The Embarras Valley Film Festival has honored a different person from the region who has worked in film at some point in their life.

This year the festival’s committee chose to honor film star Gene Hackman, whose film career spans five decades, and is highlighted by the films that will be shown during the three-day festival—“Bonnie and Clyde,” “Unforgiven,” “Hoosiers,” “The French Connection,” and the “The Royal Tenenbaums.”

Hackman was nominated for five Academy Awards during the course of his film career, winning twice for the his roles in “Unforgiven” and “The French Connection.”

Every year, the planning committee scopes the region for artists— seasoned and new—who have worked in film on a grand scale, as well as a small scale.

Robin Murray, the co-project director and program chair, said the five films that will be screened during the festival highlight the actor’s versatility. 

“One of the things we were trying to show with our title (for the festival) is that he is versatile. He has been a star in films from multiple genres,” Murray said. “He’s not one of those figures who’s typecasted.”

Murray said one of her favorite Gene Hackman films is “Unforgiven” because the flick turned the western genre upside down and gave it new life.

Murray said “Unforgiven” is one of the best Westerns of the late twentieth century. 

Hackman played Little Bill Daggett, the local sheriff of Big Whisky in Wyoming, who is chasing after Munny, Clint Eastwood’s character. 

Kit Morrice, one of the co-project directors, said Hackman, though he is no longer headlining films on the big screen, remains relevant in the eyes of the public.

“When people think of some of great actors of the twentieth century… I know we’re now in the twenty first…Hackman is certainly right up there among the best,” Morrice said. 

Morrice said he remains relevant to the people of central Illinois because he has history here. 

Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, and his family moved from home to home until they finally settled down in Danville, Illinois. 

He lived there until dropping out of school and enlisting in the Army after his father abandoned their family, and later Hackman attended the University of Illinois to study journalism along with television production. 

Morrice and the rest of the committee picked five films representing his body of work. 

“We have five decades of film history embodied in the selections to represent Hackman’s body of work.”

Before deciding what would be screened during the festival, each committee member came up with a list of films they felt best encompassed the highlights of his career, and found that some of the works overlapped. 

Morrice said from there they dwindled the lists down to five films. 

One of the films that failed to make it into the final batch was “Superman.”

Morrice said “Hoosiers” and “Superman” were the last two films members of the committee quarreled over, with Hoosiers winning the battle. 

The selection demonstrates Hackman’s range. “Hoosiers”, he plays basketball coach; “The French Connection,” a police officer; “Bonnie and Clyde,” a thief; “Unforgiven,” a sheriff; “The Royal Tenenbaums,” a lawyer.

David Bell, the website manager on the committee and a librarian at Booth library who has recently ordered 51 materials, all having to do with Hackman, said while skimming through the films, he realized that Hackman had never been featured in a bad film, and that he was very selective when choosing what production he wanted to work on.  

Bell said Hackman acted in the sidelines, playing the supporting character rather than headlining a production.  

“He’s really interesting in that he’s an extremely famous actor, but he wasn’t known as a leading man,” Bell said. 

Morrice said she has viewed most of his films through the DVD and home video format, and she is excited to see them on a big screen.  

The film screenings will be scattered across campus, through the course of the festival, Thursday-Saturday. 

Jaime Lopez can be reached at 581-2812 or jlopez2@eiu.edu.