Acclaimed director Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) returns for his highly anticipated follow-up to 2023’s Beau Is Afraid with the neo-western thriller Eddington. The Arkansas Cinema Society is thrilled to partner with A24 for another spectacular installment in the Sneak Series with a very special double feature of Eddington–starring Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix–and The Wild Bunch, the latter of which was handpicked by the director himself. The films will screen on July 16th with The Wild Bunch at 3:30 pm and Eddington at 6:30 pm at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. These events are free and open to the public. Register here to reserve your spot.

Starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates and directed by Sam Peckinpah, The Wild Bunch follows an aging group of outlaws in 1913 Texas look for one last big score, selling stolen Army rifles to a rogue Mexican general during that country's revolution, as the traditional American West is disappearing around them.

‍The Wild Bunch is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, having been selected for preservation in the Library of Congress’ American Film Registry and ranked in the top 100 films of all time by the American Film Institute. It was nominated for two Academy Awards and Peckinpah won a Director’s Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. Aster cites it as an inspiration for his work and Eddington in particular. He said, “The final Western (or at least the first of the final Westerns). The genre as they knew it had been shot to ribbons, its head exploded all over the wall in depraved slow-motion. The ending is eternal. If ever there was a director that could only have been a raging alcoholic, it was Peckinpah. He is a father to so many.”