PORT TOWNSEND — Dress up and celebrate the movies Port Townsend-style at “The Envelope, Please,” the annual Oscar party presented by the Port Townsend Film Festival.
“The Envelope, Please” will start at 3:30 p.m. Sunday with the laying-out of the red carpet.
Dinner will be served at 4:45 p.m. so patrons can be in their seats in time for the 5 p.m. start of the broadcast, hosted this year by James Franco and Anne Hathaway.
“Come wanting to feel glamorous,” said Amanda Steurer, mistress of ceremonies for the bash.
She will float up the red carpet at the American Legion Hall, 209 Monroe St., in a Matthew Christopher couture gown.
Sound a little costly and uppity?
Janette Force, Port Townsend Film Festival executive director, vehemently disagrees.
Tickets $40
Tickets to the party — which include hors d’oeuvres, dinner, prizes for the best star look-alikes and dessert served during the Oscarcast’s commercial breaks — are $40.
That, said Force, “is a very good deal,” considering the dinner is by Uptown Custom Catering with embellishments by Pane d’Amore.
Force said she strove to keep the price down even if the event doesn’t make much money for the film festival fund.
“I always lean toward the inclusive model,” she said. “I’m so over the idea that we need to be exclusive.”
Auction items
The parade of auction items varies from the usual fare.
Some highlights: an evening of poetry and Irish whiskey-tasting with Sequim poet and naturalist Tim McNulty, a private film screening at the Rose Theatre’s intimate Rosebud cinema, and for DVD watchers, weekly home deliveries of popcorn from Port Townsend’s Rose Theatre.
Rose owner Rocky Friedman “realized what his most precious commodity is,” Force said of the popcorn.
As for the whiskey and poetry, “I shamelessly solicited Tim” early one morning, “and he was too sleepy to say no.”
Proceeds from Sunday’s sixth annual Oscar party will benefit the Port Townsend Film Institute’s special programs.
These include a showing of the movie “Pax,” about the eponymous therapy dog who helps an Iraq war veteran heal — and the Washington state women’s prison program where the dogs are raised — at the Rose Theatre on Sunday, March 6.
Force is arranging to bring at least one member of the “Pax” cast and crew to Port Townsend for questions and answers after the screening.
It will be a celebration of the joys of good cinema, if Force and Steurer have their way.
“My favorite thing about the Oscars,” Steurer said, “is the celebration of film and those who dedicate their lives to tell stories through film.”
Last year’s party sold out, Force added.
She urges Oscar fans to phone the film institute office at 360-379-1333 or visit www.ptfilmfest.com.
Tickets are also on sale at the Food Co-op, 414 Kearney St.; at Quimper Sound, 230 Taylor St.; and at the Port Townsend Film Festival office at 211 Taylor St.
