Note: controversial subject matter included

For the 14th consecutive year, Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures present the Oscar-Nominated Short Films, opening on February 8. This is your annual chance to predict the winners (and have the edge in your Oscar pool)! A perennial hit with audiences around the country and the world, don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts. The Academy Awards take place Sunday, Feb. 24^th.

Madre
Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Maria del Puy Alvarado, Spain, 19 minutes
A single mother receives a call from her seven-year-old son who is on vacation with his father in the French Basque Country. At first the call is a cause for joy, but soon it becomes a nightmare when the child tells her that he is alone, cannot find his father, and a stranger is approaching.

Fauve
Jeremy Comte and Maria Gracia Turgeon, Canada, 17 minutes
Set in a surface mine, two boys sink into a seemingly innocent power game with Mother Nature as the sole observer. Alone in the wild, the two boys play around. Complicity evolves into a confrontation where one wants power over the other. This game will not prove as harmless as they thought.

Marguerite
Marianne Farley and Marie-Helene Panisset, Canada, 19 minutes
An aging woman and her nurse develop a friendship that inspires her to unearth unacknowledged longing, and helps her make peace with her past.

Detainment
Vincent Lambe and Darren Mahon, Ireland, 30 minutes
Two ten year-old boys are detained by police under suspicion of abducting and murdering a toddler. A true story based on interview transcripts from the James Bulger case which shocked the world in 1993 and continues to incite public outrage across the UK today.

Skin
Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman, USA, 20 minutes
A small supermarket in a blue collar town, a black man smiles at a 10 year old white boy across the checkout aisle. This innocuous moment sends two gangs into a ruthless war that ends with a shocking backlash.

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy

In Before Sunrise, the romance of a generation sparks suddenly when a wayfaring wannabe writer from America (Ethan Hawke) convinces a fetching Parisian college student (Julie Delpy) to disembark with him for a whirlwind trip through Vienna. The pair amble through the city’s streets, hopping from one landmark to the next as they wax poetic about their expectations in love and life knowing full well that their blossoming romance comes with fast approaching expiration date.

Starring: Peter Gallagher, Daryl Hannah, Valérie Quennessen

Set upon a romantic Greek island, this drama chronicles the experiences of a pair of young American adults who go there for summer vacation. Their idyll is interrupted by a sexy archaeologist who has come there to work on a dig.

Starring: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup

Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. Lola has 20 min to raise this amount and meet Manni. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola’s run.

Starring: Adepero Oduye, Kim Wayans, Charles Parnell, Aasha Davis, Sahra Mellesse, Pernell Walker

Alike is a 17-year-old African-American woman who lives with her parents Audrey and Arthur and younger sister Sharonda in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. Alike is quietly but firmly embracing her identity as a lesbian. With the sometimes boisterous support of her best friend, out lesbian Laura, Alike is especially eager to find a girlfriend. At home, her parents’ marriage is strained and there is further tension in the household whenever Alike’s development becomes a topic of discussion. Pressed by her mother into making the acquaintance of a colleague’s daughter, Bina, Alike finds Bina to be unexpectedly refreshing to socialize with. Wondering how much she can confide in her family, Alike strives to get through adolescence with grace, humor, and tenacity – sometimes succeeding, sometimes not, but always moving forward.

Starring: Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano, Christopher Meloni

To make an additional $10 donation to Advocates for Trans Equality, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.

Encore Performance!

Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly nearly set the screen on fire in this clever, female-powered twist on the standard Mob caper film. Gershon is Corky, an ex-con renovating the apartment next door to where Tilly’s Violet lives. Violet is the moll of psychotic gangster Caesar (Joe Pantoliano), who uses the apartment as an occasional location for meetings and beatings, and also uses Violet as an occasional plaything for his Mob cronies. Violet is attracted to the super-sexy Corky, and the two begin an intense affair. Corky hatches a plot to escape with $2 million that Caesar is planning to give to a Mob boss, and the mayhem escalates from there.

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell, Tatiana Maslany

Starring: Michelle Rodriguez, Santiago Douglas, Jaime Tirelli

Starring: Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, Ned Beatty

Nicky (John Cassavetes) is a small-time Jewish gangster in trouble with the mob. He calls on his lifelong friend Mikey (Peter Falk) for help. During the night the two spend together, the power of their friendship is undermined by their mutual nastiness and pressing financial concerns. Elaine May’s script was allegedly taken from an episode in the life of her uncle.