April 29 marks the 100th anniversary of director Fred Zinnemann's birth. The career of one of Hollywood's most distinguished directors is even more remarkable in light of his early struggles. As an Austrian émigré in 1930s Hollywood, Zinnemann couldn't get hired based on his sole credit directing the German silent film MENSCHEN AM SONNTAG. (In time, this credit took on greater luster: the creative team on this film included future expats Curt and Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer and Billy Wilder.) Zinnemann bounced around the studios working as a camera assistant, and even as an extra on the classic ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, where he was fired after arguing with an assistant director. A project with documentary trail-blazer Robert Flaherty never panned out, but Flaherty's influence proved powerful on Zinnemann's next project, the proto-neo-realist REDES (THE WAVE), shot in Mexico with photographer Paul Strand. The picture received positive notices, earning Zinnemann a humble break: a job in MGM's short subjects department. He graduated to B features, battled for better material (going as far as refusing assignments and going on suspension) and finally broke through in 1948 with THE SEARCH. The film benefited from Zinnemann's penchant for realism (shot on location in war-ravaged central Europe with refugee children as actors) and his remarkable eye for promising young talent, in this case Montgomery Clift in his screen debut. Other discoveries and debuts included Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger and Julie Harris. The film earned Zinnemann the first of his seven Oscar nominations for Best Director. In a career spanning almost 50 years, Zinnemann earned 11 Oscar nominations and five wins (including Best Picture and Best Director for 1966's A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS and Best Director for 1952's FROM HERE TO ETERNITY).

Films include THE SEARCH, ACT OF VIOLENCE, HIGH NOON, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, OKLAHOMA!, THE SUNDOWNERS, A MAN OF ALL SEASONS, and DAY OF THE JACKAL

Special Guest Screenings! Acclaimed Zinnemann scholar Larry Suid will introduce selected screenings in the FRED ZINNEMANN CENTENNIAL series, and host in-theatre discussions of Zinnemann's life and works. * Denotes special guest screenings. Lawrence Suid is a military historian, film biographer, television consultant, and occasional professor. He is currently at work on the first-ever biography of Fred Zinnemann. More information on Lawrence Suid can be found here: http://www.lawrencesuid.com/

THE SEARCH

Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Actor for Montgomery Clift and Best Director for Zinnemann, THE SEARCH went on to win two awards for Best Screenplay and a special honorary Oscar for Ivan Jande. Clift is devastating in his film debut as a compassionate American GI in post-war Germany who finds Jande wandering the streets. As Clift nurses the boy back to health, he makes plans to adopt him and take him back to the States, not knowing that Jande's mother is alive and searching frantically for her son.

DIR Fred Zinnemann; SCR Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler; PROD Oscar Duby and Lazar Wechsler. Switzerland/USA, 1948, b&w, 105 min. NOT RATED

Friday, March 23, 4:45 & 9:50; Monday, March 26, 7:00; Tuesday, March 27, 8:45 *; Thurs., March 29, 9:30

ACT OF VIOLENCE

Respected family man and successful contractor Van Heflin is a World War II veteran who is building and dedicating a war monument to his fallen comrades. When Robert Ryan arrives in Van Heflin's sleepy hometown wild-eyed and determined to kill him, it becomes clear that there may be some secrets that Van Heflin would do anything-even kill-to keep. Mary Astor as a lady of the night and Janet Leigh as Van Heflin's unsuspecting wife round out the superb cast.

DIR Fred Zinnemann; SCR Robert L. Richards and Collier Young; PROD William H. Wright. US, 1948, b&w, 82 min. NOT RATED

Friday, March 30, 5:00; Sunday, April 1, 1:00; Monday, April 2, 7:00; Tuesday, April 3, 9:00

HIGH NOON

Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Picture. Gary Cooper won Best Actor for his turn as a retired marshall forced to defend himself against a vengeful nemesis let out of jail on a technicality. This classic Western unfolds in real time, as the minutes count down to a duel at high noon. Penned by the blacklisted Carl Foreman, HIGH NOON also serves as an allegory of the terror that paralyzed Hollywood during McCarthyism.

