Cineplex Odeon Hosts Women in Film

Three major events are spread throughout a weekend of screenings, conferences and seminars at the Cineplex Odeon Universal City Cinemas.

Tonight, a black-tie gala will honor actress Bette Davis’ 100th feature film--Lindsay Anderson’s “The Whales of August,” which receives its West Coast premiere earlier in the evening--at Universal Studios Sound Stage 28 at approximately 9 p.m. Actress-producer Marsha Mason will host the affair, at which Davis is scheduled to appear.

Saturday’s centerpieces are a tribute to actress Sissy Spacek, who is scheduled to appear, and whose film career will be saluted (4 p.m., in the Cineplex Odeon complex’s main theater), and an evening-long retrospective of the films of Carole Lombard, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

On Sunday, the first Lillian Gish Awards will be presented to the festival’s winning entries and their creators, beginning at 9 p.m. A number of Hollywood’s mother-daughter acting teams--Sheila and Meredith McRae and June and Annie Lockhart, for example--will present the awards. Shari Belafonte-Harper will act as host of the awards show.

Throughout the weekend, industry seminars and screenings will be given in various theaters in the complex. Among the topics to be discussed are home video; international marketing and distribution; financing independent features; TV movies and mini-series; broadcast journalism; and women in the industry as writers and performers.

For a complete listing of Women in Film Festival events, call (213) 463-0931.