TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" returns February 1st. Once again Turner Classic Movies is spending a whole month (and 3 days) to honor past Academy Award winners and Nominees. This is a particularly nice time of the year for me since my birthday is on February 28 (one month from today!). It's kind of like a month long celebration just for me... and every other person who tunes into TCM.
Next to "Summer Under the Stars", this is my favorite special, yearly programing TCM has to offer. Some years there's a clever little theme to guide you through the scheduled films. Such as one year when it was a bit like six degrees of separation, where someone in the film or who worked on the film was some how in the credits of the next film. Naturally, the roster began (and ended) with Kevin Bacon. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up. It took a LOT of clever programming to make that happen, which I found to be pretty exciting to see how one film after another was connected. Another year the films were split up into nomination categories, such as Best Actor, or Best Editing, and so on.
This year there's no theme per se. However, (surprise, surprise) there is a slight difference between the programming of the daytime to that of the nighttime. On any given day the films are blocked into categories, such as Cinematography, WWII movies or films by a particular director, mixing and matching from day to day. But primetime is adding an aspect of competition by having viewers pick a favorite between two films with a similar themed choices. Maybe there's two non-winning nominees, or maybe each film has someone who's related to someone in the other film. And so on.
Regardless of how they are presented, the month long programming gives classic film fans the opportunity to catch up on some great films that deserve the attention of an appreciative audience. And there are so many I have yet to see. I may not be able to watch everything (who could?), but it's sure worth a try. Viva la Classic Films! Viva la 31 Days of Oscar!