Another year has passed and the TCM Classic Film Festival is back. I’ve been covering this festival now for every year that it has been held since I started this blog, except for the the two years during Covid that that the festival wasn’t held of course. Why do I keep coming back each year? There’s just something about watching classic films in the setting of the heart of Hollywood that becomes this irresistible draw that I always look forward to each year. A lot of the movies that they show are films that I have seen before (in some cases many times), but for a lot of them, I am seeing them again for the first time on a big screen. And even better, there are quite a few movies that play at this festival that I’m coming to with fresh eyes. Seeing movies on the big screen is always my preferred way of seeing a movie for the first time, and what the TCM Film Festival gives me is the chance to see these movies in the world’s most famous theaters. The roster of screens has changed over the years for this Festival. The primary location is of course the famed Chinese Theater, but they also utilize the equally beloved Egyptian Theater down the street, as well as the Chinese Multiplex in the Ovation Hollywood mall complex. And for special screenings, they also utilize other screens in the area. During the renovation of the Egyptian that spilled across the pandemic years, the American Legion Hollywood Post theater was used as a venue for the festival, and for Disney related screenings, the El Capitan Theater also becomes part of the Festival. Sadly, the Cinerama Dome still remains shuttered due to the bankruptcy of it’s past owner. Hopefully it too will one day become part of the festival again. This year’s festival carries over the same venues from last year, and this year the theme is centered around “Fantastic Worlds on Film;” putting an emphasis on classic sci-fi and fantasy films being screened at the festival. This is certainly evident by the choice of the opening night screening, The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Of course, I am going to try to see as many movies as I can over this four day fest, and give you my impressions of all the sights and sounds that I experience. So, here is my day to day account of the 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival.
THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2025
Heading straight to Hollywood Boulevard from my day job, I immediately got myself into line for the first show of the day available for standby viewers. I of course am unable to attend the opening night show, as it is exclusive to only the highest of pass holder branches. The opening night shows are always a big deal at these, given the full red carpet treatment and everything. I’m fine with not being able to get into these, because there are plenty of other things to do for those with lower tier passes and standby guests. I do try to get a glimpse of the red carpet though, and just like in past years, it looks like a big deal. Half of the busy Hollywood Boulevard is taken up by the typical infrastructure needed for big premieres; the red carpet plus areas for the press pools, lighting for the VIP’s to shine while their pictures are taken, plus a small bleacher stand for those lucky few fans who got to become spectators for the red carpet arrivals. As mentioned, the opening night show is devoted to the beloved Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, which is celebrating it’s 45th anniversary this year. The opening night screenings always bring out a big guest for the occasion, and for this screening of Empire, who better to have than the creator of Star Wars himself, writer/director/producer George Lucas. Lucas of course didn’t direct or script Empire; that was done by Irvin Kershner and Lawrence Kasdan respectively. But of course this was still his world that he created and he did write the story for all of the original Star Wars films, so he makes for a very worthy guest for this screening. I would indeed like to have been in the room to see George Lucas, but the high tier passes are out of my price range, so it’s the regular screenings for me. To start this Festival, I headed to the Chinese multiplex to see one of their 7:00pm shows, the first ones for this venue at the Festival. And it’s fitting that the movie I selected is one that I have yet to see, the Kathrine Hepburn/ Elizabeth Taylor film Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).
The Chinese Multiplex has been a bit of a second base of operations for this Festival, especially in recent years. While the Roosevelt Hotel still is the primary gathering spot with Club TCM and the Info Desk located there, the lobby of the Multiplex has recently become the home of a lounge space for guests of all kinds as well as the official Boutique Gift Shop for the festival. In many ways, this is a much better gathering space for the cross section of attendees, because it’s where both pass-holders and non-passholders mingle. At the multiplex, there are three screens in use, and my first film was in the second largest of these, Auditorium 6. The screening kicked off with a quick greeting from TCM personality Jacqueline Stewart who then introduced the special guest for the pre-show Q&A. The special guest was filmmaker and writer Nick Davis, who has a special familial connection to the film Suddenly, Last Summer. His great uncle was the director of the film Joseph L. Mankiewicz, which would also make him cousin of TCM master of ceremonies Ben Mankiewicz. Nick is also a recent author of a biography about both Joseph and his brother Herman, another legendary writer (Citizen Kane), which Jacqueline was eager to promote. During their discussion, Nick mentioned many interesting tidbits about the movie, including the fact that working with Elizabeth Taylor on this film helped Joseph to eventually getting the job as director on Cleopatra (1963), which of course turned into a messy situation for Mankiewicz later on. He also detailed how much of a difficult situation it was working on this movie with two actresses known to be difficult to work with. But, he also spotlighted how effective the film is visually, which is something that Mankiewicz was not quite known for, having more of a reputation as a dialogue driven director. The pre-show talk was brief and we were presented with the film itself. I certainly came to this movie more for Kathrine Hepburn than anything else, and she was certainly the highlight to be sure. The film overall was perhaps too melodramatic for my tastes, but the performances definitely are worth watching it for. I especially like the way Ms. Hepburn enters the movie, descending on an elevator like a Queen on her throne. After the film concluded, I had a very short window to get to my next film, which I worried would be the hardest to get into.
