AWARD WINNERS REVIEW GAINS OF WOMEN IN FILM

She was the winner of Women in Film’s first International Award, and by all accounts Agnes Varda of Paris--director, writer and film maker--stole the opening ceremonies of the 11th annual Crystal Award luncheon.

One critic’s description of her recent film “Vagabond,” about the loneliness of a wandering runaway girl, could also apply to her: Varda “seizes you and doesn’t let go.”

While photographers focused on the red-haired beauty of actress Ann-Margret, the major-name Crystal recipient, who was as glamorous as ever Friday afternoon, the writers began concentrating on Varda. The 59-year-old woman displayed such bite--and humanity.

In the midst of a discussion about success, Varda did a rather unheard-of thing at one of these press conference openers. She challenged a statement by another Crystal recipient.

Producer Renee Valente had just defined the ingredients for success as “being talented, caring about what you do and doing it better than anyone else.” Valente was a pioneering woman in Hollywood who rose from secretary to producer and was among the original band of sisters who founded Women in Film 14 years ago to improve the image and position of women in the industry.

“I do not agree,” Varda began in heavily accented English. “Some people have success and do bad movies. Maybe one in three of my movies has been successful,” she said with a wave of her hand.

Then Varda noted matter-of-factly: “If Simone Signoret were still alive, and I miss her so much, I have a feeling the award would be given to her. She was such a good person, such a good actress, and I feel sorry she is not here.”

Asked to give advice to women just starting out, Valente, Ann-Margret and Crystal recipient Dorothy Jeakins, who has been designing costumes for movies and theater since 1938, recommended that women not be afraid.

Varda had something else to say: “We have to accept and go with our own contradictions. We make films to get out of the kitchen. I have a large house”--she is married to director Jacques Demy and is the mother of two--”and I do much of my business, my meetings, in the kitchen. We have to make it (being a woman) different. Not to escape it, but to take it with us.”

The other winners talked about the gains women had made, but Varda zeroed in on how much needs to be done.

Clutching a shopping bag containing “Vagabond” videocassettes to take back to France, she passed judgment: “In movies you look up at the screen; in television you look down .”

As she talked about why there are so few women technicians in movies and television, a Women in Film official interrupted, noting that the organization has to pay $2,000 an hour to film the event, and Varda must hurry on to lunch.

“You speak money, I go home!” she said, swinging her bundle for emphasis.

Of course she didn’t, but the official did beat a fast retreat.

About 1,500 attended the luncheon event at the Century Plaza Hotel. Singer Michelle Lee, who emceed the event, paid tribute to Hollywood’s 100th anniversary, introducing luminaries of yore, including Fred MacMurray and wife June Haver, Roddy McDowell, Donald O’Connor and Janis Paige.

Meanwhile, Dennis Weaver and Valerie Harper jointly received the Norma Zarky Humanitarian Award, for their work combatting hunger through the organization they started called LIFE--Love Is Feeding Everyone. Both actors spoke to the audience on huge screens. Both were at work, on separate locations.

Irma Kalish, executive producer of TV’s “Facts of Life,” acting as kind of keynoter, also took the positive approach: “We (women) are above the line (the title), we are below the line and yes, we are serving as role models to our daughters.”

Then, to much applause, she did a variation on that line of Rex Harrison’s in “My Fair Lady”: “ ‘Why can’t a woman be more like a man?’ Why should she be? Sure, God made man before ever giving any thought to creating woman. But that’s like having a rough draft before you create a masterpiece.”

“This is such a kick,” Varda said, receiving her award. She had been introduced by director Lynne Littman (“Testament”), who once worked as Varda’s assistant.

“She completely re-edited my life,” Littman began with evident admiration. “She demands so much. . . . She is an authentic, one-of-a-kind pain in the ass.”

It was Jeakins, however, who brought the audience to its feet: Jeakins, who won three Oscars, whose costume designs appeared in such films as “The Ten Commandments,” “Sound of Music” “Friendly Persuasion,” “The Way We Were” and “On Golden Pond,” and who has come out of retirement to design for John Huston’s new film, “The Dead,” based on James Joyce’s “The Dubliners.”

Elegant in an apricot silk dress, her hair swept back severely in a bun Georgia O’Keeffe-style, Jeakins held up the heavy rectangular Crystal Award paperweight.

“I see figures in this lovely piece of crystal as though it were a crystal ball,” she said. “When I hold it out . . . Mr. DeMille is in my sight. Beyond him I see Gary Cooper, the gentle William Wyler, Jessamyn West at his elbow, Anthony Perkins, Dorothy McGuire. . . . I see Audrey, Julie Andrews, beautiful too. . . . Most important to me of all is John Huston and his remarkable family, and the years of work and friendship that we’ve known.

“All of these people are here, and here they sit in the inner crystal chamber of my mind.”

Valente, whose credits include “Blind Ambition,” the miniseries based on John Dean’s account of Watergate, and “Poker Alice,” starring Elizabeth Taylor and George Hamilton, received a telegram signed simply “Ronald,” in which President Reagan said he was “sorry that Nancy and I couldn’t be there to congratulate you.”

In her remarks, Valente paid particular tribute to the late David Susskind, who she said helped start “a bevy of us” on their way.

Ann-Margret, who received a telegram from George Burns, was introduced by Marvin Hamlisch, who called her a great friend.

“To know her is to love her. She really cares about you.” In referring to Ann-Margret, Lee mentioned the actress’ courage. But that was the only allusion to the incident 15 years ago when Ann-Margret fell 22 feet off a stage at Lake Tahoe, threatening her career and, for a time, her life.

Ann-Margret said that when she began her career 26 years ago, the only women on the set were “the hairdresser, the wardrobe girl and the makeup girl. It was not until 1978 that I saw a woman electrician on the set. Women were very few and far between. . . . (Now) we have the opportunity to make films of quality, to make social statements. . . .”

Ann-Margret, 46, noted that she has just made her 40th film. She said she subscribes to the notion that “life begins at 40 . . . and by the way, on that film (“Tiger’s Tale”) there were 15 women behind the camera.”