This year TCM takes a look at Oscar through the decades devoting every night in February to a different decade of Academy Award winning and nominated films, while daytime is linked by a daily theme. Here is an opportunity to watch films you’ve always wanted to see but couldn’t get on your Netfilx list or find through your Tivo search. But you better get busy because it’s starting soon and its only here for 31 days.
Taking its annual 31 DAYS OF OSCAR film festival to an entirely new level, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will showcase the depth of its movie library by devoting each night in February to a decade of Oscar-winning and nominated films. Mondays in primetime will be devoted to films of the 1920s and 1930s, Tuesdays to the 1940s, Wednesdays to the 1950s and so forth throughout each week, with Sundays showcasing movies from the 1990s to the present. In addition, the daytime line-up will feature themed mini-festivals, such as adventure films (Feb. 1), science-fiction movies (Feb. 2), coming-of-age movies (Feb. 5), mysteries (Feb. 10), John Wayne films (Feb. 17), war movies (Feb. 21), Alfred Hitchcock films (Feb. 23) and epics (March 2). A complete schedule can be attained by going to TCM’s very cool website turnerclassicmovies.com.
Regular host Robert Osborne (official biographer of the Academy Awards) will guide viewers through more than 350 of the scheduled movies. Every year TCM endeavors to bring to the fold films never before seen on the cable channel, and this year there are more than 35 titles making their first appearance on TCM, including the first Best Picture winner ever, 1927’s Wings (Monday, Feb. 4); cultural touchstones as Five Easy Pieces (Friday, Feb. 1) and Easy Rider (Thursday, Feb. 7); and box-office blockbusters such as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Sunday, Feb. 10). Also new to TCM are such modern classics as Atlantic City (Saturday, Feb. 2), The Trip to Bountiful (Saturday, Feb. 2), The Wings of the Dove (Sunday, Feb. 3), and Apocalypse Now (Friday, Feb. 8).
In this, the 14th year of presenting TCM’s 31 DAYS OF OSCAR, the classic film network is really showing off its impressive movie library, which is recognized as the biggest and best in the industry. By dedicating each night to a particular decade and each day to a specific theme, TCM backs up its claim that no other network can celebrate the Academy Awards with equal breadth.