My next film was in the smallest venue of the festival; the 200 seat Auditorium 4. I’ve only ever gotten into this screening room twice before in the over ten festivals I’ve attended. But, luck was on my side again. The theater was down to pretty much the front two rows, but I got in. The special thing about Auditorium 4 is that it’s one of the few venues to screen movies with film prints. For this one, we were seeing a beautiful 35mm print of the David Lean film Blithe Spirit (1945), donated to the festival from the British Film Institute. Before the show, we got another Q&A from TCM host Alicia Malone and special guest, actress Christine Ebersole. Christine famously got to perform in a Broadway revival of the original Noel Coward play, where she got to perform alongside screen and stage legend Angela Lansbury. Ebersole gave us some interesting insight into how she approached her role on the stage version and how it differed from the movie we were about to see. She noted how in the stage version that she didn’t have to wear green make-up like actress Kay Hammond does in the movie. It was an interesting talk with Christine Ebersole, a veteran of stage and screen herself now. The movie started and it was great watching another movie at this festival on celluloid, especially an early technicolor one like Blithe Spirit, which put a lot of emphasis on it’s color palette. This film print dates back to 2008, so it’s fairly in pretty good shape, free of scratches and wear. It was my first time seeing this film and it was an interesting watch. The movie is old fashioned, but in that charming old cinema way. It was especially jarring to see a very young Rex Harrison in the film, given that I’m more used to his mid-life work in movies like My Fair Lady (1964) and Doctor Doolittle (1967). The movie of course takes advantage of it’s translation from stage to screen and features some fun supernatural slapstick. With two movies down, my first night was a success. I got into the two screenings that I wanted and was able to get a pretty good vibe of the start of this festival. Night number two however might be a bit more competitive.
FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2025
Given my day job work schedule, and the fact that I had my eye on attending a midnight showing on this night, I had to miss a whole bunch of films that were scheduled on this second day of the Festival. So, I didn’t arrive at the Festival until around 7:30 at night. What I planned on seeing was my first show at the Chinese Theater for the festival, which was a 30th Anniversary screening of The American President (1995), starring Michael Douglas and Annette Benning. I managed to get in line fairly early, but it didn’t much matter since every Standby guest was let in. For this screening, the film was preceded with a Q&A with the film’s writer and director, Aaron Sorkin and Rob Reiner, interviewed by Ben Mankiewicz. Naturally, Reiner did most of the talking, and he gave some pretty interesting insight about the making of the movie. The film was originally developed with Warren Beatty in mind for the President, but once his real life wife Annette was cast in the film, Beatty ended up backing out so that the film wouldn’t be reflective too much of their real life relationship, which opened the door for Douglas to come in. Aaron Sorkin also revealed a lot about his process of writing the screenplay. The most amazing fact that he revealed was that his original draft of the climatic presidential speech at the end of the film was a staggering 15 pages long. They also talked about how this film in particular would be the genesis for Aaron Sorkin’s popular television series The West Wing, which starred Martin Sheen as the President, who coincidently is also in The American President as the Chief of Staff. As Reiner said, Sheen got a promotion after appearing in this movie. This is a film that I had seen before, but never on the big screen, so it was a treat seeing it with an audience. I’m also happy that I got to see it with Reiner and Sorkin there to talk about it. It helped to make up for the fact that one of the movies that I had to miss out on was another Reiner film, Misery (1990), which Rob was also there to introduce alongside the movie’s Oscar-winning star, Kathy Bates. It’s one of the hard choices one has to make when choosing which movies to see. I planned it out this way because I wanted to have the ability to see the midnight show.
