SCREENING ROOM

Cinecon 44 Classic Film Festival gives passionate cineastes the opportunity to see rare and unusual silent and vintage sound films on the big screen. This year’s edition kicks off this evening and continues through Labor Day at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The festival also presents the Cinecon Career Achievement Award celebrity banquet Sunday evening at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Among the honorees this year are Oscar winners Celeste Holm and producer Walter Mirisch. Among the movies scheduled for the festival are 1914’s “Tillie’s Punctured Romance” with Charlie Chaplin and Marie Dressler; 1930’s “Mammy,” the Al Jolson musical that was recently restored to its two-color Technicolor glory; 1917’s “Triumph,” a new restoration of a previously lost film starring Lon Chaney; and 1929’s “Modern Love,” comic Charley Chase’s first feature with its original musical score and talkie sequences. www.cinecon.org

Walt Disney’s beautifully restored 1959 animated feature “Sleeping Beauty” takes up residence for the next three weeks at El Capitan Theatre. disney.go.com/disneypictures /el_capitan/tickets.html

The American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre celebrates Labor Day with a rock documentary festival that opens this evening with two films from Oscar winner Jonathan Demme (“Silence of the Lambs”): 2006’s “Neil Young: Heart of Gold” and 1984’s “Stop Making Sense” with the Talking Heads. Friday marks the L.A. premiere of 2008’s “Patti Smith: Dream of Life,” fashion photographer Steven Sebring’s first film, 12 years in the making. The Beatles are on tap for Saturday with a screening of the Fab Four’s landmark first film, 1964’s “A Hard Day’s Night,” and Andrew Solt’s 1988 rock doc, “Imagine: John Lennon.” Scheduled for Sunday are Martin Scorsese’s classic 1978 “The Last Waltz,” with the Band, and “Festival Express,” which was shot in 1970 but not released until 2003. Rounding out the festivities is a Dylan double bill from 2007 -- “The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival” and “Bob Dylan ’65 Revisited.” www.aero theatre.com

Director David Cronenberg and composer Howard Shore will be buzzing around the Cinerama Dome on Wednesday for a Q&A; after a screening of a new print of 1986’s “The Fly,” considered one of the Canadian filmmaker’s best horror films. Cronenberg is in town to direct the L.A. Opera presentation of “The Fly,” which opens Sept. 7 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Shore penned the operatic version, which will be conducted by Placido Domingo. See “AFI at ArcLight” at www.arclightcinemas.com

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susan.king@latimes.com