Sidney Poitier, Lee Grant, and Norman Jewison to appear at TCMFF

Yesterday, TCM dropped more news on the upcoming 8th annual Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival (TCMFF) April 6 to 9, 2017. The opening night film will be a 50th Anniversary Screening of In the Heat of the Night with special guests, stars Sidney Poitier and Lee Grant, producer Walter Mirisch, director Norman Jewison, and composer Quincy Jones. This opening night screening is available to VIPs and Essential and Spotlight passholders. Shoot, that leaves me out, but kudos to those who will get to attend. It’s bound to be the top event of the festival.

Top news for me is the announcement that Mel Brooks will appear at a special 40th Anniversary Screening of High Anxiety. Other highlights include:

• 50th Anniversary Screening of The Graduate with screenwriter/actor Buck Henry
• Appearances by actress Lee Grant at the screenings of her debut film, The Detective, and The Landlord and a conversation event at Club TCM
• Tribute to actresses Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher with screenings of Singing in the Rain and Postcards from the Edge with appearances by family members Todd Fisher and Billie Lourd at both events
• 40th Anniversary Screening of Saturday Night Fever (world premiere restoration) with appearances by director John Badham and actress Donna Pescow
• Appearances by actor-director Peter Bogdanovich at screenings of The Last Picture Show and What’s Up, Doc? and a conversation at Club TCM (most of this was announced already, I think)
• Opening night poolside screening at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
• 75th Anniversary screening of Casablanca

Also included in yesterday’s press release was a list of the official festival sponsors. No surprises here, but it did mention auction house Bonhams as an official sponsor. Reading between the lines, I would assume this means that they would be doing the movie memorabilia appraisals as in previous festivals. Bear in mind that this is just speculation on my part.

I haven’t had a chance to absorb all of this yet, but I’m most psyched to hear about Mel Brooks and the screening of High Anxiety. I’m sure this would push something out of my top five based on the first batch of films announced last month. Also, I’m psyched about Buck Henry, but not a huge fan The Graduate, so this is just one of the conflicts I’ll have to resolve in the coming months.

For complete info on TCMFF, check out filmfestival.tcm.com.