Typically the TCM Film Festival midnight showings are not extremely hard to get into. I had absolutely no trouble getting into the Friday night ones in the last two Festivals. This year however was going to be different. The 2025 Festival’s Friday night midnight show was going to be a 50th Anniversary screening of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), a film synonymous with midnight showings. This would be it’s own big draw, and I feel like a lot of outsider, non-passholder patrons would have been jumping at the oppurtunity to see just this film. This of course jeopardizes my strategy of using the standby queues for each movie. So, right as The American President’s credits began rolling, I bolted for the exit in the hopes that I would get to the standby queue in time before it would fill up. When i got there, the line had filled somewhat, but not overwhelmingly so. There was a very outside chance I would get in. Though I was resigned to the idea that the movie might sell out (it’s happened to me before) I was hopeful. I honestly would’ve felt worse for the people lined up in front of me who had dressed up for the screening if they couldn’t get in. This wasn’t just going to be just any other screening; TCM really wanted to recreate the whole Rocky Horror midnight experience, so audience participation was strongly encouraged, including character dress-ups. The only thing that wouldn’t be allowed were outside props, but each person at the door would be given a gift bag with pre-apporved props for the show. Thankfully, the movie ended up getting a late start because of the bag checking at the door, which allowed for more time to check seat availability. Remarkably, they managed to get every person from standby in. When I entered the theater, the choices were pretty limited to just the front rows, but this in turn would actually be a blessing in disguise. Just so you know, I had seen the movie before, but never on the big screen and especially not at one of these famous midnight shows. I learned from my fellow audiences members that this made me a “Virgin,” which meant that I had to participate in some pre-movie initiation. Nothing scary mind you; I just had to stand up and be seen and do some harmless public humiliation. But, even though I had some idea what I was in for, a lot of what followed was certainly beyond what I could’ve expected.
First off, since this was still a TCM Film Festival Screening, the movie was still preceded by a Q&A. Alicia Malone, who actually showed up in costume herself (dressed as the Susan Sarandon character Janet Weiss), did a sit down interview with one of the film’s original stars, Barry Bostwick. Bostwick shared a few stories about working on the film and also what he thought about the incredible legacy that the film has had. You can definitely get a sense that he’s been to more than one of these rowdy midnight shows before, and he was very happy to be in front of this particularly rowdy crowd. After the interview, the emcee of this showing, President of the Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club Larry Viezel, went through all the ground rules before we started. He hilariously noted that this Auditorium #1 of the Chinese Multiplex was much classier place than normal for this kind of show, so he advised that we stay rowdy but also be respectful. The fact that lighters were banned is noteworthy. This is also where the Virgin initiation also took place, which was all in good fun. But the best part of the show was that we would be getting a live performance from a shadow cast. The troupe of actors, known as the Happy to be Here Shadow Cast, would re-enact every scene from the movie right in front of the screen. This was, to be honest, one of the best experiences that I’ve ever had at any TCM Film Festival. The movie, with the context of all the audience participation, just become so much more entertaining. Normally I would hate it if I heard someone talking throughout the movie, but here it just seemed like a natural part of the show. Two girls sitting behind me in particular seemed to know all of the call backs, and they were shouting them out with gusto throughout. We also all got to dance the “Time Warp” together and use our props when cued to do so. Because of my “Virgin” status, I missed all the prop cues, but I didn’t feel like it mattered. For me, just observing the mayhem around me was my form of entertainment. And the shadow cast was amazing. It very much was like watching a play and a movie at the same time; truly a new experience for me. I’m so happy that I didn’t miss out on this and that TCM had the bravery to put it on in the first place. I don’t know any other time I might have sought this kind of experience out, but now I’m glad that this show has, to a certain extant, taken my “virginity” away.
SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 2025
Now for the first full day of my Festival experience. I definitely needed the morning to recover from the night before; Rocky Horror didn’t end until 2:30am. After some much needed sleep, I returned to the Festival and headed immediately to my first stop of the day, the legendary Egyptian Theater. The Egyptian made it’s triumphant return to the Festival last year after being closed for both Covid and a multi-year restoration. The reason why the Egyptian’s return is so special is because it is the only venue in Hollywood equipped to run nitrate film prints. These extremely volatile and flammable prints are rarely screened for the public, so the fact that the Festival goes out of it’s way to show film as much in their original formats, including on nitrates, is always a major plus of the event. For this morning, they were going to screen the Joan Crawford Oscar-winning noir classic Mildred Pierce (1945), with a nitrate print donated from the British Film Institute. The film was introduced to us by the duo of Ben Mankiewicz and comedian Mario Cantone. Mario is a major fan of classic Hollywood, and in particular he has a deep love of the work of Joan Crawford and her on-screen and off-screen rival Bette Davis. One of the treats from Mr. Cantone’s introduction was that he was able to whip out his hilarious elderly Bette Davis impression; an impression that cracks me up every time I hear it. The nitrate print that was used dates back to the film’s original 1945 release, and for an 80 year old print, it was in remarkable condition. The film was hardly scratched, which was very different from the nitrate print I saw last year for Annie Get Your Gun (1950) which looked particularly beat up. This print only had a few jumps around the reel changes but other than that it ran through the projector with almost perfect clarity. Kudos to the BFI for taking such good care of this particular nitrate print, and to the Egyptian projector staff for treating it with the best possible care. With that, I was able to scratch the Egyptian theater off of my to do list, which off almost all the venues has become increasingly hard to get into, even with a 500 seat capacity. My next stop was a different story.
