Somehow we got through 2020, though it wasn't easy ... and now on to better things in 2021. We hope everyone gets a vaccination soon, and we can get well on our way to opening as soon as it's safe to do so.

Meantime, it's Oscar season! Normally, this is the time of year we usually show most of the top contenders at Harbor Theater, so we plan to recommend best films of 2020 in the next few months, even though you'll have to see them on a small screen.

Watch for posts on films that may win Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress.

And please send us your comments and suggestions for films to watch. We're listening!

In mid-April we'll run a contest and let you choose your favorites. After the Academy Award ceremony April 25, we'll announce those who got the most correct answers.

Top prizes (after we reopen) will be: 1st Prize - one large popcorn at movies you attend for three months; 2nd Prize- one large popcorn for movies you attend for two months; 3rd Prize - one large popcorn for movies you attend for one month.

Check out this week’s Harbor Theater Oscar picks ... and get watching!

“News of the World” - PG-13 - Tom Hanks stars in this moving western about an itinerant newsman in Texas (post Civil War) who comes upon an abandoned young girl and learns that her parents were killed, as well as the tribe that adopted her. Hanks is expected to get an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, Paul Greengrass for Best Director, and Helena Zengel for Best Supporting Actress.

“Sound of Metal” - R - Amazon - Riz Ahmed stars in this touching story of a heavy metal drummer whose eardrums have been shattered by his music. Utilizing startling, innovative sound design techniques, director Darius Marder takes audiences inside Ruben’s experience to vividly recreate his journey into a rarely examined world. Ahmed is high up on the Oscar prediction list for Best Actor for his superb interpretation of this difficult role.

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” - R-  on Netflix- Screen adaptation of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play stars Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman in an affectionate tribute to a 1920s blues legend.Chadwick Boseman (who died of cancer at age 42 shortly after the film was finished) is expected to get a posthumous nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of a young, ambitious horn player. His prescient soliloquy on death is chilling. Viola Davis is a favorite for Best Actress.

“Mank” - R - on Netflix- The plot revolves around William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, Louis B. Mayer of MGM and other luminaries of the early movie studios – and the thinly-veiled subjects of “Citizen Kane.” Mank (Gary Oldman) is holed up in a desert retreat with a broken leg, a stenographer typing madly and none of his favorite gin. Flashbacks tell his story. The black and white cinematography, the mood of time and place (movie lots, Hearst Castle) are superb. Oscars are predicted for Oldman as Best Actor, David Fincher for Best Director and Best Picture.

“Martin Eden” - Rent ( Martin Eden - Kino Lorber Digital (kinonow.com) -  Adapted from a 1901 Jack London novel, but set in a provocatively unspecified moment in Italy’s history. This is a passionate and enthralling narrative fresco in the tradition of the great Italian classics. Martin (Luc Marinelli) is a self-taught proletarian with artistic aspirations with dreams of becoming a writer to help him rise above his station and marry a wealthy university student (Jessica Cressy). Best Foreign Film contender.

“Collective” - R- Amazon - In Romanian with subtitles - A riveting documentary about investigative journalists (think “Spotlight”) uncovering corruption and malfeasance in the health industry in Budapest, Romania. A veteran sports journalist discovers that a fire at a local nightclub has left 27 dead and hundreds more injured. He soon learns from a whistle-blowing doctor that many of the burn victims are dying in the hospital of bacterial diseases, not the burns themselves. Best Foreign Documentary.

 If you want to read some of the experts’ predictions: Variety or AwardsWatch