Need to see a bunch to inform your viewing of the 90th Academy Awards on March 4? Check out these local screenings.
Oscar Nominated Short Films. Separate screenings feature Academy Award-nominated short films in animation, documentary and live-action categories. Best Animated Short Film nominees are: Glen Keane’s Dear Basketball; Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata’s Negative Space; Dave Mullins’ Lou; Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer’s Revolting Rhymes; and Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Claire, Theophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon and Lucas Navarro’s Garden Party. Best Documentary-Short Subject nominees are: Laura Chekoway and Thomas Lee Wright’s Edith+Eddie; Frank Stiefel’s Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405; Elaine McMillion Sheldon and Kerrin Sheldon’s Heroin(e); Thomas Lennon’s Knife Skills; and Kate Davis and David Heilbroner’s Traffic Stop. Best Live Action Short Film nominees are: Reed Van Dyk’s DeKalb Elementary; Derin Seale and Josh Lawson’s The Eleven O’Clock; Kevin Wilson Jr.’s My Nephew Emmett; Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton’s The Silent Child; and Katja Benrath and Tobias Rosen’s Watu Wote/All of Us. Oscars are presented March 4. Regency Directors Cut Cinema at Rancho Niguel, 25471 Rancho Niguel Rd., Laguna Niguel, (949) 831-0446; Regency South Coast Village, 1561 Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana, (714) 557-5701. Fri.-Thurs., Feb. 9-15. Call for various times and ticket prices. Also Coming to the Art Theatre, 2025 E. 4th St., Long Beach, (562) 438-5435, on Feb. 23.
The Disaster Artist. Tommy Wiseau’s The Room has been a late show mainstay at The Frida Cinema, so it’s small wonder that downtown Santa Ana’s cinematic wonderland is now showing James Franco’s acclaimed adaptation of The Room co-star Greg Sestero’s making of tell-all. Rather than creating a Wiseau hit piece, Franco shows how The Room’s writer-producer-director-star (who he also plays) became an unlikely legend. Franco won the Golden Globe for best actor, but he was snubbed for an Oscar nomination in any category, possibly because of recent sexual harassment allegations. However, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber are up for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Frida Cinema, 305 E. Fourth St., Santa Ana; thefridacinema.org. Fri.-Thurs., Feb. 9-15, 5:30, 7:30, 9:40 p.m. with additional screenings Sat.-Sun., 12:30 and 3 p.m. $7-$10; and multiple Regal/Edwards theaters in Orange County (click here).
Call Me by Your Name. Charming American doctoral student Oliver (The Social Network’s Armie Hammer) goes to an Italian villa to serve as the annual summer intern for an eminent Greco-Roman culture professor (Boardwalk Empire’s Michael Stuhlbarg). But Oliver and the professor’s son Elio (Timothée Chalamet of Interstellar and Homeland) fall in love. Director Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love) worked off James Ivory’s script, which was adapted from Andre Aciman’s novel. It’s up for Best Picture, Best Actor (Chalamet) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ivory). Currently showing at Regency Directors Cut Cinema at Rancho Niguel, (949) 831-04461. Fri.-Thurs., Feb. 9-15. Call for various times and ticket prices; and multiple Regal/Edwards theaters in Orange County (click here). The Frida Cinema; thefridacinema.org. Opens Fri., Feb. 16, 12:30 p.m. with multiple daily screenings through Thurs., Feb. 22. Visit for times. $7-$10.
The Darkest Hour. Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture. Within days of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman, a Best Actor nominee) must face one of his most turbulent and defining trials: exploring a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi Germany, or standing firm to fight for the ideals, liberty and freedom of a nation. Currently showing at Regency Directors Cut Cinema at Rancho Niguel, (949) 831-0446; Regency Lido, 3459 Via Lido, Newport Beach, (949) 673-8350; Regency South Coast Village, 1561 Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana, (714) 557-5701; and multiple Regal/Edwards theaters in Orange County (click here).
