Last Sunday, April 21, the 15th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival came to a close. It was an amazing 3.5 days of classic film in sunny Hollywood. As a credentialed member of the media, this is just one of a few posts I have planned chronicling my time at the festival. In this post, I thought I would provide an overview of the festival. I’m planning on following up with post with a four-part series describing my experience at the festival, including the films that my husband and I saw and our overall impressions of this year’s festivities.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
During the afternoon, about four hours before the official festivities, attendees went to their first panel–So You Want to Put on a Classic Film Festival. In this panel discussion, organizers of the TCMFF past, present and future were on-hand to explain all the logistics and planning that goes into planning a festival of this magnitude. This panel replaced the traditional “Meet TCM” panel of years past.
The red carpet was rolled out on Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre for the opening night film–Pulp Fiction. Almost the entire cast was expected to reunite at the festival, including John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, and Harvey Keitel. The four main stars were scheduled to be interviewed onstage by Ben Mankiewicz prior to the screening. Aside from the stars of Pulp Fiction, other festival guests, including Floyd Norman, Mario Cantone, Cora Sue Collins, Lesley Ann Warren, Dana Delaney, and Kate Flannery also walked the carpet. George Chakiris was even present, though he did not present any films at the festival. He apparently made a cameo at the annual trivia contest, So You Think You Know Movies, hosted by frequent festival guest, Bruce Goldstein.
The opening party was held in Club TCM before attendees were off to either walk the red carpet, or to get in line for their first official events of this year’s festival. Clue (1985) with guest Lesley Ann Warren kicked off this year’s poolside festivities.
Friday, April 19, 2024
Friday morning brought about the return of Disney’s El Capitan Theatre to the festival. Disney Legend Floyd Norman was on-hand to discuss One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) with TCM favorite, comedian Mario Cantone. At the multiplex, Bruce Goldstein, Shane Fleming, Steve Levy, and Bob Weitz, presented six Vitaphone shorts to a sold-out crowd. The shorts were projected in 35mm with the sound played back on their original 16″ discs. The discs were placed on a turntable built by the Warner Brothers Post Production Engineering Department. Meanwhile, over at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Jodie Foster was the subject of the hand and footprint ceremony. Foster’s friend, Jamie Lee Curtis gave a tribute before the festivities. After the ceremony, Foster introduced Silence of the Lambs, the film in which she won her second Best Actress Oscar.
TCMFF favorites, Ben Burtt and Craig Barron, presented their annual sound and special effects presentation with Them! (1954). Billy Dee Williams, subject of one of this year’s tributes, was at Club TCM to discuss his decades-long career. Movie historian Leonard Maltin was present during the afternoon to present Three Godfathers (1936), and then later a silent double feature Dad’s Choice (1928) and Paths to Paradise (1925) with one of the nation’s leading silent film accompanists, Ben Model, providing the soundtrack.
In the evening, director Steven Spielberg was onstage at Grauman’s with Ben Mankiewicz to discuss the making of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Gidget (1959) was the featured poolside film. Later that evening, director David Fincher was on-hand to introduce the IMAX restoration of his serial killer classic, Se7en (1995).
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Saturday morning started off with the return of nitrate films at the newly restored Egyptian Theatre, making its triumphant return after an extended closure. Film historian Alan K. Rode introduced Edward G. Robinson in Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948). Later, the second and final nitrate of the festival, Annie Get Your Gun (1950), was presented.
The afternoon was sheer pandemonium at the TCL Chinese Multiplex with the screenings of A Little Romance (1979) with star Diane Lane, and The Big Heat (1953) with Gloria Grahame-super fan, Dana Delaney. The Mae West pre-code, She Done Him Wrong (1933) with an introduction by the hilarious Mario Cantone, was sold-out almost instantly. Those avoiding the insanity were probably over at Club TCM attending an event with makeup artist, Lois Burwell, the subject of the other tribute at this year’s festival.
