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Continuing our countdown-to-Ebertfest theme, we asked a supersized panel of moviemakers and movie-goers: Which silver-screen portrayal of a U.S. president, be it a serious or silly role, ranks as your all-time favorite?

MICHAEL PHILLIPS, Chicago Tribune critic and Ebertfest regular

“My favorite presidential movie — real-life subject, that is — remains ‘Lincoln.’ Not simply because Lincoln was an inspired leader at a time when it might’ve gone a very different way, but because screenwriter Tony Kushner, director Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis hint at everything behind the Great Man facade — his grief, his political machinations, his very human resolve to compromise to get things done.

“A lost art today, at least among one of our major political parties.

“My favorite fictional president: Peter Sellers as Merkin Muffley in ‘Dr. Strangelove.’ Or Harrison Ford in ‘Air Force One,’ a truly hands-on politician, as he jettisons his adversary straight out of the movie’s title.”

H.W. BRANDS, presidential historian and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist

“When the best actor in recent memory plays the greatest president in American history, how can you not choose Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘Lincoln‘?”

BOB GAZZALE, president/CEO, American Film Institute

“Abraham Lincoln has been embodied on screen by some of America’s greatest talents — Henry Fonda, Walter Huston, Raymond Massey, Gregory Peck and Daniel Day-Lewis.

“But let’s also not forget Robert V. Barron‘s towering performance of Honest Abe in 1989’s ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,’ for it was he who reminded us to ‘be excellent to each other and party on, dudes.’”

LANDON PARVIN, 1966 Champaign High alum and presidential speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush

“Easy. One afternoon after school when I was growing up in Garden Hills, I watched a movie on TV that I have never forgotten. It was a black-and-white movie made in the late ‘30s or early ‘40s called ‘Abe Lincoln in Illinois.‘ I clearly remember the final scene.

“Lincoln is standing on the back of the train saying goodbye to the people of Springfield as he leaves to take up the presidency in Washington. You hear the moving strains of ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic.’

“Even as a child, I knew what his final fate would be. The dignity, the decency, the sacrifice ... don’t we long for that today in our presidents?

“For me, no other movie about presidents has conveyed the character we seek in a president. With all the sordidness and cravenness we see today, it makes us realize what we have lost."

NELL MINOW, assistant editor, RogerEbert.com

“For fictional presidents, I like Jeff Bridges in ‘The Contender’ and Michael Douglas in ‘The American President.’ Both genial but wily and, ultimately, honest and committed to what’s best for the country.

“As for real presidents, I wish the real Andrew Jackson was as charming and gallant as Brian Donlevy, Jackson’s ghost, in ‘The Remarkable Andrew.’ Sidney Blackmer has a charming cameo, saving the day as Theodore Roosevelt in ‘My Girl Tisa,’ and Ralph Bellamy gets a break from playing lesser roles as future President Franklin Roosevelt in ‘Sunrise at Campabello.’ I like Bill Murray as FDR in ‘Hyde Park on Hudson.’

“Abraham Lincoln has appeared in more movies than any other real-life character — Sherlock Holmes is number one if you include fiction — and most of them have been pretty good, including Robert V. Barron in ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.’

“While Daniel Day-Lewis was extraordinary in ‘Lincoln,’ my first choice is still Henry Fonda, arguing in court and mourning his first love, in ‘Young Mr. Lincoln.’"

DIABLO CODY, Illinois native, won Oscar for best original screenplay for 2007’s ‘Juno’

“I have to go with Terry Crews as President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho in ‘Idiocracy.’ I know I’m not the first person to call this movie prescient, but man, Mike Judge clearly knew which way the wind was blowing.

“It won’t be long until we’re watering crops with Brawndo — what plants crave!”

REGGIE BROWN, 2002 University of Illinois grad and Barack Obama impersonator, played the 44th president in 2017’s ‘War Machine’ and 2016’s ‘Barbershop: The Next Cut’

“I think that James Adomian as George W. Bush in ‘Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay‘ is by far the best and funniest performance of an actor portraying a president in a film.

“He nailed the role and it makes me laugh out loud every time I watch his scenes.”

ROD LURIE, who directed Jeff Bridges as president in 2000’s ‘The Contender’

“When I met Barack Obama in 2008, I was still deciding between him and Hillary Clinton. But as he shook my hand, he told me that ‘Jeff Bridges in “The Contender” was the best movie president ever.’

“I told him right then and there that he had my vote. He also spiked DVD sales when he told Entertainment Weekly the same thing. Anyway, I wanted to get that out there.

“What I didn’t tell him — and maybe should have — is that as amazing as Jeff was, the true MVP of presidential portrayals was Henry Fonda in ‘Fail-Safe.’ For most of the film, Fonda is in a single room working with an interpreter — played by Larry Hagman — as he negotiates with the Russian leader. It seems that the United States is accidentally about to nuke Moscow and he’d very much like to avoid a full-out destruction of planet Earth.

“It is a fascinating analysis of the human brain as it navigates between panic and leadership and between wisdom and knee-jerk reactions. It is an all-time great from one of our best actors and Sidney Lumet, the greatest director of actors of all time.”

“As a bonus, by the way, the finest depiction of a real president is Anthony Hopkins as Nixon — a full-on masterwork from somebody who looked nothing like Tricky Dick.”

DAVID FRANKEL, who directed ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ ‘Marley & Me’

“Michael Douglas in ‘The American President‘: authentic, charming, charismatic, politically astute and above all, romantic.”

A.O. SCOTT, New York Times critic

“My favorite movie president is Richard Nixon, as played by Dan Hedaya in ‘Dick.’ With respect to Sir Anthony Hopkins in ‘Nixon‘ and the great Philip Baker Hall in ‘Secret Honor,’ Hedaya finds a sweetness and silliness in the old trickster that may not have been there, but that clinches the movie’s absurd, benign and weirdly convincing depiction of America in the early ’70s.

“Nixon is the first president I remember, and I prefer to remember him as some combination of Nick Tortelli from ‘Cheers,’ the murderous cuckold from ‘Blood Simple’ and the hapless dad from ‘Clueless,’ all played by the incomparable Dan Hedaya.”

CANDICE FREDERICK, senior culture writer, HuffPost

“I think I’d have to say Bill Pullman‘s President Thomas J. Whitmore in ‘Independence Day.’ Amid a movie with big explosions, aliens and the megawatt action star Will Smith, Whitmore is the calm, level-headed and family-centered figure that grounds the story and helps steers it back on course.”

LEONARD MALTIN, 30-year ‘Entertainment Tonight’ film critic and past Ebertfest special guest

“I responded to ‘Dave‘ just as the filmmakers intended me to. Kevin Kline plays a wish-fulfillment president who makes one sigh and wonder why we couldn’t have a real leader just like him who talks common sense and says what he means.”

JUDD APATOW, writer/director of ‘Knocked Up’ and ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’

“Peter Sellers in ‘Dr. Strangelove‘ is the most accurate portrayal of a president ever seen on film. It’s hilarious, terrifying and way too close to the truth.”