Short films, like short stories, are often overlooked. The best short subjects have all of the power, scope and resonance of a feature-length film. We are screening the best of the best: 3 programs (one devoted to animation, one to live-action and the third to documentaries) featuring all 15 Oscar nominees. This is your chance to see the films before the Awards show. And yes, the Animated Program is kid-friendly! Jan 30-Feb 22; Feb 8th at the Buskirk Chumley Theater.

The five Academy Award nominees for Best Short Animated Film. Children and their adult companions will appreciate the animation films - kids 7 and under free.

In Germany in 1788, a rebellious poet Friedrich Schiller and two bohemian sisters experience an unforgettable period which will eventually bind them forever.

A bumbling detective investigates a murder mystery on the outskirts of the English Channel in northern France but he has to contend with a young prankster, the mischievous Quinquin.

A butterfly expert's wayward desires test her lover's patience.

Research scientists travel to a distant planet where reading and writing have been banned in this visionary science-fiction film.

Born out of the 1977 British punk scene, the Mekons progressed from a group of socialist art students with no musical skills to the prolific, raucous progeny of Hank Williams.

Heinrich von Kleist writes the notorious Mariquise of O. The young poet then decides to end it all in Jessica Hausner's wry and curious critique of dying for love.

Eric Rohmer’s detailed, infinitely subtle 1976 retelling of a Heinrich von Kleist story about an Italian aristocrat who discovers, unaccountably, that she’s pregnant. Co-feature: Amour Fou

Viviane has been applying for divorce for three years. But her domineering husband will not agree. His cold intransigence collides with Viviane's determination to fight for her freedom in this "gripping film from start to finish." -- NY Times

A Japanese woman becomes convinced that a satchel of money buried and lost in the film, Fargo, is in fact, real. With a crudely drawn treasure map and limited preparation, she escapes her mundane life in Tokyo and embarks on a quest across the frozen tundra of Minnesota in search of her mythical fortune.

May 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31 ♦ Abderrahmane Sissako's French-language drama about a town's 2012 takeover by Al Qaeda militants was one of this year's Academy Award nominees for Best Foreign Language Film. “Not just a timely movie, a great one...Timbuktu feels at once timely and permanent, immediate and essential.”
-The New York Times, A.O. Scott

May 29, 30, 31, June 5, 6 and 7 ♦ Wolfgang Beltracchi fooled the international art world and was responsible for the biggest art forgery scandal of the postwar era. An expert in art history, theory and painting techniques, he fooled renowned experts, curators and art dealers. The auctioneers Sotheby’s and Christie’s were hoodwinked, just like Hollywood star Steve Martin and other collectors throughout the world.

June 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20 ♦ Powered by the antics of a mischievous centenarian on the run, blockbuster comedy The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared abounds with irreverent charm. After a long and colorful life working in munitions and getting entangled in the Spanish Civil War, the Manhattan Project, and other definitive events of the 20th century, Allan Karlsson finds himself stuck in a nursing home. Determined to escape on his 100th birthday, he leaps out of a window and onto the nearest bus, kicking off an unexpected journey involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash, some wicked criminals, and an elephant named Sonya.

June 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27 ♦ Michel Houellebecq, possibly the most widely read living French writer, was believed kidnapped on September 16, 2011. But was he really? After a flurry of media reports of his abduction, the story goes cold and Houellebecq, famously reclusive, refuses to set the record straight. Now he goes one step further by starring as himself in a film that purports to tell the tale. With a nod to O. Henry's short story, The Ransom of Red Chief, the film explores the dramatic territory where the personae of criminal and victim are remade in unexpected and surprisingly amusing ways.

June 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, July 10, 11 ♦ Scroll down for Times and locations

A disillusioned French architect travels to Italy searching for inspiration. La Sapienza is an inspiring love story set amid sun-drenched Italian vistas and soul-stirring architectural wonders. "Easily the most astonishing and important movie to emerge from France in quite some time." --Godfrey Cheshire, ROGEREBERT.COM

June 26, 27, July 3 and 5 ♦
The Wolfpack is the true story of 7 children (6 boys and one girl) who were locked away from society by their father in an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They were home schooled by their mother and allowed to watch movies nonstop. They watched approximately 5,000 films.

A young woman falls for a manipulative lawyer who wants control of the the casino owned by her mother. Catherine Deneuve stars in this French psychological drama based on the sensational real-life 1970s French Riviera Casino Wars.

July 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 31, Aug 1, 2Three Iranian couples and their assorted children and friends as they make their way from Tehran to the shores of the Caspian Sea for a long weekend in this film by Asghar Farhad (A Separation). When one of the vacationers goes missing, their idyllic weekend turns into a moral whodunit.

Aug 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23 ♦ For the last 20 years, notorious activists/pranksters the Yes Men have staged outrageous and hilarious hoaxes to draw international attention to corporate crimes against humanity and the environment. Armed with nothing but thrift-store suits and a lack of shame, these iconoclastic revolutionaries lie their way into business events and government functions to expose the dangers of letting greed run our world.

July 31, Aug 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16
Benjamin is meant to be a great doctor, he’s certain of it. But his first experience as a junior doctor in the hospital ward where his father works doesn’t turn out the way he hoped it would. Hippocrates raked in seven 2015 César nominations, including Best Director and Best Film.

A pair of university students attempt to track down an unsung folk-rock hero. Gueros is ""A gorgeous slice of deadbeat Mexico City slacker poetry...a work of genius...witty, delicate and often magical. GUEROS is the foreign-language discovery of 2015 so far, and pretty close to the best film I've seen all year." - Andrew O'Hehir, Salon

Bring a blanket. Bring a snack. Bring the dog. Our summer series of free outdoor movies continues on August 28 in Butler Park with Groundhog Day.

Sept 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27 ♦ Life begins to imitate art in uncanny ways when earthy British beauty Gemma (Gemma Arterton) and her furniture restorer husband Charles Bovery (Jason Flemyng) move to the very same Norman village where Emma Bovery was written. Local baker and Flaubert fan Martin Joubert (Fabrice Luchini) falls for the lovely and charming newcomer and sets out to be her mentor. Whether you’ve read Flaubert or not, Gemma Bovery is an insightful, delightful comedy of manners.