This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the birth of renowned filmmaker George Stevens. Born on December 18, 1904, George Stevens began working in the film industry as a cameraman during the 1920s, shooting comedies, including Laurel and Hardy films, at the Hal Roach Studio. However, his work on Alice Adams proved he had a wider range than strictly comedic films. Stevens enjoyed continued success and four of his films, Swing Time, Gunga Din, Woman of the Year and Shane, have come to be regarded as classic examples of their respective genres.

The 1951 drama A Place in the Sun and the 1956 film Giant earned Stevens Academy Awards for directing. He also received five additional Oscar nominations for directing. As a producer Stevens was nominated for four Oscars when A Place in the Sun, Giant, Shane and The Diary of Anne Frank were named Best Picture nominees in their respective years. Stevens was also a recipient of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1953 and served as president of the Academy from 1958 to 1959 and the Directors Guild of America in 1941, 1942, 1946 and 1947.

Alice Adams stars Katharine Hepburn in the title role, a performance that earned Hepburn her second Oscar nomination in the Best Actress category. Hepburn’s character was a social climbing, vulnerable young woman stigmatized by her family’s lower-class origins who sees marriage to a wealthy man as the only way to find happiness. In addition to Hepburn’s nomination, the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

Alice Adams will screen in the Academy Theatre at Lighthouse International, 111 East 59th St., New York with special guest George Stevens, Jr. Foster Hirsch, Professor of Film at Brooklyn will host the evening.