"A dancer is half nun, half boxer, capable of great dedication, endowed with physical strength, and energy. They are both. A dancer is both the racehorse and its jockey, the race car and it’s driver."

The Academy Awards — arguably the movie industry’s biggest event — has two categories for short films — animation and live. All 10 of the nominees this year are full of compassion, humor and meaning, with each introducing a unique element of comedy or drama to the category. Both the animated and live-action shorts are at Cornell Cinema throughout the weekend.

French Roast

Raise a glass and toast, as Cornell Cinema celebrates its 40th anniversary! Let’s hope that 40 really is the new 20, and that this birthday does not spawn the typical midlife crisis (I don’t know if I could handle a paint job touch-up that turns Willard Straight Theater’s walls bright yellow, or something of that sort), but instead is just the first of many age related celebrations.

Cornell Cinema’s 40th anniversary series, which features classic films of the 1970s, began this Monday with Mel Brooks’ 1974 film Young Frankenstein, a comedic take on Mary Shelley’s classic tale about life, death and everything in between.

Kitchen Theater’s Precious Nonsense

Wednesday & Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday at 8:00 p.m.

An Encore to the 2005 musical by Rachel Lampert. Filled with juicy love triangles, cross-dressers and identity confusion run amuck in a Gilbert & Sullivan troupe.

Oscar Docs:

And the Nominees Are...

Willard Straight Hall

The Quay Brothers’ films play tug-o-war with the viewer’s credulity, shifting between the real, ordinary world and the realm of the fantastic. Should the audience believe what’s on the screen, that puppets have come to life and sewing pins are scurrying over the furniture and not see the difference between the skeletons of a crocodile and a dragon, stretching the truth to magical heights?

Dormitorium: Film Decors by

The Brothers Quay

Jan 25-Feb 5

Fantastical art exhibit and showings of the animated series created by the Quay Brothers. At the John Hartell Gallery in Sibley Dome.

James Siena: From the

Studio

January 16-April 18

Ah, the gloomy world of cinematic prostitution. The ups, the downs, the moustaches, the hearts of gold … all contributing to a seedy cinematic underbelly that’s been on screens across the globe for decades. Out of Austria comes Revanche, the 2008 film from Götz Spielmann.

Ice Bears of the Beaufort opens with two distinct roars. The first is a roar of words, with text moving across the screen calling for action against human interference in the Arctic, as “the present is upon us.” The other roar is more literal. It’s the sound of the wind ripping through the Alaskan air, coupled with cries from what can only be the polar bears of the title.