Eastern will co-sponsor the Embarras Film Festival along with the Coles County Arts Council from Nov. 1-3.

The festival is an annual event that showcases the work of an actor or actress, and this year celebrates the work of actor Gene Hackman.

Robin Murray, the co-project director and program chair, said the festival has been a part of the Eastern community since 2004.

“The first festival focused on Gregg Toland, who was a cinematographer from Charleston and did the cinematography for ‘Citizen Kane’ among other great movies,” she said. “It really opened the door for this festival.”

Murray said this year’s focus is on Hackman, a former resident of Danville.

“He’s kept this connection with Danville and done work for their theater and library,” she said. “He’s a part of the region even though he’s now living in Arizona.”

The goal of this year’s festival is to show the versatility of Hackman, Murray said.

“We want to highlight all the different genres he’s worked in,” she said.

Five films will be shown over the course of the weekend, including “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Unforgiven,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Hoosiers” and “The French Connection.”

Murray said Hackman was in many western films, as well as a comedy.

“He’s most well-known for his role in ‘The French Connection’ that he won an Academy Award for,” Murray said. “We’re trying to show a big picture of all of his work.”

Introductions to the films will be presented by Eastern graduate Dan Gire, who is the president and director of the Chicago Film Critics Association. As well as Chuck Koplinski, who is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association.

Murray said the committee chooses who will be featured each year from a long list of possibilities.

“Hackman retired, so we had a body of work we could work with and we thought it would be lovely to highlight his work while he’s still here and can enjoy it,” she said.

Murray said the festival usually has a good turnout for the film screenings.

“We’ve had some really great publicity this year and we were even in USA Today,” she said. “We’ll keep our fingers crossed for a great turnout.”

Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].