Jacob Burns

 "Every second Helen Mirren is on-screen in The Last Station is a study in peerless talent." (USA Today)

Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, both nominated for Academy Awards for their performances, dazzle in this captivating look at the turbulent final year in the life of Leo Tolstoy. As Tolstoy (Plummer) becomes increasingly radical with age, he decides to reject his vast wealth—much to the dismay of his wife, the Countess Sofya (Mirren). The desperate countess is soon employing every trick she can muster to seduce her husband’s loyal disciple (James McAvoy), the man she blames for Tolstoy’s new will. Much more than a simple period biopic, The Last Station is high drama, filled with intrigue, sensuality, and a classical marital showdown featuring two legends in prime form.

 "Few American actors over the past 35 years have flickered and smoldered with such craft and resilience." (New York Times)

Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a hard-living, fading country star reduced to playing bowling alleys and hoping for complimentary drinks to get him through the night. Overshadowed by a former protégé (Colin Farrell), Blake eventually seeks redemption from a sympathetic and lovely young journalist (Maggie Gyllenhall).Crazy Heart features nuanced, understated performances by Farrell, Gyllenhall, and Robert Duvall—but the real story here is Jeff Bridges. In a career filled with “career performances,” Bridges manages to top himself. Oozing authenticity and gutter charm, Bridges sings and strums his way through a set of original songs and embodies this beat-up country sage with incredible ease. A remarkable turn, it’s no surprise Bridges has been nominated for the Academy Award (Best Actor), alongside fellow Academy Award nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal (Best Supporting Actress).

“The slow-motion hijacking of the world’s greatest privately held art collection is documented in impeccable, heartrending fashion.” (Variety)

About 100 years ago a great epic of art-world politics began when Albert C. Barnes started to buy paintings. His collection, eventually worth billions, would grow to include 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 59 Matisses, and 46 Picassos. Committed to keeping the works out of the hands of Philadelphia’s high-society “philistines,” Barnes housed his collection four miles outside of town and stipulated in his will that it never be loaned, sold, or moved. But since his death the philistines have been circling—and now they’ve swooped in to seize the spoils. It’s a nail-biter of a story that was the single most talked-about documentary at the New York Film Festival.

“Sweeping and precisely observed...with transparent compassion but none of the sentimentalizing that softens and cheapens too many mob stories.” (New York Times)

France’s official Academy Award submission and the winner of the Grand Prize at Cannes, this sensational drama is from Jacques Audiard (The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Read My Lips). The story of an illiterate Arab teenager who lands in a French prison and learns to navigate the lethal alliances and rivalries of its power structure, it’s raw, intense, and unforgettable. Featuring the quietly compelling debut of Tahar Rahim.

Our current engagement with A Prophet has been rescheduled to open on Friday, March 12.

This year's animated shorts program includes five Oscar-nominated films, and three bonus films from the Academy shortlist:

FRENCH ROAST • In a fancy Parisian Café, an uptight businessman is about to pay the check when he finds out that he has lost his wallet. To save time he decides to order more coffee. (France, 8 min., Director: Fabrice O. Joubert)
THE LADY AND THE REAPER (La Dama y la muerte) • A sweet old lady lives alone on her farm, waiting for death so that she can see her beloved husband once again. One night, she is invited to enter death’s domain, but someone will ruin it for her. (Spain, 8 min., Director: Javier Recio Gracia)
A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH • Wallace & Gromit have started a new bread baking business, ‘Top Bun’ and converted 62 West Wallaby Street into a granary with ovens, robotic kneading arms and an old-fashioned windmill on the roof. The transformation is perfect. Although business is booming, Gromit is concerned by the news that a dozen local bakers have ‘disappeared’ this year – but Wallace isn’t worried. He’s too distracted and ‘dough-eyed’ in love with former beauty and bread enthusiast, Piella Bakewell. While they enjoy being the ‘Toast of the Town’, Gromit soon realises his master’s life is in jeopardy, and turns sleuth to solve the escalating murder mystery – in what quickly becomes ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death.’ (UK, 30 min., Director: Nick Park)
GRANNY O’GRIMM’S SLEEPING BEAUTY • Granny O’Grimm, a seemingly sweet old lady, loses the plot as she tells her version of "Sleeping Beauty" to her terrified granddaughter. (Ireland, 6 min., Director: Nicky Phelan)
LOGORAMA • Spectacular car chases, an intense hostage crisis, wild animals rampaging through the city and even more in Logorama! (France, 16min., Directed by H5: François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy, Ludovic Houplain)
PARTLY CLOUDY (bonus shortlisted film) • Everyone knows that the stork delivers babies, but where do the storks get the babies from? The answer lies up in the stratosphere, where cloud people sculpt babies from clouds and bring them to life. Gus, a lonely and insecure grey cloud, is a master at creating “dangerous” babies. Crocodiles, porcupines, rams and more – Gus’s beloved creations are works of art, but more than a handful for his loyal delivery stork partner, Peck. As Gus’s creations become more and more rambunctious, Peck’s job gets harder and harder. How will Peck manage to handle both his hazardous cargo and his friend’s fiery temperament? (US, 6 min., Director: Peter Sohn)
RUNAWAY (bonus shortlisted film) • Happy passengers are having a great time on a crowded train, oblivious to the unknown fate that awaits them around the bend. The ensuing crisis leads to a class struggle that is as amusing as it is merciless. Naturally there are victims, but in the end everyone is equal. (Canada, 9 min., Director: Cordell Barker)
THE KINEMATOGRAPH (bonus shortlisted film) • Francis is an inventor. His invention is supposed to change the world but he forgot about one thing — dreams have a price. (Poland, 12 min., Director: Tomek Baginski)

Parents, please be advised that one of the shorts contains language that might be objectionable.

This year's live action shorts program includes five Oscar nominated films:

KAVI • Kavi is a boy in India who wants to play cricket and go to school, but instead he is forced to work in a brick kiln as a modern-day slave. Unsatisfied with his fate, Kavi must either accept what he’s always been told, or fight for a different life even if he’s unsure of the ultimate outcome. (USA/INDIA, 19 min., Director: Gregg Helvey)
THE NEW TENANTS • A prying neighbour, a glassy-eyed drug dealer, and a husband brandishing both a weapon and a vendetta make up the welcome wagon. Set amidst the as-yet-unopened boxes and the hopes for a fresh start of two men on what might just be the worst moving day ever. Their new apartment reveals its terrifying history in a film that is by turns funny, frightening, and unexpectedly romantic. (Denmark/USA, 20 min., Director: Joachim Back)
MIRACLE FISH • 8-year-old Joe has a Birthday he will never forget. After friends tease him, he sneaks off to the sick bay, wishing everyone in the world would go away. He wakes up to find his dream may have become a reality. (Australia, 17 min., Director: Luke Doolan)
THE DOOR • A father attempts to come to terms with the devastating effects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. (Ireland, 17 min., Director: Juanita Wilson)
INSTEAD OF ABRACADABRA • Tomas is a bit too old for still living at home with his parents, but his failure to become a magician leaves him with no other choice. His father Bengt wants him to get a proper job. On Bengt’s 60th birthday party Tomas give him, and all his guests, an quite bizarre show. (Sweden, 22 min., Director: Patrik Eklund)