2026-27 Ebert Fellows announced

The Roger Ebert Fellows for the 2026-27 academic year are media and cinema studies students Ciel Baptiste, Ali Kilmek, and Kris Modi.

The Ebert Fellows will work with a new mentor, Isaac Feldberg, senior editor at Letterboxd and film critic for RogerEbert.com. He previously worked with The Boston Globe and Entertainment Weekly.

“I want to bring the perspective of someone who is still in the trenches, who is practicing film criticism in a variety of formats,” Feldberg said. “I felt like it could be a good opportunity to step into this role and approach it from the perspective of: ‘Let’s try everything and see what you guys really want to do.’”

To kick off this semester, the Ebert Fellows attended the Chicago International Film Festival in October where they were able to view screenings and Q&As. Each student chose a film to review that will be published on RogerEbert.com.

Other upcoming experiences for the Ebert Fellows include visiting the Chicago Film Critics Association, Music Box Theatre, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago Public Radio, traveling to the True/False Film Fest in Missouri, and going to active film sets to learn about production.

“The idea of the fellowship is to develop it with [the students] to make sure that we’re covering all of those different types of writing they’re interested in and opening all of the doors that they want to look into,” Feldberg said. “Especially by the spring, we will have lined up an array of guest speakers who can come in and shine a light on the different kinds of jobs that exist around film preservation, restoration, and exhibition.”

Feldberg is most excited to connect with these undergrads to help hone their voices as film critics, screenwriters, and archivists.

“I would not be where I am today if people hadn’t taken an interest in my writing at an early age, and if I hadn’t worked with both professors and journalists, who were doing the craft day in and day out,” Feldberg said. “Developing that voice is an honor and a gift; I know that I’ll learn as much from these Fellows as they will from me.”

The Roger Ebert Fellowship—named after the late Roger Ebert (BS ’64, journalism), a Chicago Sun-Times writer who was the first film critic ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism—is administered through the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies.

Meet the 2026-27 Ebert Fellows

Ciel Baptiste is a junior in media and cinema studies with a certificate in museum studies.

“I’m excited to get better about writing media criticism, specifically,” Baptiste said. “That and getting better at being in public-facing roles are my two biggest goals.”

Baptiste is interested in the archival film industry, specifically restoration, cataloguing, and presenting films that may have otherwise been lost to history. Baptiste looks forward to learning from people who are already in that business.

“Film archival work is [related] to people who are involved in criticism or production of film, as they are the deciders of the way that things get preserved.”

Their goal is to meet people who will help reveal opportunities to work in conservation at a museum, library, or university. With an interest in niche films, Baptiste has struggled to find old movies because they haven’t been digitized.

“My introduction to film was through really old media, ” Baptiste said. “[Old movies] usually have a big box of text at the beginning, saying this was restored in this lab, and I want to be a part of that.”

Baptiste’s favorite movie is Godzilla (1954) because of its advanced effects, message, and soundtrack.

Ali Klimek is a sophomore in media and cinema studies.

She kicked off her time as an Ebert Fellow attending the Chicago International Film Festival screening of The Man I Love along with a Q&A with the director.

“I’m looking forward to getting my foot in the door,” Klimek said. “It is a very connections- and portfolio-based major, so being in the room and meeting these people early on will help me get a head start.”

Klimek also wants to showcase her creativity and grow her writing skills outside of scripting.

“There’s a big journalism aspect to it,” Klimek said. “I’m at a place where my main goal is to write, direct, and produce movies one day, but you never really start with that; this Fellowship is a good way to gauge other professions within media that will get me to that ultimate goal.”

Klimek discovered her love for film by watching movies with her dad.  Her favorite movie at the moment is Thelma and Louise because she loves movies about women’s perspectives.

“In this industry, I feel like it can be a bit of a boys’ club sometimes, especially behind the camera, so it’s just very important to me when I see movies that are centered around female friendships and female experience.”

Kris Modi is a senior in media and cinema studies with minors in critical film production and Spanish.

Modi serves as a Brandt Fellow for the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies, taking photos and videos and posting event flyers. He wants to go into film production, writing, and directing.

“Since this is a writing-heavy fellowship, I will be able to improve on my writing skills. With screenwriting, I’ll be able to make better transitions between my scenes and dialogue,” he said.

Modi discovered his love for film during a project in high school where he made a short film as a final instead of writing an essay and has pursued it as a career ever since.

One of Modi’s current favorite movies is Pan’s Labyrinth because the Fall 2024 screening at the Ebert Center was one of the first films he worked on as a Brandt Fellow. It was a full house and left an emotional impact on the audience; some left crying.

Modi looks forward to observing audience reactions, “which will inform me about how people receive certain types of movies that I want to make in the future,” he said.