For the 11th year, the curtain rose on Roger Ebert’s annual film festival, Ebertfest, on Wednesday night at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign.

“Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music” was the first movie shown at this year’s festival, and films will continue through Sunday afternoon.

Jody Groff is the facility coordinator for the Virginia Theatre, where the event, sponsored by the College of Media, has been held for the past 11 years.

“It is by far our biggest event of the year,” Groff said. “We have people from all over who have never even heard about our theatre coming to fill up the seats.”

All passes to the film festival sold out, according to the event’s Web site.

The festival features 12 films which are followed by question and answer sessions with special guests. The films include, “Begging Naked,” a documentary; “The Last Command,” the annual silent film; and “Frozen River,” a 2008 Academy Award nominated film.

Roger Ebert welcomed the audience with the help of a laptop voice simulator, while introducing “Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music.”

Daniel Lewart, senior resource programmer at the University, said he was happy that Ebert was attending the festival.

“It’s always great to hear what Roger has to say,” Lewart said, “He is incredible,”

Alex Schweitzer, junior in Aviation, heard about the festival online and decided to go see Wednesday’s film at the last minute. He was one of a line of about 40 people who were allowed to buy passes and fill vacant seats.

“I’m all about classic rock so I decided to go,” he said, “It’s my first Ebertfest film,”

Schweitzer decided to invite his friend Jerry Kujawa, senior in Engineering.

“I wasn’t at the real Woodstock so I decided this is the next best thing,” Kujawa said.

Don Wauthier works at Burns Clancy and Associates, a local engineering firm. He has volunteered at the festival for the last 11 years. He said has never missed a film.

“I’m one of the long-time volunteers of the festival,” Wauthier said, “I help with all Virginia events, not just Ebertfest.”

Wauthier said his favorite Ebertfest film ever was the restored version of “Lawrence of Arabia.”

“I love that we have people from all over the U.S. show up,” Wauthier said, “I’ve started to recognize people, like this guy from Texas who has brought his grandson up here for the past several years.”