Catch that Oscar Nominee – 2011 Edition

[UPDATED ON FEB. 25] Since the number of Best Motion Picture of the Year nominees increased from 5 to 10 last year, catching all nominated films has gotten a little bit harder. But not impossible, just more time consuming. With 2 weeks days to go until the big show, there’s actually many local opportunities to catch up on the nominated flicks before the Oscars® on February 27th. Here’s a round-up:


THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
For the 7th consecutive year, the National Archives will offer free screenings of the nominees in 4 categories: Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Live Action Short Film, and Animated Short Film, in its William G. McGowan Theater between February 23-February 27, 2011. My only advice: get there early! This event is very popular (duh, it’s free!) and tickets are distributed at the Special Events entrance on Constitution 60 minutes prior to the start time. The schedule for the documentary feature nominees is as follows: Waste Land – 7pm, Feb. 23; Gasland – 7pm, Feb. 24; Restrepo – 7pm, Feb. 25; Inside Job – 7pm, Feb. 26; and Exit Through the Gift Shop – 4pm, Feb.27. The screening of the Live Action Short Films will take place Saturday February 26 at noon, followed by the Animated Short Films at 3:30pm. Finally, the Documentary Short Subject nominees will be shown at 11:30am on Oscars® day.

LANDMARK THEATERS 
Between E Street and Bethesda Row you can catch a lot of nominated flicks, including some of the short features if you can’t make it to the National Archives. Indeed, E Street Cinema has daily screenings of both the Live Action Short Films and the Animated Short Films. It’s also showing Best Motion Picture of the Year nominees 127 Hours, Black Swan, The King’s Speech, Barney’s Version (nominated in the Make-up category) and Blue Valentine (which received nods for Original Screenplay and Best Actress in a Leading Role). In addition to Black Swan, The King’s Speech, Barney’s Version and Blue Valentine, Bethesda Row is also showing Another Year, The Illusionist, a lovely French movie nominated in the Animated Feature Film category and Biutiful, which received two nominations, one for Javier Bardem’s performance in a leading role and the other as Best Foreign Picture representing Mexico.

DC’s newest independent art house cinema is currently showing 3 4 Oscars® nominated films. Well, technically, 7 8 films. In addition to Documentary Feature nominee Inside Job and Feature Film nominee The Social Network, West End Cinema is showing all 5 Documentary Short Film nominees and Winter’s Bone.

• Regal Gallery Place Stadium 14: True Grit, The Fighter
• AMC Loews Georgetown 14: True Grit, Black Swan, The King’s Speech and Biutiful. Additionally, on Saturday February 26, the theater will show all 10 Best Feature Film nominees in a row (that’s right!) starting with Toy Story 3 at 10am on February 26th and ending with the The King’s Speech at 7:05am the next day. After that, you will definitely want to go home, sleep all day and wake up just on time to watch the Oscars®!
• AMC Courthouse Plaza 8: Black Swan, The Fighter and Barney’s Version.
• Arlington Cinema N’Drafthouse: Saturday and Sunday at 11:30am Tangled (hey, it’s nominated for best song…) Update: The movie theater is also showing The Social Network, Inception, Winter’s Bone and Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part I (nominated for Art Direction and Visual Effects. I’m leaving nothing out here!) but they are no screenings this weekend 🙁
• Regal Potomac Yard 16: True Grit
• Avalon: this just in, the Avalon upped his Oscar showing in the alst stretch and is now playing the Live Action Short Films and the Animated Short Films in addition to True Grit, The Fighter, 127 Hours, Toy Story 3 and Winter’s Bone
• Regal Ballston Common 12: The King’s Speech, True Grit, 127 Hours
• AMC Loews Shirlington 7: The King’s Speech, Black Swan, Blue Valentine, 127 Hours, The Illusionist, Biutiful and Barney’s Version. Like ther AMC theater in Georgetown, Shirlington 7 will be showing all 10 Motion Picture nominees but spread over 2 days. Toy Story 3, 127 Hours, the Kids are All Right, True Grit and The Fighter will be shown in that order were shown on February 19th and Winter’s Bone, Black Swan, Inception, The Social Network and The King’s Speech will fill the screens on February 26th (2 day pass will set you back $60 while a 1-day pass will cost you a good night of sleep and $35).
• AFI Silver Theater Cultural Center: Black Swan, Blue Valentine, The Social Network
• Regal Bethesda 10: True Grit, The Fighter
• Alexandria Old Town Theater: The King’s Speech
• Fairfax Art House Cinema:  Barney’s Version, Biutiful, The Fighter, True Grit, The King’s Speech, The Illusionist and the Live Action Short Films and Animated Short Films.
• Regal Majestic 20:  The King’s Speech, True Grit

DVD AND/OR NETFLIX

Plenty of nominated films are already out on DVD and some are even available on demand. These include: Inception, The Social Network, Winter’s Bone, The Town (Jeremy Renner is nominated for his performance in a supporting role), Toy Story 3, Animal Kingdom (Jacki Weaver is nominated for best performance by an actress in a supporting role), Alice in Wonderland (nominated for Art direction, Costume Design and Visual effects, Alice is available on demand), Dogtooth (available on demand), Exit Through the Gift Shop (also available on demand), Gasland (FYI, Gasland is also playing on HBO right now), How to Train Your Dragon (Best Animated Feature), I Am Love (nominated for Costume Design and available on demand), Iron Man 2 (nominated for Visual Effects), Restrepo (available on demand) and last but not least Salt (nominated for Sound Mixing).

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

[PAST] While I am very sad there is no official French nominee, I am still very much looking forward to National Geographic’s Global Glimpses Series which offers the opportunity to cross that whole category off your list. Tickets are available individually for each screenings ($8 a movie) or for all 5 ($35) [update: from what I understand, all tickets have been sold out]. If you did manage to get tickets (like me!!) the schedule for the event is as follows: Incendies (Canada) Feb. 18th at 7pm; In a Better World (Denmark) Feb. 19th at 5pm; Biutiful (Mexico) Feb. 19th at 8pm; Dogtooth (Greece) Feb. 20 at 2pm and Outside the Law (Algeria) Feb. 20 at 5pm. Outside the Law will also be shown for free on Thursday, February 24th (7pm) as part of the North African Film Festival at NMfAA.

Well, hopefully this will help you catch most of the nominated flicks before Oscars® day. Happy watching and, if you’re like me, trying to watch as many of them as you can, good luck!!

For a complete list of the 2011 Oscars® Nominees, please visit the Oscars®  website..  The Oscars® air February 27th at 8pm (EST) on ABC.