At noon on Thursday the doors opened at the historic Virginia Theater in downtown Champaign. The first in the queue that wound around the block were welcomed to the 10th annual Roger Ebert Film Festival, or Ebertfest. Nobody knew quite what to expect as the largely senior citizen crowd (this is a weekday afternoon, mind you) shuffled into the theater greeted by the peppy tunes of an organist.

Most of the films in this festival are famously overlooked, and Delirious, a Tom DiCillo film initially released in 2006, is certainly no exception. Roger Ebert could not be in attendance due to numerous medical ailments, so his wife, Chaz, appeared onstage alone to introduce the film. After quickly welcoming the first audience of the day, Chaz exited the stage, the curtains were lifted and the film began to role.

Delirious deals with the coming together and growing apart of two lowlifes: Les (Steve Buscemi), a paparazzi who resists being identified as such (“I’m a licensed professional!”) and Toby (Michael Pitt), a young transient who volunteers to work for Les free of charge in order to get off the streets. The film is expertly cast, and one could easily devote an entire article to exploring the film’s intricacies, but suffice it to say Delirious takes a refreshingly mature look at matters like the bonds between men and the invisible pedestal that separates celebrities from the ordinary. While the themes may sound contrived, they are approached in a light rarely captured on the big screen.

Most impressively, the film was able to draw in all age elements of the audience and, thanks to strong comedic elements, laughter permeated the theater throughout the entire show. In fact, it has been quite a while since I’ve witnessed a theater audience so unified in their reaction to a film. The receptive audience made an already great experience all the better, and it’s unlikely any one person alone would have derived as much pleasure from the movie as the film devotees in the Virginia Theater got from the good vibrations of their peers.

Once the film ended and the roars of approval had died down, Chaz came back on stage with three golden “thumbs up” trophies for a post-film panel, which included director Tom DiCillo and Ebert’s fellow critic, Richard Roeper. Roeper opened up the discussion by analyzing the film from a critical perspective, and then handed the reigns to DiCillo, who elaborated on the 6-year-long struggle he went through to get this film made.

DiCillo was initially bitter about the lackluster distribution efforts behind the film, which had earned it an abysmal box office performance despite strong reviews. This is understandable, for nobody who has spent half a decade bringing a masterful film to theaters only to have next to nobody view it for reasons beyond their control could avoid feeling bitter. In fact, DiCillo was visibly disturbed when the panel’s discussion veered in the direction of the movie’s theatrical run and vowed to only discuss things in a positive light for the remainder of the session.

As the panel wrapped up its discussion and thunderous applause erupted from the audience one last time, DiCillo’s eyes grew misty and his voice began to waiver. At this point I understood the true magic of Ebertfest for the first time. Roger Ebert made it his mission to find an audience for great but ignored films, and as Tom DiCillo walked off stage, emotional but smiling, I realized Ebert had done it again. Delirious finally found its audience.