"War Horse" (2011) theatrical release poster.

FREDONIA – “War Horse,” nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, is the next featured film at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House.

It will be screened on Saturday, Feb. 4, at 8:00 p.m. and Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Opera House Cinema Series.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, “War Horse” is an epic adventure for audiences of all ages. Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, “War Horse” begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man named Albert (Jeremy Irvine), who tames and trains him.

When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets – British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter – before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.

“War Horse” is one of the great stories of friendship and war – a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful theatrical hit in London’s West End and on Broadway, where it won the Tony Award for Best Play.

An odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure, it relates the First World War as experienced through Joey’s journey.

It is, at is most basic, a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity.

Lisa Kennedy, in the Denver Post, calls the film “robustly entertaining.” Joe Morgenstern, in the Wall Street Journal, calls it “a film that may stay in the mind’s eye longer than it lingers in the heart.” Richard Roeper calls it “a gorgeous, breathtaking, epic adventure.”

Kyle Smith, in the New York Post, says “those who say they don't make ‘em like they used to must now fall silent.” Richard Corliss, in TIME, adds “boldly emotional, nakedly heartfelt, ‘War Horse’ will leave only the stoniest hearts untouched.”

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of war violence, “War Horse” runs 146 minutes.

Tickets to the Opera House Cinema Series are available at the door for $7 (adults), $6.50 (seniors and Opera House members) and $5 (students and children) the night of each screening.

For more information, call the Opera House Box Office at 716-679-1891.

The Series continues with the Sigmund Freud-Carl Jung drama, “A Dangerous Method,” on Feb. 18 and 21.

Chautauqua County’s only performing arts center presenting its own programming year-round, the 1891 Fredonia Opera House is a member-supported not-for-profit organization located in Village Hall in downtown Fredonia. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.fredopera.org.