By Alexandra Pecci
Correspondent

PORTSMOUTH ­— If you’re already having Academy Awards withdrawals, it’s easily alleviated them with The Music Hall’s Extraordinary Cinema film series.

Choosing films like Best Picture winner “The Hurt Locker,” and acting tours de force like “Precious” and “The Last Station,” the people at the helm of these events at The Music Hall have a knack for sniffing out Oscar bait.

When there are no live performances scheduled, The Music Hall specializes in showing art house, Indie, and small-distribution films on the big screen, says Chris Curtis, film and outreach coordinator.

“We have a big chain cinema nearby us in Newington. We don’t bother to compete with that,” Curtis says. “We don’t go for any of those big Hollywood titles. We go for independent films.”

The eclectic series gives local audiences a chance to see films that typically play only in larger cities.

“We have titles that wouldn’t necessarily get a run in this area at all,” Curtis says.

The films typically run for a week or less, depending on whether live programming also is  scheduled at The Music Hall. And in addition to new films, the series also includes several special programs. Each month there’s a film that fits the category “rare, random, and relevant” — a Wildcard movie that shows for one night and also includes an event, usually a related panel discussion.

“It ends up making The Music Hall the Seacoast community great room,” Curtis says.

After the Wildcard presentation, audience members can stick around to hear local experts speak about topics and issues related to the movie. For example, when the Wildcard was “Me and Orson Wells,” The Music Hall featured a talk with a local theater producer and Orson Wells authority.

When the shows the documentary “No Impact Man” aired, they brought in local sustainability experts to speak afterward.

The next Wildcard night is Thursday, March 18, and is called Shorts in Ports.

It will feature six short award-winning films. Local film maker Chase Bailey of West Bank Films guest curated the event and is showing one of his own pictures that night. He’ll appear for a panel discussion, along with the others films’ directors and producers.

The Music Hall also shows children’s films as part of its kidsRULE! programming, as well as screen classics. This month, audiences will have a chance to see the newest Best Actor Oscar winner Jeff Bridges in one of his early roles in “The Last Picture Show.”

The Summer Film series features a different movie every Wednesday, fitting a particular theme for the season. Last summer the series, “Must Be Seen on the Big Screen,” showed classic films and gave audiences a chance to see “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Gone with the Wind,” and the original “King Kong.”

The Music Hall’s film curator is Bill Pence, one of the founders of the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. Thanks to that, The Music Hall hosts Telluride by the Sea, which runs in tandem with the Telluride Film Festival in September. The Music Hall gets to show films that premier at the festival, often before they premier in New York or Los Angeles, says Curtis.

Some of those films have included the Oscar-nominated “The Last Station,” “An Education,” and “Coco Before Chanel.”

“That’s a little Portsmouth bragging thing,” Curtis says.

IF YOU GO:
Here’s what’s playing at The Music Hall through the end of March.
March 12, 13, 15, 16, and 17: “Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.”
March 18: Wildcard, Shorts in Ports (an evening of award-winning short films).
March 20: kidsRULE! movie, “Kung Fu Panda, 2 p.m.; “North Face.”
March 21, 22, and 23: “North Face.”
March 24: Screen Classic, “The Last Picture Show.”
March 26, 29, and 30: “The Last Station.”
For details call (603)436-2400, or visit online, www.themusichall.org.