’Tis the season for deciding your Oscar party fashions for the red carpet … not only in Hollywood but at the 14^th annual party celebrating the Academy Awards® this Sunday, March 7, at George Eastman House — the home of the father of motion picture film.

To create this dramatic event, the staff teams with the Eastman Young Professionals, a group of volunteers who assist on all levels, from decorations to the silent auction. This popular party is the Eastman House’s largest annual fundraiser.

While not a black-tie affair, the event is a night for toasting the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. “Dress to Impress” is the Eastman House-recommended attire for the Academy Awards® party.

Well, you may ask, what does that mean exactly?

John Vander Brook, a stylist from Adrian Jules Custom Clothiers, helps us explain.

“It’s a night of nights and it’s all about you,” he said. “The Oscars®! When you Dress to Impress, anticipate everyone at this event is going to be doing the same. Pull out all the stops — the glamour, flair, and sophistication.”

Vander Brook will be joined at the Eastman House by two fellow Adrian Jules stylists as the evening’s Red Carpet Hosts, discussing fashions with the guests.

In defining “Dress to Impress,” Vander Brook noted the gentlemen should “think classic elegance,” and named Clark Gable, Cary Grant, and The Rat Pack.

For the women, he referenced Sophia Lauren and Natalie Wood, noting, “Ladies, it’s all about the drama … you will speak millions without saying a word, if you let your elegance do the talking.”

At past Eastman House Oscar® parties, the fashions has been as varied as cocktail dresses to gowns and sport coats to tuxedos.

“This is not an evening to be taken lightly,” Vander Brook said. “It only comes once a year and you are the star of the show. Timeless elegance is a virtue. Don’t we all like to look timeless?”

For more on the Party, visit academyawardsparty.eastmanhouse.org

To view silent auction items including a hockey stick signed by MVP Olympian Ryan Miller visit the auction online.

Spring, the season of lilacs, sunshine, and general renewal, means something else for students of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation: marathon road trips to points south for a crash course in archival practices at some of the country’s finest institutions. This annual extended field trip offers two complementary rewards: an opportunity to work with equipment that the Eastman House Motion Picture Department does not have; and insight into procedures, work flows, and best practices in the real world. (One Selznick alum has likened Eastman House to NASA in its cleanliness and precision.)

Our first stop was the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in College Park, Maryland. The film department, managed by Selznick alumna Criss Kovac, is charged with preserving and making accessible the motion pictures created by the Executive Branch of the US Government. This encompasses far more than the duck-and-cover curios of the 1950s—everything from the IRS instructional films and US Information Agency propaganda shorts to documentary classics of the New Deal and all manner of military footage. Miles of it. The US Military is, by far, the most prolific “studio” of the Executive Branch. (In fact, NARA’s film archive is the only one I know of where one sometimes needs high-level security clearances for the rather prosaic task of sprocket repair.)

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