Oscar Shorts Film Festival at the Catlow in Barrington
The Oscar Shorts Film Festival will be held the next two Saturdays at the Catlow Theater, followed by a red-carpet Oscar viewing party on Sunday, Feb. 28, at Barrington's White House.
Barrington-area movie lovers will have insider access to two of the most compelling and hardest to see Oscar-nominated film categories - Best Animated Short Film and Best Live Action Short Film. The Barrington Cultural Commission and The Catlow Theater are teaming up to bring you the five nominees in each category for a total of 10 films.
Animated films will be shown at noon Feb. 20 and 27, followed about 2 p.m. by live-action films.
The animated films average a running time of less than 10 minutes, while the live-action films generally look at more serious subjects and average about 20 minutes. There will be a brief intermission between the two showings.
Seats are limited. Tickets are $10 and are available in advance from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday at the Catlow Theater and Baloney's Restaurant, or online at www.thecatlow.com.
Hollywood's Greatest Night Oscar Party will take place from 6:30 to 11 p.m. at 145 W. Main St. The red carpet will be rolled out and guests can sip champagne and nibble on hors d'oeuvres while watching the excitement of Oscar night unfold. The broadcast will be streaming live on multiple large screens throughout the home. Dress to impress or come as your favorite celebrity.
Tickets are $25 and include hors d'oeuvres, desserts, a glass of champagne and a chance at prizes that will be awarded throughout the evening. There will be a cash bar.
For information and tickets, visit www.barringtonswhitehouse.com.
Animated nominees:
• "Bear Story," Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala - A melancholy old bear takes a mechanical diorama that he has created out to his street corner where passers-by can look into the peephole of his story.
• "Prologue," Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton - 2,400 years ago, four warriors battle to the death in an intense struggle witnessed by a little girl, who then runs to her grandmother for comfort.
• "Sanjay's Super Team," Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle - Young Sanjay, a first-generation Indian-American, is obsessed with cartoons, but develops a new perspective that he and his father can both embrace.
• "We Can't Live without Cosmos," Konstantin Bronzit -Two best friends have dreamed since childhood of becoming cosmonauts and make the sacrifices necessary to achieve their shared goal.
• "World of Tomorrow," Don Hertzfeldt - A little girl named Emily is taken on a fantastical tour of her distant future by a surprising visitor who reveals unnerving secrets about humanity's fate.
Live-action nominees:
• "Ave Maria," Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont - Five nuns living in the West Bank find their routine disrupted when the car of a family of Israeli settlers breaks down outside the convent.
• "Day One," Henry Hughes - An Afghan-American woman joins the U.S. military as an interpreter and she accompanies troops pursuing a bomb-maker, and must bridge the gender and culture gap.
• "Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)," Patrick Vollrath - Michael, a divorced father devoted to his eight-year-old daughter, Lea, picks her up for their usual weekend together, but something is very different.
• "Shok," Jamie Donoughue - In Kosovo in 1998, two young boys are best friends living normal lives, but as war engulfs their country, the choices they make threaten their friendship, families and lives.
• "Stutterer," Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage - For a lonely typographer, an online relationship has provided a connection without revealing the speech impediment, until he is faced with meeting his online paramour in the flesh.
Ratings are not available for all films. Previews and more information about each film is at http://oscar.go.com/news/nominations/oscar-nominations-2016-the-complete-list-of-nominees.