Ebert: To Honor and Be Honored

Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Roger Ebert has a lot going on these days. Today, the San Francisco International Film Festival announced that Ebert will be celebrated with the Mel Novikoff Award, which goes to an individual or institution who fosters a love and appreciation of film, at the fest's fifty-third installment. The award ceremony, on Saturday, May 1, will precede a screening of one of Ebert's favorite films of 2009, Erick Zonca's Tilda Swinton-starrer "Julia." As The Wrap's Steve Pond reported yesterday, Ebert and his wife Chaz are, this year, endowing the Film Independent Spirit Award's Truer than Fiction Award, given to an emerging documentary filmmaker. The award will now be known as the Chaz & Roger Ebert Truer Than Fiction Award and carries a $25,000 cash award. The Independent Spirit Awards will take place this Friday.

This past month, Esquire profiled Ebert and his battle with cancer, which left him jawless and voiceless. Though he has had no problem taking to his blog and twitter to voice his political opinions regarding health care, Sarah Palin, and the tea party movement, Ebert will debut his new simulated voice on today's Oprah.