My second film of the day was taking place at the enormous Chinese Theater, where Back to the Future was going to be playing in celebration of it’s 40th Anniversary. This wasn’t an extremely hard show to get into, given the size of the venue, and also it was a mid-day show. But, the theater still filled up fairly well, and it was nice to see this classic get a robust showing at this festival. The special thing about this screening was that it was the premiere of the IMAX version of the film, which was made possible due to the film’s recent 4K restoration. This IMAX presentation was actually meant to premiere five years ago at the 2020 TCM Film Fest, but obviously that got cancelled due to Covid. It’s good that we finally now have the opportunity to see this version of the movie, and it also allowed us to see the Chinese Theater in it’s full IMAX mode. Normally the screen is masked to allow for screenings of regular film presentations, but for this IMAX show, the full screen was exposed, and it’s true size is pretty overwhelming. I’ve been told that this is the largest screen in North America, and that may very well be true. Before the start of the film, we got a special pre-show Q&A with some of the crew of the film; notably co-writer and producer Bob Gale, cinematographer Dean Cundey and Michael J. Fox’s stunt double Charlie Croughwell. They shared some fun little stories about the making of the movie, including Croughwell talking about how he pulled off some of those great skateboarding stunts in the film. This of course is a movie that I have seen many times over, but it was great revisiting it again in IMAX. Watching it on that Chinese Theater screen really made it feel like I was being enveloped by the film itself. Seeing it with an audience also made the showing special, as this is undeniably a crowd-pleaser after all these years. So, with that movie checked off the list, I didn’t have to go far for my next one since my third film of the day would also be at the Chinese.
This next screening, however, was going to be a first not just for me but for everyone attending the Festival. This year, TCM was putting on a special celebration of the long lost film format known as Vistavision, which was developed by Paramount Pictures back in the 1950’s as a response to Cinemascope. Vistavision was a unique format that ran horizontally through a projector rather than vertically, and it’s image size was 8 perforations wide rather than the standard 4. This made Vistavision a great format for large scale imagery, and it was notably used to shoot films like The Searchers (1956) and Vertigo (1958). However, the enormous cost at the time to shoot and exhibit films in the format caused it to fall out of style and eventually it became extinct as the technology advanced past it. Vistavision only recently made it back into the spotlight because it was used in the recent Oscar-winning film The Brutalist (2024), and currently it is being used by filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson and Guillermo Del Toro for their upcoming new films. While filmmakers are getting back into the habit of using Vistavision cameras for their projects, most places can’t actually play Vistavision prints anymore, because there are few projectors left that can actually display films with 8 perf frames. But, TCM managed to find a way to do it. They worked with the Boston Film Center to re-construct a projector rig capable of 8 perforation playback and combined it with the Chinese Theater’s already existing 70mm IMAX capabilities. Because of all this, we could actually see a true Vistavision presentation; something that hasn’t actually happened since the heyday of the format back in the late 50’s and early 60’s. For this Festival, we would be given the opportunity to see two Vistavision films screened in their original format; 1955’s We’re No Angels and 1957’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. I chose to go to the first showing, which was a fun little comedy starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray. The show was preceded with a discussion about the Vistavision format by Paramount Pictures archivist and author Charlotte Baker, who delivered a more in depth lecture about the format exclusively for passholders in the Club TCM room that same day. The movie itself was in very good shape and it was great to actually see how this old, long unused format actually looks in it’s original format. My hope is that this becomes a more regular thing done at the festival, and not just with Vistavision but with so many of the other experimental formats of the era.
