• Paramount
• Noah

Bad Words - Jason Bateman, Kathryn Hahn

Cesar Chavez - Michael Pena, Rosario Dawson

Noah - Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly

Sabotage - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington

• Fox Searchlight
• Willem Dafoe in The Grand Budapest Hotel

Divergent - Shailene Woodley, Kate Winslet

Enemy - Jake Gyllenhaal, Melanie Laurent

God's Not Dead - Kevin Sorbo, Dean Cain

The Grand Budapest Hotel - Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law

Muppets Most Wanted - Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey

• DreamWorks
• Need for Speed

Need for Speed - Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper

Tim's Vermeer - Documentary; Tim Jenison, David Hockney

The Veronica Mars Movie - Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring

• DreamWorks
• Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Mr. Peabody & Sherman - Animated; voices of Ty Burrell, Max Charles

300: Rise of an Empire - Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green

Let's do the math, shall we? Ten days. Thirty-three countries. One hundred forty-five films. Uh, carry the 10; um, subtract the 33; hmm, multiply by 145 ...

Ah, never mind. All we know is there will be a hefty amount of movies screening at the 16th Annual RiverRun International Film Festival, to be held April 4-13 in Winston-Salem. In addition, the fest will showcase a few special events, including an Opening Night Gala, the popular Fido Frolic & Film (this year, bring your pooch to watch Dug's adventures in Up) and a Media Restoration and Preservation Panel. As a tie-in to the last-named, there will be screenings of several works that have benefited from film preservation, including David Lean's 1944 This Happy Breed, the 1951 film noir offering Cry Danger and the practically unseen 1927 John Ford production Upstream.

• A24
• Tom Hardy in Locke

The full schedule, as well as dates, times and ticket info, can be found here. Below, though, are 10 especially promising titles.

A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at the New York Times - This documentary looks at the infamous plagiarist and how his actions affected the world of journalism.

Freedom Summer - This nonfiction feature celebrates the 50th anniversary of when hundreds of student activists made their mark on a segregated Mississippi.

The German Doctor - Argentinian writer-director Lucía Puenzo is behind this drama about a family who doesn't realize that their charming house guest is none other than Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele.

• Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.
• Ellen DeGeneres at the Oscars

So much for this being the most unpredictable Oscar race in years.

Reflecting on the world of Oscar prognosticators at large, four of us in our personal Oscar pool (including me) went a whopping 20 out of 21 in our picks ... and still lost to the one guy who nailed 'em all.

Likewise, in CL's own Beat Matt Oscar Contest, many folks got 7 out of 8 right - admirable, but not good enough to be eligible for the prize of 10 passes to Cinebarre. Only three people went 8-for-8 (besting my end result of 7-for-8), and since none nailed the tiebreaker question of how many Oscars would Gravity win (one person guessed eight, two people guessed six; the correct answer was seven), a random drawing from the last three standing revealed the winner to be Javier Gonzalez.

So congrats to Mr. Gonzalez, and thanks to everyone who entered.

(Note: This contest was neither authorized nor endorsed by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.)

Science fiction movies have a long history of political themes. In these sometimes fantastical, often dystopian futures, questions of individual agency, power and oppression are as common as laser guns and time warps. But for the most part, these themes have been explored in a very limited palette. The future, according to most mainstream science fiction films and books, is overwhelmingly white, and though these vehicles push overtly political messages, they neatly sidestep issues of race by near-total omission. But a growing band of writers, directors and fans are challenging this norm.

A groundswell of creatives is pushing the genre, reimagining ages of invention and exploration through fully realized black characters and generating crowd-funded support for projects like Invisible Universe, a documentary film on black contributors in science fiction, and Atlanta's annual Steamfunk ball. Locally, the Charlotte Black Film Festival will debut PolySolo: Double Minded Friday, Feb. 28, at the UNC Charlotte uptown building.

Micah Lorick, who has been producing films since 2008, wrote, shot and edited PolySolo in just over a month. He also co-stars as the male lead. The cinematic short, which runs a little over 15 minutes, centers around a female government agent who is tasked with tracking down a terrorist who has discovered a way to travel between alternate worlds. Trouble is, he also happens to be her lover, and in these alternate worlds, nothing is ever exactly what it seems.

• Warner Bros.
• Gravity

The 86th Annual Academy Awards will be held March 2, and as always, local film reviewers will appear opposite host Mike Collins on Charlotte Talks to offer their preferences and predictions in the major races. Creative Loafing film critic Matt Brunson, CinemaBlend.com's Sean O'Connell and Arts a la Mode's Ann Marie Oliva will discuss the various contenders, including American Hustle, Gravity and 12 Years a Slave.

This edition of Charlotte Talks will air at 9 a.m. Friday, Feb. 28, on WFAE 90.7 FM. The broadcast will then be archived at www.wfae.org.

• Disney & Studio Ghibli
• The Wind Rises

Non-Stop - Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore

Son of God - Diogo Morgado, Amber Rose Revah

The Wind Rises - Academy Award nominee: Best Animated Feature

• TriStar
• Pompeii

Angels in Stardust - Alicia Silverstone, Billy Burke

In Secret - Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Felton

Pompeii - Kit Harington, Emily Browning

3 Days to Kill - Kevin Costner, Hailee Steinfeld