Wednesday, February 01, 2012

TCM: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR®

Each year Turner Classic Movies performs calendrical wizardry by transforming the shortest month of the year into 31 days of Oscar®-worthy programming. For their 18th edition, TCM is taking "31 Days of Oscar®" on the road with 348 features organized—Robert Osborne wryly advises in his introduction to Now Playing—"according to where their stories occur, be that movie set in Chicago, China, Colorado, Canada, California, Connecticut or the Caribbean (or perhaps in Boston, Baghdad, Berlin, Belgium or Brigadoon)." It's a geographical conceit worth exploring. This globetrotting lineup features 25 Best Picture honorees and 30 movies appearing on TCM for the very first time. TCM's day-by-day schedule can be found here and the trailer for the program can be found here (impressive for its imaginative segues from one film into another, notably Gene Kelley's Singing in the Rain title sequence washing into From Here to Eternity's passionate seaside embrace and a bewildered Esther Blodgett stumbling into Ben Hur's chariot racetrack).

This year, film critic and historian Leonard Maltin will tweet live from @LeonardMaltin during some of his favorite 31 days of Oscar® prime-time films throughout the month. For more information, visit TCM's Facebook page or follow them on
Twitter @TCM.

And to pretty up how battered your suitcase is going to become over the next 31 days, all month long you can check-in to movies using GetGlue to get exclusive 31 Days of Oscar® stickers. Happy Cinematic Travels!