Cineplex Entertainment is offering Canadians from B.C. to Quebec a chance to see the nominees for best short films, animated and live action, in advance of the 82nd Academy Awards. The exhibitor will screen the live-action program in just under 50 locations on March 1 at 7 p.m. local time, the animated titles on March 4 at 7 p.m., and then a double-feature matinee of both programs (at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. local time) on March 7, the day of the Oscars telecast. Now, perhaps, Oscar pool participants can make more educated guesses.

The program, Oscar Nominated Short Films 2010, which includes all the nominated titles, is distributed internationally by U.K.-based Shorts International. The program has already begun screening in the U.S. (in partnership with American distributor Magnolia Releasing) and will also screen in the U.K. and in Mexico, 100 cities in all. This is the fifth year the Oscar shorts have received theatrical release as a complete package in advance but the first time in Canada on a national scale.

According to Shorts International, the program has seen a nearly three-fold increase in attendance in the U.S. since its 2005 inception. Last year saw the highest gross ever on a single screen at New York City’s IFC Center.

While no Canadian short films are among this year’s nominees, Joachim Back’s Danish/American live-action coproduction The New Tenants was adapted for the screen by Canadian David Rakoff, a New York-based journalist, essayist and actor, who also features in the film alongside Canadian actress Liane Balaban. Other live-action titles include Irish film The Door and Australia’s Miracle Fish by Luke Doolan.

The animation lineup ranges from A Matter of Loaf and Death from Aardman Animation’s Nick Park, of Wallace & Gromit fame (the longest yet at 30 minutes), to Irish director Nicky Phelan’s Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (at six minutes, the shortest of the shorts).

Cineplex spokesperson Pat Marshall tells Playback Daily the presentation, which is exclusive to the chain, is another facet in an alternative presentation strategy made possible through digital projection that includes opera, live theater and wrestling. ‘There’s a lot of interest in the Oscar shorts,’ she said. ‘We hear about the winners during the awards event but no one knows how to experience them or the other nominees.’