The 7th Annual Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival returns to the Virginia Theater, 203 W. Park Ave., in downtown Champaign to showcase under-publicized films, formats and genres.

Ronald Yates, dean of the College of Communications and journalism professor, said that a reason many of these films in the festival were “overlooked” is because of the distribution they receive in America. He said that filmmakers have a difficult time getting their films in theatres if they are not affiliated with major distributors, such as Columbia, Paramount or 20th Century Fox.

“This festival gives those people who have done good work an opportunity to display their work in a way that they couldn’t otherwise,” Yates said.

Festival Director Nate Kohn said that this year’s festival differs from the rest because this is the first time the festival does not contain a film that was distributed by a major Hollywood studio.

“All the films being shown in the festival this year are truly independent,” Kohn said.

Jacques Tati’s Playtime will open the festival today at 7:30 p.m. with special guest Jonathan Rosenbaum, a film critic for the Chicago Reader. The film, which was released in France for the first time in 1967, plays with the subject of modern technology and the comedic effects it has on the people living within it. The film also was the most expensive film in French history at the time of its making because Tati constructed a set outside Paris emulating an airline terminal, city streets, high-rise buildings, offices and a traffic circle.

The film directly inspired Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal, for which Spielberg constructed a full-scale airline terminal.

Playtime will be shown in its original 70mm film, which is the festival’s tradition. This format provides more detail than regular film, covers the largest screens available and is rarely seen in such format, according to the festival’s Web site.

“The picture quality should be exponentially better than even the best screen at a megaplex,” said Adam Bennett, a graduate student who will be in attendance for the screening of Playtime.

The festival will also feature the 1925 silent film version of The Phantom of the Opera.

Roger Ebert said in his article in the program for the festival that this film was certainly not “overlooked” in 1925, but that the Alloy Orchestra of Cambridge, Mass., will be performing the original score of the film.

The festival also will offer free panel discussions at the Pine Lounge of the Illini Union. The first discussion is at 10 a.m. Thursday, where Ebert will lead a panel of the visiting filmmakers at the festival. At 10 a.m. on Friday, University Professor Andrea Press of the Institute of Communications Research will chair a panel on “Women in Film.” Ebert also will have a discussion with special guest Jean Picker Firstenberg, director of the American Film Institute, on Saturday at 9:30 a.m.

Mary Susan Britt, the festival’s assistant director, said she expects the festival to be “wonderful and completely different,” just like all the other festivals in the past.