Opening This Week:

OSCAR SHORTS—Two programs compiling the short films (live action and animated) nominated for this year’s Academy Awards. Reviewed this issue. Market Arcade

SHUTTER ISLAND—Martin Scorsese tries his hand at a gothic horror story based on a Dennis Lehane novel, starring Leonardo DiCoprio as a federal marshal investigating the disappearance of a patient from an island facility that houses the criminally insane. With Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, and Jackie Earle Haley. Reviewed this issue. Flix, Maple Ridge, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

THE WHITE RIBBON—Most of the pre-Oscar awards for best foreign film have gone to this German drama chronicling a series of troubling events in a small village in the early years of the 20th century. Starring Christian Friedel, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur and Susanne Lothar. Directed by Michael Haneke (Cache). Reviewed this issue. Amherst

ETC:

THE APPLE (1998)—Iranian drama about two sisters facing the world for the first time after having been imprisoned in their home for 12 years by their parents. Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf. Presented by the International Women’s Film Festival. Thurs Feb 18, 7pm. Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, 639 Main St. (855-3022).

BIZARRE ANIMATION: FILMS OF LADISLAV STAREVIC—Program of films by the Polish animator who created intricate stop-motion work a century before Tim Burton. Mon. 8pm. Sugar City Arts Collaborative, 19 Wadsworth St. Reviewed this issue.

BLACK FILM FESTIVAL—Opening night for the eighth edition of this festival, featuring three short films: “The Night We Died” (written by East Amherst’s John Gary Long), “Lifted” and “(Mis) Leading Man.” Sat. 6 pm. Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, 639 Main St. (855-3022).

CLUB NATIVE—Documentary about Canadian Mohawks designated as insufficiently “pure” to be considered members of the community. Directed by Tracey Deer. Presented by the International Women’s Film Festival. Thurs Feb 25, 7pm. Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, 639 Main St. (855-3022). Reviewed this issue.

DREAMINIMALIST and SLAP THE GONDOLA—Two films by Marie Losier. The first chronicles veteran artist Tony Conrad’s recent activities: playing with costumes, practicing his violin, cooking pickled films. The second is a record of Conrad and 30 friends having a fish fight on a Brooklyn ferry. Losier and Conrad will both be present for the screening. Thurs. Feb, 25 8pm. Squeaky Wheel, 712 Main St (884-7172) www.squeaky.org.

HOT FUZZ—The creators of Shaun of the Dead turn their parodic gaze on overamped American cop movies in this comedy about an overachieving bobby sent to a dull British town where nothing ever seems to happen. Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Timothy Dalton, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Billie Whitelaw, and Paddy Considine. Directed by Edgar Wright. Sat midnight. Amherst Theatre, 3500 Main St. (834-7655) www.dipsontheatres.com.

THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956)—Alfred Hitchcock’s remake of his 1934 film, with James Stewart and Doris Day as a vacationing couple who become involved in an assassination plot in Morocco. Look for composer Bernard Herrmann as the orchestra conductor in the finale (it’ll distract you from Day bleating “Que Sera Sera.”) Fri, Sat, Tues 8pm. The Screening Room, Northtown Plaza in Century Mall, 3131 Sheridan Drive, Amherst (837-0376).

RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (1962)—Long before his fame in the early 1970s, director Sam Peckinpah demonstrated his affinity for the movie western with this underrated classic starring Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea as aging lawmen transporting a shipment of gold. With Mariette Hartley and Edgar Buchanan. Presented as part of the Buffalo Film Seminar. Tues 7 pm, Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, 639 Main St. (855-3022).

TERMITE TV: THE BASICS TRILOGY—Program of short works form the Philadelphia/Baltimore/Buffalo collective. Sat 8pm. Hallwalls, 341 Delaware Ave. (854-1694) www.hallwalls.org