I, Tonya. Nominated for three Academy Awards. Based on the unbelievable but true events, this darkly comedic tale is about American figure skater Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie, a Best Actress nominee). Allison Janney, who won the Golden Globe for best performance by an actress in a supporting role, is nominated for the same at the Oscars. Tatiana S. Riegel was nominated for Best Film Editing. Currently showing at Regency Directors Cut Cinema at Rancho Niguel, (949) 831-0446; and multiple Regal/Edwards theaters in Orange County (click here).
Lady Bird. Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture. The relationship comedy stars Best Actress Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan as Christine McPherson, a rebellious student at a conservative Catholic Sacramento high school who wants to escape her family and small town constraints to go to college in New York. Laurie Metcalf, who plays Christine’s mother, is up for Best Supporting Actress. Greta Gerwig is nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Currently showing at Regency Directors Cut Cinema at Rancho Niguel, (949) 831-0446; and multiple Regal/Edwards theaters in Orange County (click here).
Phantom Thread. Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture. Set in the glamour of 1950s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Best Actor nominee Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Best Supporting Actress nominee Lesley Manville) are at the center of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock’s life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Other Oscar nominees are Paul Thomas Anderson (Best Director), Jonny Greenwood (Best Original Music Score) and Mark Bridges (Best Costume Design). Currently showing at Regency Directors Cut Cinema at Rancho Niguel, (949) 831-0446; Regency South Coast Village, 1561 Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana, (714) 557-5701; and multiple Regal/Edwards theaters in Orange County (click here).
The Post. Nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Picture. Steven Spielberg directs Best Actress nominee Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks in the thrilling drama about the unlikely partnership between The Washington Post’s Katharine Graham (Streep), the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, and editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks), as they race to catch up with The New York Times to expose a massive cover-up of government secrets that spanned three decades and four U.S. presidents. Currently showing at Regency South Coast Village, 1561 Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana, (714) 557-5701; and multiple Regal/Edwards theaters in Orange County (click here).
The Shape of Water. Nominated for 13 Academy Awards including Best Picture. It’s another other-worldy fairytale from the master, Guillermo del Toro, this time set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Best Actress nominee Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Her life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Best Supporting Actress nominee Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment. Other nominees are del Toro (Best Director and, with Vanessa Taylor, Best Original Screenplay), Alexandre Deplat (Best Original Music Score), Dan Lausten (Best Cinematography), Luis Sequeira (Best Costume Design), Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern and Glen Gauthier (Best Sound Mixing), Sidney Wolinsky (Best Film Editing), Paul D. Austerberry (Best Production Design) and Nelson Ferreira and Nathan Robitaille (Best Sound Editing). Currently showing at Regency Directors Cut Cinema at Rancho Niguel, (949) 831-0446; and multiple Regal/Edwards theaters in Orange County (click here).
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes (Golden Globe Best Actress Frances McDormand, who is also up for the Oscar) makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson), the town’s revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor Sam Rockwell, who is also up for an Oscar), an immature mother’s boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing’s law enforcement is only exacerbated. Other nominees are Carter Burwell (Best Original Music Score), Martin McDonagh (Best Original Screenplay) and Jon Gregory (Best Film Editing). Currently showing at Regency Directors Cut Cinema at Rancho Niguel, (949) 831-0446; Regency Westminster, 6721 Westminster Blvd., Westminster, (714) 893-4222; and multiple Regal/Edwards theaters in Orange County (click here).
A Night at the Oscars. Enjoy an evening with hosts Robert Kline and Stephanie Heredia, who present a spectacular Oscars pre-party with a glimpse behind the scenes of this years nominated films and what it takes to win the statue. Regency San Juan Capistrano, 26762 Verdugo St., San Juan Capistrano, (949) 661-3456. Thurs., March 1, 6:30 p.m. $15.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.