VOLUM[ 16 - fOURT~ QUARHR 2004 UA T CELEBRATING THE GEORGE STEVENS CENTENNIAL See Page 2 George Stevens always said FRO M THE PRESIDENT making or planning a movie was like planning a war. He always loved to tell the war stories ... OUR THIRD THEATER IS and they were as interesting as the movie sometimes. , MAKING A DIFFERENCE - WARREN BEATIY / ~e've long thought that having a mid-size theater available to us (wotllc0 ave a significant impact on our programming. We were right. The use of the Unwood Dunn Theater is growing and permitting -----rp-ni"·ennial tribute to director our programmers to try some things that might not have worked quite George Stevens kicked off similar as well in the I ,0 I 2-seat Goldwyn. But we're expanding even beyond Academy celebrations around the our Los Angeles base, w ith more programs in San Francisco and New country and the world. York and even an arrangement with the National Archives to program Stevens "embellished and ftlm fare in Washington, D.C. graced and moved and shook the Over the past year or so, the number of films screened by the movies as did almost no one else Academy and the eclecticism of the programming have made our during his lifetime," Academy theaters must-visit venues for cinema cognoscenti. President Frank Pierson said. A high-water mark was surely reached during the fourth quarter: Actor Warren Beatty hosted • A retrospective series of the f ilms of George Stevens, not only in the event in the Samuel Goldwyn Los Angeles, but in New York and the National Archives venue Theater, which included lengthy in Washington, D.C. as well. remembrances of the many aspects • A retrospective of the films of Katharine Hepburn k ick ed Off at of Stevens' career by Sidney the Goldwyn and filled two weekends at the Dunn. Poitier, David Mamet, Larry o A technically-oriented survey Of 180 years of moving p icture Gelbart, Michael Mann, Steven magiC k ick ed off at the Goldwyn and continued at the Dunn. ON THE COVER: Spielberg, George Stevens Jr. and o Tributes to David Brown in New York and Lewis Gilbert in grandson Michael Stevens. London. GEORGE STEVENS Never-before-screened clips o The ongOing monthly Gold Standard series in Los Angeles and ON LOCATION IN from interviews shot for the 1985 LONEPINE, Monday Nights with Oscar in New York and the inauguration documentary "George Stevens: A CALIFORNIA, of a new screening series in conj unction with the National WHEREHEWAS Archives in Washington. Filmmaker's Journey," directed by FILMING THE 1939 George Stevens Jr., were inter­ o And the 23rd year of the Academy/UCLA contemp orary FILM "GUNGA DIN." spersed through the evening. documentary screenings - this year with the first half p resented STEVENS IS USING at our newly dedicated Dunn Theater in Holly w ood. Hollywood legends such as HIS OWN CAMERA Katharine Hepburn, Rock Hudson, TOCAPTURE There is much more being planned in the fertile imaginations of the BEHIND-THE­ programming staff. Jimmy Stewart, Ginger Rogers and SCENES FOOTAGE. I certainly hope you've been enjoying them , and that you'll Douglas Fairbanks Jr. talk candidly (SEE STORY ON continue to do so in the future. in these interviews about their THIS PAGE) - FRANK P IERSON experiences working with Stevens. Stevens headed a combat motion picture unit under General A C ADEM Y Q UA R T ERLY REPOR T I Dwight Eisenhower from 1944 to Published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 1946 and was awarded the Legion 8949 Wilshire Boulevard , Beverly Hills, California 90211 -1972 (310) 247-3000 0 www,oscars,org of Merit for his service. Clips from PRESIDENT , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ' , , , , , , , . ... ... .... , .. Frank R. Pierson Stevens' World War II unit, which FIRST VICE PRESIDENT . ..........••. , ........ •• .............. .. .. ... Sid Ganls VICE PRESIDENT ............... •.......... ............... .• ..... Gilbert Cates included unique color footage, VICE PRES IDENT .......... .• . ..... .....• . .. .. .. ....... ...... Arthur Hamilton also were shown. T REASURER . .. .. .. ..• . .. , . ...•• . .........•••.... .. ... ....... Kathy Bates SECRETARY ............. .. ...•. .. •... ... .....•••..... Donald C. Rogers Additional tributes to EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR . ........................................... ... Bruce Davis Stevens took place before the Photos: unless otherwi se identified, by Long Photography end of the year in New York, Design: Lisa Carlsson, Carlsson & Company, Inc. Washington, D.C., London and Oscar-, Oscars~ , Academy Awards~ , Academy Award ~ , A.M.P.A.S· , and Oscar Night" are the trademarks, and the Oscar statu ette is the registered design mark and copyrighted property of the the San Francisco Bay area. