TCM Announces 2021 Virtual TCM Classic Film Festival

Today Turner Classic Movies announced plans for its virtual 2021 festival.

As was the case last year, the 2021 TCM Classic Film Festival will be entirely online. It will be held from May 6th through 9th, 2021.

New this year is that the festival will be held on two separate platforms; in addition to the TCM channel on cable television, there will be additional films and supplemental material at the "Classics Curated by TCM" hub on the HBO Max streaming service.

TCM's announcement regarding "How to Fest With Us" and what to expect on both TCM and HBO Max may be found here.

TCM's 12th festival will kick off on May 6th with a 60th anniversary showing of WEST SIDE STORY (1961) featuring guests Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, and Russ Tamblyn. 

More than 80 films will be shown over the course of the weekend. I'm especially enthused about a screening of the film noir THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME (1947), starring Robert Young, Jane Greer, and Susan Hayward. For years the movie has only been available in an 80-minute print, and Eddie Muller announced today that it will be shown with 15 minutes of long-missing footage restored, which is amazing news.

With plenty of time to plan this year's event, it sounds as though it will be quite comprehensive compared to last year's "Home Edition" of the festival, which had to be put together on short notice.

While last year's virtual fest consisted mainly of special introductions and replays of a few introductions and interviews from past TCM Fests, this year the festival will include tributes, themed programming, guest programmers, special presentations, panel discussions, and more.

TCM will be making additional announcements in advance of the festival.

Today TCM also confirmed on Twitter that there will be an online shop with festival merchandise.

Articles on TCM's announcement may be found at Indiewire, Nerdist, Entertainment Weekly, and The Hollywood Reporter.

It sounds like it will be an enjoyable weekend, and then hopefully we'll all meet again in Hollywood in 2022!

TCM fans may also want to know about two events on the eve of the festival which are not affiliated with TCM but which will celebrate the festival.

At 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time on May 5th Kimberly Truhler will be giving her annual "Fashion in Film of TCMFF" talk. Zoom registration is here.

And at 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time on the 5th Karie Bible will hold a special festival edition of her "Hollywood Kitchen" series which streams on Facebook. More will be announced closer to the date.

For more on the TCM schedule in May 2021, please visit my Quick Preview of TCM in May.

I'll have much more regarding the virtual TCM Festival posted here as news develops, and a more detailed look at the overall May schedule will be posted in late April.

Updates: TCM Announces the 2021 Virtual TCM Classic Film Festival Schedule and TCM in May: Highlights.

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