From developing the '60s TV series "The Monkees" to directing such movie masterpieces as "Five Easy Pieces" (1970) [pictured] and "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1981), not to mention producing French filmmaker Jean Eustache's epic "The Mother and the Whore" (1973), Bob Rafelson embodies the definition of film auteur.

The joke is that those who make the shortest films make the longest Oscar acceptance speeches, but when you compare the shorts to some of the feted features you might find that it might be justified. The ICA offers an opportunity to see for yourself when over the next three weeks it presents the shorts nominees in all three categories: live-action, documentary, and animation.

Korean cinema has always possessed kinetic pizzazz, but Park Kwang-su, little known in the West, helped it develop its poetry, profundity, and political impact. The Harvard Film Archive series Park Kwang-su and the Origins of the Korean New Wave, which runs through February 27, will present a retrospective of the director's films, beginning with A Single Spark (1995), an adaptation of the true story of a factory worker who immolated himself in 1971 protesting unconscionable working conditions.

Negative ads. Smear campaigns. Glad-handing voters. Intimidation. Piles of money. And the cold dead hand of a master manipulator behind the scenes. Yes, it's Oscar campaign season again. Not nearly as entertaining as the donnybrook for the Republican Presidential nomination, but in many ways involving the same tactics, dynamics, frustrations, and likely outcome.

Paradise (2009)

Michael Almereyda made a big indie stir with his 1994 vampire movie Nadja followed up in 2000 with his post-modern version of Hamlet starring Ethan Hawke. Since then he has kept a low profile making non-fiction films, including Paradise (2009), which is essentially a visual diary recording everyday epiphanies.

Any film with Udo Kier in it is, de facto, a must-see. In the portmanteau horror film The Theater Bizarre (2011) he plays the creepy puppet man - is he a muppet or a man? - who introduces the six tales of terror presented at the title venue. Among the committee of directors is George Romero collaborator Tom Savini, whose episode " Wet Dreams" involves a wronged wife's oneiric revenge, and Canadian filmmaker Karim Hussain's "Vision Stains," which investigates the nature of memory by means of hypodermic needles and eyeballs.

The 37th Boston Science Fiction Film Festival, like past editions, offers a treasure trove of classic, new, and unknown gems, including premieres like Dimensions: A Line, A Loop, A Tangle of Thread, a period flick set in the '20s about a scientist determined to live one moment of time over and over again (director Sloane U'Ren and screenwriter Ant Neely will attend).

Though he died three decades ago at the age of 32, Bruce Lee not only helped establish the martial arts genre, he also opened Western eyes to the accomplishments of Hong Kong and other Asian film industries, and as a result vastly enriched cinema as a whole. Pete McCormack's documentary I Am Bruce Lee profiles and pays tribute to this iconic figure; it includes rare archival footage and interviews with those he inspired, ranging from Kobe Bryant to Gina Carano.

You Are on Indian Land (1969)

The Occupy Boston protest raised a lot of issues regarding haves and have-nots and the nature of democracy. It also touched on the murky subject of public land ownership - who gets to say what happens with a public place like the Rose Kennedy Greenway if not the people? To shed light on that discussion, the cutting-edge Balagan Films people present Whose Land? on Tuesday, February 7, a selection of a half dozen short documentaries ranging from Mort Ransen and Mike Mitchell's You Are on Indian Land (1969) to Josh Gibson's Kudzu Vine (2011).

The Robert Bresson retrospective at the Harvard Film Archive continues with Une Femme Douce (1969), a film which, along with Bresson's Mouchette, Au hasard Balthazar, The Trial of Joan of Arc, and others, demonstrates the great auteur's empathy with the suffering of women and his austere acknowledgment of their dignity and strength.

Many were appalled that Tilda Swinton was snubbed for a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role as the beleaguered mother of a sociopath in Lynne Ramsay's We Need To Talk About Kevin. See what they're talking about at this preview screening of the harrowing, and sometimes hilarious, film at the Harvard Film Archive.

Filmstudie (1926)

Now that you all know how cool silent movies can be after watching the Oscar Best Picture nominee The Artist (if you haven't yet seen it, you must), take it up another notch by experiencing the Alloy Orchestra's "Wild and Weird," a compilation of classic silent shorts accompanied by the legendary ensemble performing their own original soundtracks.

Moneyball

Now in its fifth year, the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards continues to provide a homespun, quirky, surprising, moving, and funny alternative to all those other awards shows. This year they've snagged as a guest their Best Screenplay co-winner, Stan Chervin, co-writer of Moneyball, and will also be screening that terrific more-than-a-baseball movie starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, incidentally also nominated for a Best Picture and other Oscars.

Boston Phoenix film critic Gerald Peary resumes his eclectic, fascinating, intimate - and free - Cinematheque series with An Evening With Jennifer Getzinger, a visit from the talented director whose "The Suitcase" - an episode from the fourth season of the AMC series Mad Men - is considered by some to be the show's best.