A friendly microcosm of the Oscars’ glitz and glamour was the scene at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center on Sunday night, as Islanders gathered for a reception and screening of the 2016 Academy awards.
Hors d’oeuvres and champagne flowed as guests mixed and mingled in the center’s main foyer before the screening of the Academy Awards. Posters from each of the nominated films lined the walls, and Executive Director Richard Paradise was on hand to welcome guests and offer insight into this year’s movies.
Prior to show-time, guests were invited to strike a pose with a 1949 Oscar statuette. The statue was courtesy of Chilmark resident Robert George, whose late father, George L. George, won the award in 1949 for his film short, “Toward Independence.” Made for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, the film was about military men with disabilities returning home after World War II.
As the younger George tells it, his father was denied possession of the Oscar by the Army, and the precious 24-karat gold plated statue was lost until its re-discovery many years later.
