2020 Ebertfest to open with ‘Cotton Club,’ close with ‘There’s Something About Mary’

This year’s edition of Roger Ebert’s Film Festival in Champaign will open with a screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Cotton Club Encore” and close with the Farrelly Brothers’ popular farce “There’s Something About Mary,” organizers announced Wednesday.

Key figures from the making of both movies will be on hand to answer questions.

The opening night film on April 15 is a recent revision by Coppola of his 1984 film “The Cotton Club” that also screened in October in Chicago. The period piece set at the famed Harlem nightclub in the 1930s stars Richard Gere, Gregory Hines and Diane Lane. Screenwriter William Kennedy will attend.

Composer Kathryn Bostic, known for her scores for “Dear White People” and “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am,” will sing torch songs after the screening.

To close the fest April 18, “Mary” co-director Bobby Farrelly and screenwriter John Strauss will discuss their bawdy 1998 comedy about a former nerd (Ben Stiller) who hires a private eye (Matt Dillon) to track down his long-lost prom date (Cameron Diaz).

This will be the 22nd year for Ebertfest, which gathers film fans at the Virginia Theatre near Ebert’s hometown of Urbana. Passes are available now at ebertfest.com.