Academy Award-themed event raised money for cancer research. The day the Academy Awards are given out is an opportunity for several non-profit organizations to have benefits with Oscar themes, including one raising money for cancer research.

The day the Academy Awards are given out is an opportunity for several non-profit organizations to have benefits with Oscar themes, including one raising money for cancer research.

The Institute for Myeloma and Bone Cancer Research is celebrating “The Power and Magic of Music in Movies” at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Writers Guild Theatre at 135 S. Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills.

The event will feature a presentation from Mark Watters, a former conductor for the Academy Awards, a composer for film and television and six-time Emmy award winner.

Watters will show how music enhances the feeling, character, plot and mood in movies and how music that doesn’t fit can make a movie fall flat.

The presentation will be preceded by a champagne brunch, silent auction and an Oscar Pool to predict the winners.

Multiple myeloma is a complicated and incurable disease which severely compromises patients’ immune systems and robs their bodies of the ability to fight infection. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell lived with multiple myeloma and died from complications of COVID-19 in 2021.

“It is through research that life expectancy for our patients has lengthened and have helped to find lifesaving treatments,” said IMBCR founder Dr. James Berenson. “However, more awareness and support is needed from the public and the global medical community to assist us in saving the lives of those currently fighting this deadly disease and prevent multiple myeloma from taking hold on scores of others who are newly diagnosed.”

Among the notable patients who died as a result of multiple myeloma were actor Peter Boyle, Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro and advice columnist Eppie Lederer, aka Ann Landers.