To close out my lengthy Day 3 at the Festival, I went to the Chinese Multiplex to catch a screening of a classic Marx Brothers comedy, Animal Crackers (1930). For a late night show, this was much easier to get into than my midnight show from the night before. Even still, the audience for this 9:15pm showtime was fairly good. I feel like the best way to appreciate a Marx Brothers comedy is with an audience, so I was happy to see the theater fairly full. For this screening, the show started with a pre-screening Q&A. The special guests were writer and performer Andy Marx, who also happens to be Graucho Marx’s grandson. He was accompanied by superfans of the film, the screenwriting duo of Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander (Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt). They talked about different interesting stories surrounding the Marx Brothers and in particular their relationship to this film. Because of copyright issues, Animal Crackers actually went unseen by the public for decades after it’s original release. It was only in recent years that the full, un-edited version of the film was found in the British Film Institute and given the restoration to restore it back to how it was originally seen back in 1930. Scott Alexander also shared a funny story about how he got to see Graucho Marx when he was still a child and desperate for an autograph. The movie itself looks remarkable for a 90 year old film. It’s amazing that just a few short years after the invention of “talking pictures” that we were getting a film such as this with Graucho spitting out rapid fire one liners that still are funny all these years later. It’s kind of miraculous that the original cut managed to survive and end up getting restored to the pristine way that it looks now. With that, my third night came to a close, and it was time to get some sleep and prepare for what would be an eventful final day.
SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 2025
As opposed to my Saturday plans, I was up at dawn to attend the first round of screenings on this day. I made my way to the Chinese Theater, which typically is easy to get into on an early morning screening. While passing by, I was seeing that normally busy Hollywood Boulevard was closed, getting red for the red carpet premiere of Marvel’s Thunderbolts*. One thing that I typically like to do at each Festival is to watch a big Hollywood musical in the Chinese Theater. There’s just something about seeing a musical, which are almost always extravagant spectacles, in a legendary movie palace like the Chinese that evokes old school Hollywood to me. In past years, I’ve seen everything from The King and I (1956), to Hello, Dolly (1969) to Bye, Bye Birdie (1963) to The Music Man (1962) in that theater during these Festivals. The enormity of the Chinese’s screen also helps to make these movies feel even more larger than life. For this Festival, my musical experience would be Oklahoma (1955), screened here for it’s 70th anniversary. Naturally the film looks stunning on the giant screen at the Chinese. We were presented with the Todd A-O version of the film, which apparently was filmed simultaneously with a Cinemascope version of the movie. The Todd A-O version was made for Cinerama style exhibition with the Roadshow format; and it even played at a slightly higher frame rate than normal. While the two versions were all shot the same, there are different takes for each one, so it can be said that there are two similar but slightly different cuts of this movie. The Chinese Theater even drew the curtains (which are also epic in scale) to simulate the Roadshow experience even more. After the movie, we were treated to a post-show Q&A with the son of the film’s female lead Shirley Jones, Shaun Cassidy. He talked about this being his mother’s film debut and the impact it had on her career thereafter. He also shared that her background as a stage performer also helped to prepare her for the double take shooting process that they need to do both versions of the movie. While Oklahoma is not my favorite movie musical, I did enjoy seeing this grand, old school Hollywood musical in the kind of presentation and setting that does it the justice it deserves.
My next round of the Festival would take me to the Chinese Multiplex where I would be seeing the one film on my schedule this final day that was new for me. The movie was Elia Kazan’s Splendor in the Grass (1961). This movie is noteworthy for being Warren Beatty’s screen debut, and it’s easy to see why he became an instant movie star. For this presentation, we were getting a premiere look at the film’s recent new restoration, as well as a special Q&A with the daughter of the film’s other star Natalie Wood, Natasha Gregson Wagner. Natasha also brought he own 13 year old daughter to the show, because she was getting to see her grandmother in this movie for the first time, which must have been it’s own surreal experience given that Natalie Wood was still a teenager herself when she made this movie. The discussion mostly covered what it was like for Natasha growing up as the daughter of a movie star and she also shared stories about meeting the film’s director Elia Kazan. As for the film itself, the restoration looks quite good for a movie from the early 60’s. It gives the film a nice polish with fairly strong color grading. For a first time viewing, i found the film interesting, but otherwise not among the best of Elia Kazan’s career. After the movie, I stayed at the Chinese Multiplex for what would be my 3rd film of the day. It was another film that I had seen before, but never on a big screen, and there was a reason I wanted to see this one. With the passing of legendary filmmaker David Lynch this year, I wanted to see at least one of his movies at this festival, and there were two to choose from. The first, Wild at Heart (1990) was offered as a midnight showing on Saturday, but since I already selected Rocky Horror as my midnight show for this year, I opted for the second one which was Blue Velvet (1986). Unfortunately, this was the one thing that ended up not going according to schedule for this entire festival. While I did still get into the movie, the special guest that was supposed to appear before the show, the film’s star Kyle MacLachlan, had to drop out last minute. It was disappointing, and the only hiccup to my overall perfect Festival line-up, but at least I was able to experience this classic film on the big screen for the first time, and get to experience a Lynchian film the way it’s supposed to be seen, with an audience just as disturbed as myself. A fine way to remember a true original who sadly left us this year.
