Joe Swanberg and Judge Reinhold have joined the previously announced Matthew McConaughey at Arkansas' Filmland.

      The Arkansas Cinema Society has revealed that next week's Filmland festival will feature Josh Loeb’s In Spite of Ourselves as the Arkansas Filmmaker Spotlight choice, along with Josephine Decker’s coming-of-age drama Chasing Summer as the Closing Night Selection. Indie legend Joe Swanberg will be present in Little Rock to showcase his latest work, The Sun Never Sets, while Judge Reinhold will lead a special 40th anniversary screening of the Zucker brothers’ classic comedy Ruthless People. Co-founded by writer-director Jeff Nichols, the Arkansas Cinema Society is collaborating with the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, which will host all the screenings, workshops, and panels. The festival will also include a previously announced discussion between Nichols and Matthew McConaughey, who is set to receive the Variety Legend & Groundbreaker Award following a screening of his latest film, Andrew Patterson’s The Rivals of Amziah King.

      The festival is scheduled for Wednesday, August 12, through Saturday, August 16. Tickets for Filmland are currently available for purchase at filmland.org, where the complete festival lineup can also be found.

      “We’re extremely proud of this year’s Filmland lineup. Once again, we’re uniting filmmakers whose works have premiered and received awards at festivals such as Sundance and SXSW, while also honoring exceptional Arkansas storytellers through our Filmland: Arkansas feature and short film selections,” stated ACS executive director Kathryn Tucker.

      Filmland Arkansas 2026 Highlights

      The Filmland: Arkansas lineup will feature three feature-length films and 20 short film selections. All screenings will take place at the Performing Arts Theater in partnership with the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. The winners of both the Professional Shorts and Feature Film Audience Awards will earn a Panavision New Filmmaker Program Equipment Grant of $60,000 for the feature film Audience Award recipient, and $15,000 for the short film Audience Award winner. Feature winners from the past two years have continued to produce films in Arkansas, aided by the Panavision grant. Moreover, Audience Award winners in the Student Shorts category will receive a cash prize of $500.

      In Spite of Ourselves tells the story of a woman who embarks on a whirlwind romance with a promising stand-up comedian struggling with commitment issues. After the screening, composer Jim Fairchild, former lead guitarist of Modest Mouse, will join Loeb and Mayhan for a Q&A session.

      Chasing Summer features Iliza Shlesinger as a woman who returns to her small Texas hometown following a public break-up and job loss.

      During the event, Reinhold will share behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the making of Ruthless People, as well as stories from his other cherished films, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Beverly Hills Cop, and The Santa Clause.

      Another Special Presentation feature film connected to Arkansas is Mouse, a coming-of-age drama by Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan set in Little Rock. This year’s Hometown Heroine screening follows introverted high school senior Minnie, whose life is turned upside down when her charming best friend is abruptly taken from her.

      The Sun Never Sets marks Swanberg’s return to directing after six years, starring Dakota Fanning as a woman whose relationship with her boyfriend faces challenges when an ex reappears.

      Additionally, Michael Russell Gunn’s historical drama The Brink of War features Jeff Daniels as Ronald Reagan and Jared Harris as Mikhail Gorbachev, dramatizing difficult negotiations between the two leaders.

      The festival will also present a comprehensive lineup of workshops and panels.

      The Filmland: Arkansas Short Film Pitch Contest will return after its successful launch last year, giving contestants two minutes to pitch their short film ideas to a panel of industry experts.

      Since 2018, Filmland has hosted award-winning celebrities such as Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Will Forte, Ted Danson, David Arquette, and ACS board member Mary Steenburgen, alongside directors like Chloé Zhao, Richard Linklater, David Lowery, Neil LaBute, David Gordon Green, and Jeff Nichols, as well as producers including Evan Hayes, Jayme Lemons, Christina McLarty Arquette, Fred Berger, and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones. Filmland has showcased celebrated films such as The Bikeriders, Nomadland, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and Free Solo, with screenings featuring Q&As moderated by Nichols, who is the co-founder of ACS.

      For more information on our film festival coverage, click here, and be sure to bookmark the link for our Filmland updates.

      Main image: The Sun Never Sets, courtesy of Filmland.