, pictured on Facebook and shared here; they include an experimental piece directed by Juan David Campolargo Hoyos, CHRONICLES OF THE FUTURE, winner of the Audience Award and a $100 gift card, and a period action fantasy called WUXING WARRIORS: AN ASIAN AMERICAN EPIC, which earned director David Zhang and crew the Jonathan Laxamana Award for Diversity in Student Filmmaking and a $500 prize. Congratulations to them and their achievements.

We hope the students and audience members who gather together on Friday can appreciate all the effort that is put into something like the Illinois Student Film Festival, let alone its selections, and honestly wonder whether those who take MACS 366 or other relevant MACS courses ever learn about the legacy of film on campus apart from the storied life of Roger Ebert. Many alumni have gone on to successful careers in media and entertainment, such as the filmmaker Christopher Folkens of Los Angeles whose first feature production CATALYST was released in February, and many tenets of cinema on campus have held steady over time, such as the regular presence of student-run clubs for film appreciation and creation like Illini Film & Video, which celebrates twenty-five years of making movies at UI this semester. Cinematic catalysts can be found all around at the University of Illinois – don’t forget to look outward to Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond for inspiration as well, kids – if one cares to seek them out.

~ Jason Pankoke

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2025 Illinois Student Film Festival schedule
@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL

Friday, May 2
6:00 p.m. Doors open for networking and seating
7:00 p.m. Film program

Stills from CHRONICLES OF THE FUTURE (top) and WUXING WARRIORS: AN ASIAN AMERICAN EPIC (above) are courtesy the Illinois Student Film Festival via Facebook. | Other artwork is courtesy the Illinois Student Film Festival via Facebook.

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Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

4/25: Marty McKee (writer, Johnny LaRue’s Crane Shot, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
4/28: John Isberg (cinematographer/co-producer, HAUNTED HOUSE OF PANCAKES, Haunted House of Pancakes LLC, Fort Thomas, KY)
4/29: Sophie McMahan Berkley (artist, Sophie McMahan, Urbana, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My Old Scene on Your Screen

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Since we’ve been spending extra time writing about the special-event slate in Champaign-Urbana and elsewhere for this week and next, we’ll need to play it modest for one more Calendar and sneak you a few peeks at the artifacts, collectibles, and tchotchkes we have on hand to share. Above and below, you will see most of the goodies sitting about in MFHQ Deux, awaiting their fifteen minutes (or, more likely, fifteen seconds) of CUBlog fame. If we can keep up with the photography and anecdotes, this series will run weekly into the summer; some will be an image and a paragraph, while others will take a few of both to explain how they reflect or represent part of the whole that is our film culture. You might pick out a few distinct things in our first candid, while the second hints that dear Dora Hall, whose recording we found at a local music storehouse a few weeks ago, will be along for the ride and not solely because her LP is a TV soundtrack. Squint closely and Google precisely if you want to guess in advance the significance of the spiral booklet with “Richard Greenberg” on its cover. For reasons, the Freaky Film Festival entry is the first one we’re setting up even though it will not be the first one we’ll run. And, the one-of-a-kind boards in the Barnes & Noble tote are not a purchase from that chain, but lucky discoveries at a seminal bookshop du C-U that Ye Ed adopted some twenty-five years ago. These mysteries and more will soon unfold!

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

20 Years Ago … Friday, April 22, 2005: Chris Folkens, an ambitious University of Illinois senior in LAS-Speech Communication and member of Illini Film & Video, premiered his second narrative featurette TOXIN during two shows at Armory 101 inside the Armory Building concurrent with that year’s Roger Ebert’s Film Festival. Rumored to be in attendance was Hollywood producer Roy Lee (THE RING, THE GRUDGE), otherwise visiting campus to speak at the East Asian Languages and Cultures department. Folkens’ action-drama starred then-UI students Aaron Golden (FALLING OVERNIGHT) and Karla Strum (TERRI, LITTLE ACCIDENTS) along with genre film veteran Robert Nolan Clark (RHINELAND). [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Decatur, IL
“Special movie and memorabilia sale” in memory of Skip Huston and the Avon Theatre* (4/26, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., click here for more information and location)

@ Gregory Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* presents “48 Hours” film challenge (4/25, 7 p.m.-4/27, 7 p.m., Room 215)

