Movie Menu: Phase IV, Office Space & Oscar Events

Oscar Shorts at the Academy
To kick off Oscar Week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present "Shorts!" a program featuring the 10 Academy Award-nominated films in the Animated and Live Action Short Film categories. The program, hosted by director Taylor Hackford, will feature onstage discussions with the nominated filmmakers.

Short Film (Animated)
The Danish Poet, Torill Kove, director
Lifted, Gary Rydstrom, director
The Little Matchgirl, Roger Allers, director; Don Hahn, producer
Maestro, Geza M. Toth, director
No Time for Nuts, Chris Renaud and Michael Thurmeier, directors

Short Film (Live Action)
Binta and the Great Idea, Javier Fesser, director; Luis Manso, producer
Eramos Pocos, Borja Cobeaga, director
Helmer & Son, Soren Pilmark, director; Kim Magnusson, executive producer
The Saviour, Peter Templeman, director; Stuart Parkyn, producer
West Bank Story, Ari Sandel, director

WHEN: Tuesday, February 20, at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Samuel Goldwyn Theater at AMPAS in Beverly Hills.
*NOTE: Free advance tickets to "Shorts!" are necessary to secure admission. There is a two ticket per person limit. Tickets are available beginning February 1 at the Academy's ticket office. For ticket order information, call 310-247-3600 Doors open at 6:30 p.m. All seating is unreserved.

Amblin', Fearless, Goodfellas
In Person: Allen Daviau
The UCLA Archive and the American Society of Cinematographers hosts The Art of Light, a slew of films highlighting the work celebrated cinematographers. Allen Daviau will be on hand for this screening of Steven Spielberg's first short film, Amblin', and the 1993 drama Fearless about airplane crash survivors, starring Jeff Bridges and Isabella Rossellini.

WHEN: Wednesday, February 21, at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: The Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum (10899 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood)

*P.S. On Friday, February 23 cinematographer Michael Ballhaus will be in the house for a Q&A after the Goodfellas screening at 7:30 p.m. (also at The Hammer).

Waaaay more after the jump....

Phase IV (Saul Bass Tribute)
Saul Bass, whose iconic title sequences for such films as Vertigo, Pyscho, The Man with the Golden Arm and Goodfellas elevated film titles to an art form in their own right, earns a well-deserved tribute. As part of this retrospective of Bass' design work, the Skirball Center will screen the only film Bass ever directed, the overlooked 1974 sci-fi gem Phase IV, one of the stranger movies ever made. In the sun-bleached desert, two scientists and a stray girl try to stop super-smart ants who have somehow formed a collective intelligence and are waging war on humanity. The film is languid and lovingly shot, closer to Solaris than your standard sci-fi thriller.

WHEN: Thursday, February 22 at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Skirball Center

Editors & Production Designers
The pre-Oscar hoopla continues with the "Invisible Art, Visible Artists" seminar the American Cinematheque, which will host two separate panel discussion featuring this year's Oscar-nominated editors and this year's Oscar-nominated production designers. Admission is free for both events.

Martin Scorsese's longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker (The Departed) leads the editing panel, which features all of this year's Oscar-nominated film editors including Stephen Mirrone and Douglas Crise (Babel), Steven Rosenblum (Blood Diamond), Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Cuaron (Children Of Men) and Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson (United 93).

The production designers and set decorators include John Myhre (art direction) and Nancy Haigh (set decoration) for Dreamgirls, Jeannine Oppewall (art direction), Gretchen Rau and Leslie E. Rollins (set decoration) The Good Shepard, Eugenio Caballero (art direction) and Pilar Revuelta (set decoration) for Pan's Labryinth, Rick Heinrichs (art direction) and Cheryl Carasik (set decoration) for Pirates Of The Carribean: Dead Man's Chest and Nathan Crowley (art direction) and Julie Ochipinti (set decoration) for The Prestige.

WHEN: Saturday, February 24
10:00 a.m. - Editors
2:30 p.m. - Production Designers & Set Decorators
WHERE: American Cinematheque at The Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, (just east of Highland Ave.) in Hollywood

Office Space at Midnight
Stash some hooch in your pocket, purse or hollow leg and wear your flair, because Mike Judge's classic -- not cult classic, just straight-up classic -- Office Space, a hilarious deadpan spoof of the cubicle class, will be screened at midnight.

WHEN: Saturday, February 24 at MIDNIGHT
WHERE: The Rialto (1023 Fair Oaks Avenue, South Pasadena)

The Academy Awards
Why watch the Oscars on the dreary confines of your studio apartment when you could see celebrities' asses projected on a 57-foot screen at the American Cinematheque’s Oscar Viewing Party? A general admission ticket costs $25, but it includes a buffet, an open bar and plenty of catty comments made within walking distance of the ceremony itself, and within earshot of hundreds of your closest makeshift friends. Attendees are encouraged to dress in formal wear or to come in costume as your favorite actor or character.

WHEN: Sunday, February 25
2-5 p.m. - doors open for buffet & cocktails. The good folks recommend you arrive early as limos start to line up on Highland at 2:30 p.m.
5 p.m. - it ends: Oscar telecast + dessert & coffee.
American Cinematheque at The Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, (just east of Highland Ave.) in Hollywood