DIR Fred Zinnemann; SCR Carl Foreman, based on the story by John W. Cunningham; PROD Stanley Kramer. US, 1952, b&w, 85 min. NOT RATED

Friday, March 30, 7:00 *; Saturday, March 31, 6:30; Sunday, April 1, 5:00; Wednesday, April 4, 5:30; Thursday, April 5, 7:00

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

This melodrama features Zinnemann's most iconographic scene-adulterous lovers Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr kissing in the surf. Nominated for 13 Academy Awards, nabbing Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Frank Sinatra and Best Supporting Actress for Donna Reed. Set on an Oahu Army base in the days leading up to Pearl Harbor, the all-star cast includes Montgomery Clift and Ernest Borgnine, who trade punches and betray each other-unaware of the peril to come.

DIR Fred Zinnemann; SCR Daniel Taradash, based on the novel by James Jones; PROD Buddy Adler. US, 1953, b&w, 118 min. NOT RATED

Friday, April 6, 3:00; Saturday, April 7, 1:00; Sunday, April 8, 1:30; Monday, April 9, 1:30

OKLAHOMA!

The first Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration to reach the silver screen was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning Best Score of a Musical Picture. Shirley Jones makes her screen debut as a strong-headed country girl who falls in love with equally stubborn cowboy Gordon MacRae in turn-of-the-century Oklahoma Territory. When Gloria Grahame must choose between stable sweetheart Gene Nelson and the noncommittal, smooth-talking Eddie Albert, musical mayhem ensues. Classic songs include Oklahoma and Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'.

DIR Fred Zinnemann; SCR Sonya Levien and William Ludwig, based on the play by Lynn Riggs and Oscar Hammerstein II; PROD Arthur Hornblow Jr. US, 1955, color, 145 min. RATED G

Sunday, April 8, 4:00; Monday, April 9, 4:00

THE SUNDOWNERS

Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Picture. Robert Mitchum is the patriarch of a nomadic Australian sheep-herding family whose wife (Deborah Kerr) and son want to settle down and buy a family farm.

DIR Fred Zinnemann; SCR Isobel Lennart, based on the novel by Jon Cleary; PROD Gerry Blatner. UK/Australia, 1960, color, 133 min. NOT RATED

Friday, April 13, 4:20; Saturday, April 14, 6:00; Monday, April 16, 6:30; Wednesday, April 18, 5:30, 9:00

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

This multi-Academy Award-winning adaptation of Henry VIII finds Robert Shaw as Henry VIII and Paul Scofield as his rival Sir Thomas More. When the king finds that his first wife Catherine of Aragon cannot produce an heir, he wants a divorce to pursue the young Anne Boleyn (Vanessa Redgrave). A man used to operating with impunity, Shaw must overcome resistance from the pious and much respected Scofield. Orson Welles and John Hurt round out the superb cast.

DIR/PROD Fred Zinnemann; SCR Robert Bolt. UK, 1966, color, 120 min. RATED G

Friday April 20, 4:30 & 7:00 *; Saturday, April 21, 5:15; Sunday, April 22, 1:00; Tuesday, April 24, 6:30 *

THE DAY OF THE JACKAL

A first-rate suspense thriller about a fictional plot to murder the president of France, Charles DeGaulle. Code-named the jackal, Edward Fox is an aristocratic British citizen who specializes in this sort of intrigue for the right price. Fox is pitch-perfect as he charms, forges, lies and steals his way toward his target while the doggedly determined French inspector Michael Lonsdale works to stop him.

DIR Fred Zinnemann; SCR Kenneth Ross, based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth; PROD John Woolf. UK/France, 1973, color, 145 min. PG

Friday, April 20, 9:25 *; Monday, April 23, 8:45, Tuesday, April 24, 9:00 *