With all that, there was only one movie left to go, and this was the ever crucial closing night film of the Festival. They always select a special one to show in the Chinese Theater for the finale, and it’s thankfully one that’s open to all audiences, passholders and standby alike. I was hopeful that I had enough time to get there early enough to get an early spot in the standby line. There have been years before where the closing night show was going to sell out, and there was good reason to think that this one would too. The final movie was going to be the Michael Mann film Heat (1995), celebrating it’s 30th anniversary. Michael Mann himself would be there for a pre-show discussion, but he was also bringing along a friend; someone who initially wasn’t planned for the festival but later came aboard as a last minute addition. One of the film’s stars, Al Pacino himself, was coming to the closing night show, which turned this screening of Heat from a interesting choice to an absolute must see. I was worried that as word got out more that Al Pacino was going to be there at the Festival that it might cause a sellout for the show before Standby was even allowed to come in. It’s happened to me before. Thankfully, there were just enough empty seats left for us in the standby line. We were pretty much limited to only single seats scattered throughout as well as either the far back or the front row. I managed to find a single seat about halfway up, which still got me close enough to get a good look at Al Pacino. Both him and Michael Mann came to the stage with a thunderous standing ovation from the near sell out crowd in the Chinese Theater. They were then interviewed by Ben Mankiewicz who led them in a discussion about the making of the film. They talked about what it was like making the famous shootout in downtown Los Angeles, as well as the iconic coffee bar scene between Pacino and Robert De Niro. They also talked about the late Val Kilmer and what it was like working with him on the film. To close out, Pacino also shared a hilarious story about an interview during the press junket for the film where he was lost being asked questions from a over enthusiastic French reporter. The film of course held up after 30 years, and it was great finally getting to see the movie on the big screen for the first time. But what this also did was complete one of the most successful TCM Film Festivals I have ever had. I left the Chinese into the nighttime atmosphere of Hollywood Boulevard, taking in the aura of another complete and satisfying Film Festival.
Over the four days that I spent going to the TCM Film Festival I did not once miss out on anything that I had pre-selected beforehand. This was a huge improvement over last year when I had two instances of movies selling out before I was allowed to enter from standby. I got to go to a film in every venue this year, including the elusive Auditorium 4 where available seats are rare even for passholders. I got a nitrate screening in as well at the Egyptian, which is also a sometimes difficult show to get into. And of course I also got into the closing night show, where I saw a true legend on stage with Al Pacino. But even compared with other years where I successfully got into all the movies I wanted to see this one felt even more special. One of the things that truly made this one of my best Festivals ever, if not the best, was the inclusion of that Rocky Horror experience. I am so happy that TCM and the Chinese multiplex allowed this show to be put on for us attendees. There was some risk involved, given the reputation for the Rocky Horror midnight shows to get a little rowdy, but the way they pulled it off even with all the compromises still gave me a memory that I will always cherish from this Festival. I’ve been to three midnight screenings now at the TCM Film Festival and this was by far the best one. It makes me wonder if they’ll ever do a screening of The Room (2003) at the Festival. Doubt it, but who knows? Another highlight was seeing a movie screened in Vistavision, which is something that I could have only experienced here at this Festival. I hope that they continue this in the years ahead with more Vistavision prints from the Paramount archive. And of the movies I was watching for the first time this year, there is always that one movie that becomes a true discovery for me that I didn’t know I would like that much before, but after seeing I now feel like I found a new classic. The Vistavision screening of We’re No Angels was that movie for me this year; a film I had never heard of before, but now I’m happy to have learned of it’s existence and would gladly watch it again in the future. It’s all of these great experiences that keep me coming back each year, and this year’s festival not only met my expectations, it shattered them. This was an all time great Festival experience and I hope that 2026 will be just as eventful and memorable. Thank you again TCM and see you again next year at the movies.
