Ebertfest announces an Oscar-winning bill

Tilda Swinton, Haskell Wexler attend this year’s event

Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, actor-musician Jack Black and director Richard Linklater will be among the featured guests at the 15th annual Ebertfest running April 17-21 at the Virginia Theatre in downstate Urbana.

Roger Ebert, Sun-Times film critic and the festival’s founder/programmer, has announced the full lineup, which kicks off with Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” (1978), featuring the film’s uncredited cinematographer (and two-time Oscar winner) Haskell Wexler in attendance. Swinton will appear with the thriller “Julia” (2008) and Black will be there for the comedy “Bernie” (2011), along with Linklater, the film’s director.

Also among the 12 features and two shorts to be screened during the five-day festival are “The Ballad of Narayama” (1958), a kabuki-inspired drama from Japan; “Blancanieves” (2012), a silent film from Spain that deserves as much attention as “The Artist,” according to Ebert; “Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh” (1987), a sympathetic portrayal of the Post-Impressionist painter, directed by frequent festival guest Paul Cox, and the documentary, “Not Yet Begun to Fight” (2012), about veterans overcoming their emotional wounds through fly-fishing on a Montana ranch.

For the full lineup, go to ebertfest.com.

As usual, all films will be screened at the 1,500-seat Virginia Theater, a 1920 sera movie palace, with other events, including panel discussions and lectures, in the Illini Student Union on the University of Illinois campus.

Since last year’s festival, the Virginia has undergone an extensive rehab, with all new seating, plaster repair and painting, installation of an elevator and other accessibility features.

Most passes have sold out but single tickets are available for select screenings. These tickets will go on sale beginning April 1 through the theater box office (217356-9063; open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday) and online through the theater website, thevirginia.org.

Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” (with Linda Manz, left, and Brooke Adams), which received an Oscar for its cinematography, will open the 15th annual Ebertfest in Urbana.