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2 ACADEMY QUARTER LY REPORT · VOLUME 16 Academ~ ,Celebrates Stevens Centennial , George Stevens' lighter works from his first broad slapshticky silents to the ele­ gance of his later sophisticated talkies were for me an ongoing course in comedy. Those classes, which I attended religiously every Saturday at my local cinemagogue, WARREN BEATTY WITH ANNETTE BENING were the highlights of my youth. , - LARRY GELBART 'Directors actually do not know how other directors direct. We're never on the set with them. We never make a film with them. So when we see a body of work as masterful as George Stevens' work, we try to figure out what he did.' - MICHAEL MANN '<Stevens) made stillness and silence more frightening than anyone had ever before achieved. , - STEvEN SPIELBERG , My dad enjoyed nothing more than the fellowship and respect of his fellow filmmakers, and I just know how deeply touched he would be by the caliber of people who've come here tonight to member his work and speak about it.' - GEORGE STEvENS JR. STEVEN SPIELBERG Tribute Kicks Off Screening Series 1 I \I (,W .... 1 The George Stevens Centennial Tribute kicked off an .... eight-week screening series at the Academy featuring some of Stevens' most notable films, along with two documentaries about him. Shown were "Alice Adams," "Annie Oakley," "Swing Time," 'Vivacious Lady," "Gunga Din," "The More the Merrier," "I Remember Mama," "A Place in the Sun," "Shane," "The Greatest Story Ever Told," "George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey" and "George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin." PAT BOONE AND ROBERT LOGGIA, WHO APPEARED IN "THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD." ART DIRECTOR BILL CREBER, LEFT, AND PANAVISION CO·FOUNDER RICHARD MOORE AT THE 70MM ULTRA PANAVISION SCREENING OF "THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD." DELMAR WATSON, MARTIN LANDAU, "THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD." " ANNIE OAKLEY." 4 A C ADEMY QUARTERLY REPORT · VOLU ME 16 GEORGE STEVENS JR., LOIS SMITH AND FOSTER HIRSCH AT "ALICE ADAMS. " T e.:New York "Alice Adams" screening was part of moment of ham or artifice or overstatement in the acting in the centennial tribute honoring Oscar-winning director any of his films," Hirsch said. George Stevens. He quoted Stevens about the acting in "Alice Adams": Host Foster Hirsch, author and fIlm professor at Brooklyn "The acting was related to real human behavior and not the College, called it "a superb fIlm of great spiritual uplift and faith." histrionics of so many other films of the time. It had to do The October edition of the monthly Monday Nights with with people being intimate and talking very quietly. The Oscar series, "Alice Adams" was presented in association with sound man thought we were crazy." the Directors Guild of America. George Stevens Jr. participated in a discussion with "(Stevens) was the actors' greatest friend. There wasn't a Hirsch before the screening. STEVENS FILMS LAUNCH JOINT PROGRAMS WITH NATIONAL ARCHIVES (A ~¥eo:rge Stevens Centennial Tribute screening series in Washington, D . ~als in October, kicked off a new relationship between the ~caeemy and the Foundation of the National Archives which will bring Academy-conceived public programming to the recently opened 300-seat William G. McGowan Theater three times a year. "It is a great pleasure, as well as an honor, for the Academy to establish this new partnership ," said Academy President Frank Pierson . "While our extensive public programming in Los Angeles and our more modest public events and screenings in New York are extremely satisfying - as well as popular - this new relation­ ship, which will bring Academy-quality events to the nation's capital , is a great one for both sides ." With the opening of the McGowan Theater and the founding of the Charles Guggenheim Center for the Documentary Film , said Tom Wheeler, president of the Foundation for the National Archives, the organization "now has the opportunity to use the tremendous power of film to further our overall goals." GUESTS BEN BRAD LEE, ELIZABETH STEVENS (WIFE OF GEORGE STEVENS JR.) AND NICOLE SALINGER. TOM WHEELER, PRESIDENT OF THE FOUNDATION FOR THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES. A C ADEM Y Q U ARTERLY R EPO RT· FO U R T , From a hand-crank camera to a digital The Academy's Linwood Dunn camera - "What a Theater, a 286-seat screening room at career! "What a life! the Pickford Center in Hollywood, was - BILL TAYLOR officially dedicated in honor of the visual ACADEMY GOVERNOR effects pioneer in December. "Kudos," said Academy President Frank Pierson , "to everyone in the Academy. This is a wonderful, wonderful theater." Academy governor and Visual Effects Committee chair Richard Edlund described himself as "one who mightily depended on Lin as a mentor and on his brainchild , the optical printer." An early production model of the Acme-Dunn Optical Printer, possibly the first, was on display in the lobby of the theater. Dunn 's grandson, Thomas Carlisle, who contributed some home movies of Dunn to the event, called the dedication of the theater "really the perfect way to honor him ." The home movies are part of the Li nwood Dunn Collection of papers, photographs and films donated by the Dunn family to the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library and the Academy Film Archive.