Later in the afternoon, film historian Donald Bogle was at the Egyptian to introduce The Mad Miss Manton (1938) with Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, and Hattie McDaniel. After this screening, film historian Jeanine Basinger was presented with this year’s Robert Osborne Award. She also introduced Westward the Women (1951) with Robert Taylor. Meanwhile, over at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman were onstage introducing The Shawshank Redemption (1994) for it’s 30th anniversary. Inside the multiplex, comedian and Family Guy-creator, Seth MacFarlane, helped present a series of nine Fleischer cartoons that were recently restored through his foundation. These cartoons hadn’t been seen since their debut back in the 1930s and 1940s.
The final poolside screening of the festival was Footloose (1984) in honor of its 40th anniversary. Meanwhile over in the multiplex, members of the cast of Little Women (1994) were reuniting for the film’s 30th anniversary. Closing out the evening was Jeff Daniels at the Egyptian introducing Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Former TCM Underground programmer, Millie De Chirico, introduced the final midnight film of the festival, Heavenly Bodies (1984). Good news! This film will be released on blu ray later this year!
Sunday, April 21, 2024
The final day of the festival started with Fred MacMurray’s daughter, Kate, introducing Double Indemnity (1944) at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. She was also on-hand Friday morning to introduce her father in The Caine Mutiny (1954). Over at the Egyptian, cinematographer Caleb Deschanel presented a 70mm screening of Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Later that afternoon, director Alexander Payne introduced a 70mm screening of John Wayne’s The Searchers (1956). Back at Grauman’s, soap opera star Kin Shriner discussed his love of TCM and the film Sabrina (1954) with Dave Karger. Over at the multiplex, 97-year old Cora Sue Collins introduced the precode, The Sin of Nora Moran (1933). Miss Collins played the child version of Greta Garbo’s character in Queen Christina (1933).
During the festival on Sundays, a handful of timeslots are saved for repeats of films that sold out during the other days of the festival. They are labeled on the schedule as “TBA” and are typically announced Saturday afternoon. This year’s TBAs were The Big Heat (1953), The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), The Good Fairy (1935), The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951), and Only Yesterday (1933).
The closing event of the festival was the always-hilarious 97-year old Mel Brooks. Brooks is a 7-time guest of the festival and did not disappoint. Brooks was on-hand to not answer Ben Mankiewicz’s questions and to do his own shtick. He did eventually introduce this year’s closing film, Spaceballs (1987)–a spoof of Star Wars with It Happened One Night‘s plot, with some Alien, Alice, and The Wizard of Oz sprinkled in.
The festivities were capped off with a toast by the five TCM hosts: Ben Mankiewicz, Eddie Muller, Jacqueline Stewart, Dave Karger, and Alicia Malone in Club TCM. The guests were handed glasses of champagne to toast not only the 15th anniversary of the festival, but also the 30th anniversary of TCM!
Here’s to many more years of the festival and TCM!
Whimsically Classic 
Loved reading about your fest experiences, Kayla. And it was such a delight to meet you and your husband!
Karen
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Thank you! I have more posts planned outlining the specific things that my husband and I did at the festival. I wrote this post because I received the media credential and wanted to do the most coverage I could.
It was nice meeting you as well! I’m sorry our initial meeting was a little awkward at first. I didn’t hear you when you said hi to me! I hope I’ll see you again at another festival!
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Experiencing the TCMFF vicariously through you! I’m looking forward to your upcoming posts.
The toughest part has to be deciding what movies and activities to attend in a given day and coordinating getting to the different locations in time.
I just don’t see myself leaving a movie before it ends..
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Yes! I wrote this post because I received the media credential. I wanted to make sure I wrote as much as I could about the festival. I tried not to double dip on any of the specific events we attended so that other posts weren’t redundant. I have some more photos to use in addition to the photos provided to me by TCM.
The schedule conflicts are killer. We only had two absolutes going in: We were seeing “The Long, Long Trailer” and we were seeing Mel Brooks introduce Spaceballs. I was very sad that “White Heat” was scheduled against “Clue.” We ended up doing the latter, because how often can you see “Clue” poolside with Miss Scarlett in attendance? Some of our other movie choices were made due to the length of the line, or the location of the theater, or the time. LOL. We also gave up a timeslot in favor of getting a good spot for another movie. We ended up seeing 13 movies and 9 cartoons though. We could have probably gotten up to 17 movies if we went to a movie in every single block. But those midnight movies can be rough.
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