Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 9 February 2018 - 15 February 2018

Ah, the weekend before Valentine's Day, which has become about the latest entry in a series of kinky romances, me having a fraught relationship with a film festival, and what seems like a late-ish arrival for the Oscar-nominated short films.

• Starting with the most interesting material, the Oscar-Nominated Shorts start showing up this weekend, with Kendall Square splitting one theater between the Animated shorts and the Live-Action ones (with the animation getting more and better screening times) while two programs of Documentary shorts play at The Coolidge Corner Theatre; CinemaSalem has both in their screening room. Both have their other screens filled with feature-length nominees.
  
  The Coolidge continues to have many showtimes of Phantom Thread on 70mm film and has a number of other repertory programs. The "Women in Horror" midnights include 35mm prints of director Antonina Bird's Ravenous on Friday and Rachel Talalay's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare on Saturday. They also have a Saturday midnight of My Best Fiend, Coolidge honoree Werner Herzog's chronicle of his tumultuous relationship with frequent star Klaus Kinski. The Sunday morning Goethe-Institut German movie is In Times of Fading Light, which takes place in the days immediately before the fall of the Berlin Wall (which, as of a few days ago, has been down for longer than it was up). The weekly Daniel Day-Lewis movie is Lincoln, and plays on Monday rather than the usual Tuesday to line up with Lincoln's birthday. There's also Open Screen on Tuesday, and a 35mm Valentine's Day screening of When Harry Met Sally on Wednesday.
• Friday is the first day of the Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival at The Somerville Theatre, and the opening night film, at least, is pretty darn spiffy - I saw Junk Head at Fantasia and was impressed as heck with the bizarre stop-motion feature. There's also the latest from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Before We Vanish, on Wednesday night, and matinees of The Iron Giant and Howl's Moving Castle during the weekend, and the rest… Well, the rest can be dodgy at this festival.
• Over in the multiplexes, there's a lot of screens for 50 Shades Freed, the finale of the series chronicling the love story between a billionaire with unusual sexual appetites and a seemingly unassuming woman who won his heart. It's at Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), the Embassy, Boston Common (including Imax), Fenway (including RPX), the Seaport (including Icon-X), South Bay (including Imax and Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax), Revere (including XPlus), and the SuperLux.
  
  Clint Eastwood directs The 15:17 to Paris, centered around a recreation of a group of off-duty soldiers who thwart a terrorist attack on a European train, with the actual people involved playing themselves. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, the Embassy, Boston Common, Fenway, Assembly Row, the Seaport, South Bay, Revere, and the SuperLux. There's also Peter Rabbit, which looks like a good reminder that another iconic British children's book character's movie, Paddington 2, is still playing around town, although the talking-rabbit movie is at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Revere.
  
  Anime fans can look forward to Mazinger Z: Infinity at Fenway and Revere on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, while Revere also has a screening of The Dark Knight on Sunday.
• The Brattle Theatre continues the This Week in Dystopia series this weekend with three double features: Strange Days & Idiocracy on Friday, Children of Men & A Clockwork Orange on Saturday, and The Handmaid's Tale & The Hunger Games on Sunday, with Sunday also featuring a matinee of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Most in 35mm, with Metropolis and The Hunger Games on Sunday. Most feature special introductions, as well.
  
  There's also guests on Monday, with filmmakers Daniel McCabe and Horeb Bulambo Shindano the guests of the DocYard to talk about their film This Is Congo, a look at the long-running civil conflicts in the world. There are Valentine's shows on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a 35mm print of Casablanca at 4pm and 7pm (though the latter times are sold out) and The Princess Bride at 10pm. There's also a special members-only secret screening on Thursday.
• Apple Fresh Pond and Fenway both keep Padmaavat for a third week, though there are no more 3D screenings. Fresh Pond also opens Pad Man, which tells the tale of a man who revolutionized the production of women's sanitary pads. There's also Tamil comedy Kalakalappu 2 on Saturday & Sunday, as well as Telugu films Intelligent (Friday), Toli Prema, and Gaythri (through Sunday). They also have English-language indie Permission, in which a woman about to be married is told he should try and date other people.
  
  For those more into Spanish-language film, Revere adds Mexican comedy La Boda de Valentina, with Marimar Vega as a successful woman in New York who is dreading introducing her American boyfriend to her family when he proposes. They continue Dominican film Colao, and Bilal from the UAE as well.
• The Harvard Film Archive welcomes Kevin Jerome Everson on Friday and Saturday, introducing Eerie the first day and a shorts program on the second, with another shorts program on Monday. There's also a Saturday afternoon show of the Princess and the Frog for just five bucks, Frederick Wiseman's jumbo-sized docPublic Housing on Sunday.
• The Museum of Fine Arts continues the Boston Festival of Films From Japan with Harmonium (Friday/Sunday), Takashi Miike's Blade of the Immortal (Friday), and Rage (Thursday). They also have more screenings of BJFF alum In Between on Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday. There's also a Valentine's Day screening of The Princess Bride on Wednesday, though it's already listed as sold out.
• Emerson's Bright Lights welcomes director Leslie McCleave on Tuesday to discuss his film The Blind Boys of Alabama: How Sweet the Sound, with "Heroin(e)" filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon introducing her short film on Thursday. Note that while both are free and open to the public, "Heroin(e)" is listed as playing at 5pm rather than the usual 7pm.
• Jeff Rapsis will be at the Aeronaut Brewery on Sunday evening, accompanying Buster Keaton in The Cameraman.
• The Institute for Contemporary Art will have matinee screenings of Sundance Film Festival Shorts on Saturday and Sunday. They also have David Lynch The Art Life as part of their "Month of Sundays" series of free films about contemporary artists with museum admission.

I'll be mostly living at the Somerville Theater for the sci-fi festival but also trying to fit all the Oscar shorts in during the weekend.