@ Lincoln Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting w/“48 Hours” film challenge screening (4/28, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* screening series presents SLICE OF LIFE (documentary) w/shorts (4/27, 4 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE ACCOUNTANT 2, THE LEGEND OF OCHI, ON SWIFT HORSES, THE SHROUDS, STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH (re-release), UNTIL DAWN, THE AMATEUR, THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND*, DROP*, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, THE WEDDING BANQUET (4/25 on), ROADMAP TO REALITY: CARLO ACUTIS AND THE DIGITAL AGE (religious documentary) (4/27, 4 p.m.; 4/28-4/29, 7 p.m.), Blumhouse 15th anniversary “Halfway to Halloween” feat. M3GAN (4/30, 7 & 9 p.m.), THE SURFER sneak preview w/Nicolas Cage livestream interview (4/30, 7 p.m.), THE SURFER, RAID 2 (in Hindi with English sub) (5/1 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE ACCOUNTANT 2, CHEECH & CHONG’S LAST MOVIE (documentary), THE LEGEND OF OCHI, ON SWIFT HORSES, STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH (re-release), UNTIL DAWN, THE AMATEUR, DROP*, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, SNEAKS* (animation), WARFARE, THE WEDDING BANQUET* (4/25 on), THE WOMAN IN THE YARD*, A WORKING MAN* (4/25-4/26), MICKEY 17* (4/25-4/26, 4/28-4/29, 5/1), The Metropolitan Opera: Le Nozze di Figaro (4/26, 12 p.m., simulcast; 4/30, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), HAPPY GILMORE (4/27, 3 & 7 p.m.; 4/30, 7 p.m.), ROADMAP TO REALITY: CARLO ACUTIS AND THE DIGITAL AGE (religious documentary) (4/27-5/1), THUNDERBOLTS* (5/1 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (4/25-4/26, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The College of Media at Illinois presents the 25th Roger Ebert’s Film Festival* (through 4/26) Schedule

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

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Let’s be the collective herald who reminds our community that, while Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is a singular force in our annual cultural calendar, there is much cinema life to be had otherwise that is sparked by the people of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. The “beyond” is where we look today for a good example that is running concurrently with ‘Ebertfest’– one wonders why it had to be the case – as the student-leaning Foxtail Film Festival returns to the Normal Theater of downtown Normal for their third annual show. It is an instructional affair offering the young people who are attending Illinois State University and other schools a concise way to learn about the production process as well as view the work made by themselves and their peers on the big screen with their families and the public. Overseen by festival director Andrew Ventimiglia, ISU professor in mass media studies, and organized by ISU underclassmen, Foxtail is a partnership between the ISU School of Communication, ISU School of Theatre, Dance, and Film, and ISU Wonsook Kim School of Art with additional sponsorship from Before Brand, WGLT-FM, and the Normal. Beginning tonight, Thursday, April 24, and continuing through the end of Saturday, April 26, Foxtail is the alternate film choice you didn’t know you had this week.

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We’d like to highlight a few qualities that make the 2025 Foxtail a unique event for the area. As they did last year with the documentarian Danielle Beverly (QATAR STARS), organizers are welcoming a visiting filmmaker to Normal in the Chile-based writer and director Christopher Murray; his recent period piece BRUJERÍA (SORCERY) plays tonight and stars Valentina Véliz Caileo as an indigenous girl whose farmer father is killed by a German settler foreman and turns to the elder Mateo (Daniel Antivilo) and supernatural practices to enact justice. Murray will host a workshop on Friday afternoon and discuss approaches to weaving history into storytelling, while representatives from Rantoul’s Flyover Film Studios will introduce attendees to their soundstage craft on Saturday afternoon. The evenings of Friday and Saturday will be devoted to film blocks, the first comprised of works made by ISU students and alumni, the second made up of submissions from high school and non-ISU college students. Although the Foxtail approach is designed to speak to the up-and-comers who might pursue production for their livelihoods, it can also scratch the itch for anyone who wants to tell stories through a camera lens or already does so.

More information about the Foxtail Film Festival can be read about at their website and updates can be followed on their Facebook account. The Normal Theater, 209 North St., Normal, Illinois, which first opened in November 1937, is managed by Benjamin Young and operated by the Town of Normal.

~ Jason Pankoke

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2025 Foxtail Film Festival schedule
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL

Thursday, April 24
6:00 p.m. BRUJERÍA (SORCERY) (2023, 101 min.) screening and discussion with filmmaker Christopher Murray
9:00 p.m. Reception at Medici, 120 North St., Normal

Friday, April 25
3:00 p.m. Workshop with Christopher Murray on “historical methods in narrative filmmaking”
7:00 p.m. Regional screening of Illinois State University film work and discussion with attending filmmakers; selections include:

THE DATE WAS TONIGHT by Braden Kralis
GHOST OF FRATS PAST by Tommy Conway, Benn Eddy, Zach Hotchkiss, and Sheldon Bartmann
LOVE YOU. BYE. by Dan White
HIRCUS HOMOS by Henry Horton
THE WEIGHT OF WORDS by Thomas Palatinus
TIES THAT BIND by Tessa Renken
OFF-SCRIPT by Kian Kelly
A LOOK AT THE EX-GUITARIST OF MIDWESTERN ROCK BAND ‘LEFT OF PASSAGE’ by Jack Sinks

Saturday, April 26
3:00 p.m. Workshop with Flyover Film Studios of Rantoul about their business and internship opportunities
7:00 p.m. Competitive screening of high school and college/university films, plus discussion with attending filmmakers and awards ceremony

Publicity still from BRUJERÍA is courtesy Pimienta Films (Mexico). | Other artwork is courtesy the Foxtail Film Festival.

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