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The unthinkable happens when heavily armed and highly trained terrorists launch a bold daytime attack on the White House. The building is overrun, and President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his staff are taken hostage. Luckily for Asher, former presidential security officer Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is on the scene. With time running out, it’s up to Banning to locate Asher’s son before the extremists do and rescue the president before his captors unleash their ultimate plan.

Cast: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett Director: Antoine Fuqua Genres: Action/Adventure, Suspense/Thriller

Academy Award winning director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) returns to the big screen with the psychological thriller Trance. Simon (James McAvoy, X-Men First Class), a fine art auctioneer, teams up with a criminal gang to steal a Goya painting worth millions of dollars, but after suffering a blow to the head during the heist he awakens to discover he has no memory of where he hid the painting. When physical threats and torture fail to produce answers, the gang’s leader Frank (Vincent Cassel, Black Swan) hires hypnotherapist Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson, Sin City) to delve into the darkest recesses of Simon’s psyche. As Elizabeth begins to unravel Simon’s broken subconscious, the lines between truth, suggestion and deceit begin to blur, the stakes rise faster and more dangerously than any of the players could have anticipated.

The daring new movie from director Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), The Place Beyond the Pines is a sweeping emotional drama powerfully exploring the unbreakable bond between fathers and sons. Luke (Ryan Gosling), a high-wire motorcycle stunt performer with a carnival passing through Schenectady in upstate New York, tries to reconnect with a former lover, Romina (Eva Mendes), only to learn that she has given birth to their son in his absence. Luke decides to give up life on the road to try and provide for his newfound family by taking a job as a car mechanic. Noticing Luke’s ambition and talents, his employer Robin (Ben Mendelsohn) proposes to partner with Luke in a string of spectacular bank robberies-which will place Luke on the radar of ambitious rookie cop Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook). Avery, who has to navigate a local police department ruled by the menacing and corrupt detective Deluca (Ray Liotta), is also struggling to balance his professional life with his family life, which includes his wife Jennifer (Rose Byrne) and their infant son. The consequences of Avery’s confrontation with Luke will reverberate into the next generation.

It is recommended that you purchase your tickets beforehand. Advance tickets can be purchased at http://www.landmarktheatres.com/tickets/default.asp

The French Canadian comedy Starbuck stars Patrick Huard as David Wosniak, a lovable but perpetual screw-up who finally decides to take control of his life. A habitual sperm donor in his youth, this 42-year-old eternal teenager discovers that he’s the biological father of 533 children, 142 of whom are trying to force the fertility clinic to reveal the true identity of the prolific donor code-named “Starbuck.” As one might imagine, his life becomes much more complicated than he anticipated-especially when his long-suffering girlfriend (Julie LeBreton) suddenly finds herself pregnant and is understandably reluctant to share parenthood with the unreliable David.

Former Mayor Ed Koch was the quintessential New Yorker. Ferocious, charismatic, and hilariously blunt, Koch ruled New York from 1978 to 1989 — a down-and-dirty decade of grit, graffiti, near-bankruptcy and rampant crime. First-time filmmaker (and former Wall Street Journal reporter) Neil Barsky has crafted an intimate and revealing portrait of this intensely private man, his legacy as a political titan, and the town he helped transform. The tumult of his three terms included a fiercely competitive 1977 election; an infamous 1980 transit strike; the burgeoning AIDS epidemic; landmark housing renewal initiatives; and an irreparable municipal corruption scandal. Through candid interviews and rare archival footage, KOCH thrillingly chronicles the personal and political toll of running the worlds most wondrous city in a time of upheaval and reinvention.

Advance tickets may by purchased at http://www.theavalon.org/filmspecific/?ttl=koch

When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks hes hit the jackpotfame and fortune are his for the takingthat is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyones been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuityand even a bit of wizardryOscar transforms himself not only into the great wizard but into a better man as well.

In director Pablo Larrain’s political drama NO, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet is forced by international pressure to call a plebiscite on his presidency in 1988. The country will vote YES or NO to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the NO camp persuade a brash young advertising executive, Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and under scrutiny by the despot’s minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free. Official Selection at the Toronto International and Telluride Film Festivals, and Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. (Fully subtitled)

Don’t miss your last opportunity to see all five Academy Award nominees in the category of Best Animated Short before the Oscars air Sunday night. We will enjoy this afternoon screening at AFI and then head out for a snack to discuss the shorts as well as our Oscar picks and predictions.

This year’s program is being hosted by last year’s winners: William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, directors of “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.” Program includes: “Head Over Heels” (UK), in which a couple who have grown apart (he lives on the floor and she on the ceiling) seek a way to put their marriage back together; “Maggie Simpson in ‘The Longest Daycare’ ” (USA), in which Maggie, longing to be grouped with the gifted children at the Ayn Rand Daycare Center, finds her destiny by rescuing a lonely cocoon from Baby Gerald; “Paperman” (USA), the story of a lonely young man in mid-century New York City who only has his heart, imagination and a stack of papers to get the attention of the girl of his dreams; “Fresh Guacamole” (USA), in which we learn how to transform familiar objects into fresh guacamole; and “Adam and Dog” (USA), the story about the dog of Eden, and what happened in those first days of Creation that made Man and Dog so inseparable.

Advance tickets can be purchased with no booking fee by visiting afi.com/silver.

“Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man.” Starting in 1964 with Seven UP, the UP series has explored this Jesuit maxim. The original concept was to interview 14 children from diverse backgrounds from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Every seven years, renowned director Michael Apted, a researcher for Seven UP, has been back to talk to them, examining the progression of their lives. From cab driver Tony to schoolmates Jackie, Lynn and Susan and the heart-breaking Neil, as they turn age 56 more life-changing decisions and surprising developments are revealed. Success and disappointment, marriage and childbirth, poverty and illness–nearly every facet of life is discussed with the group, as they assess whether their lives have ultimately been ruled by circumstance or self-determination. An extraordinary look at the structure of life in the 20th century, the UP series is, according to critic Roger Ebert, “an inspired, almost noble use of the film medium. Apted penetrates to the central mystery of life.”

A funny new twist on a classic love story, WARM BODIES is a poignant tale about the power of human connection. After a zombie epidemic, R (a highly unusual zombie) encounters Julie (a human survivor), and rescues her from a zombie attack. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and as the two form a special relationship in their struggle for survival, R becomes increasingly more human setting off an exciting, romantic, and often comical chain of events that begins to transform the other zombies and maybe even the whole lifeless world.