This will be my eighth year attending the TCM Classic Film Festival (TCMFF), held April 13 to 16, 2023. In addition, I have been going to Comic-Con and other fan conventions for decades, so I know what it’s like to spend four or five days in a strange city living out of a hotel room and running around from the time you get up in the morning until the time you collapse in your room late at night.
This is the seventh version of this guide I've done. I've tried to refine things over the years and decided to split this post up into three parts:
- Part 1 (this part) covers the nuts and bolts of how TCMFF works.
- Part 2 covers making the most of your experience.
- Part 3 covers trying to preserve your sanity in the craziness of TCMFF.
What This Guide Will Not Cover
COVID-19 info will not be addressed in this guide. At the time of this writing, the information on the TCMFF website was as follows:
There are currently no plans to implement mandatory COVID-19 related health and safety protocols at the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival. However, the health and safety of Festival attendees remains our number one priority and the Festival will continue to monitor the pandemic situation. Attendees will be subject to all applicable federal, state, and local safety precautions in place at the time of the event. In addition, TCM may, at its sole discretion, implement additional mandatory safety precautions to be determined.
In other words, look for the TCMFF website in case it changes:
https://filmfestival.tcm.com/
NOTE: I just thought of this. It probably wouldn't hurt to bring a mask and a COVID test with you, so if you feel sick, you can quickly figure out what's going on.
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Most of the following is kind of a dumbed-down version of what's on the official TCM Classic Film Festival page, the definitive source of all of this information.
Date announcement
Pre-COVID, the dates of the next year festival were announced in the Summer. This year as well as last, the dates of TCMFF were announced in October. Last year, I would have guessed that the later announcement was due to COVID. However, in 2019, TCM was bought was bought by AT&T, now named WarnerMedia. I'm guessing that under WarnerMedia, TCM doesn't have the same level of autonomy as they did before the purchase. Hence, the later announcement of dates may just the way it works now.
The only reason I mention this is that if you really want to get a room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, it's a good idea to act fast. The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is a very expensive hotel and has only a relatively small number of somewhat reasonably priced but still expensive rooms, you need to book almost immediately after the dates are announced. To give you an idea of what I mean, in 2015, I called the Roosevelt at about 4:30 Pacific time the day TCM announced the dates, and by that time, the cheapest available was a mini-suite at $700 plus a night, in 2015 prices no less.
Passes
Similar to last year, festival passes/badges for the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival will be exclusively available for Will Call pick up beginning Wednesday, April 12th. No passes will be mailed for the 2023 TCMFF. While this may be an inconvenience, presumably it would allow TCM to implement any necessary COVID precautions should they be deemed necessary.
Passes went on sale in early December with an early bird discount through the early January. At the time of this writing, Spotlight and Essential pass levels are sold out, and Classic and Palace passes are still available. Currently, there is a waitlist for Spotlight and Essential passes. See the TCMFF web site for details.
From top to bottom, the pass levels break down as follows:
- Spotlight Pass ($2549)
- Essential Pass ($1099)
- Classic Pass ($849)
- Palace Pass ($399)
The following graphic shows the benefits of each type of pass:
Note: The Palace pass does not grant access to any Festival venue or event prior to Friday, April 14 nor to any of the Club TCM events.
Individual Tickets. After all passholders have been seated, any open seats will be sold on a first come, first served, standby basis. Last year, individual tickets were $20 for most screenings and events. Students with valid student ID could receive a 50% discount off all individual tickets. I seem to remember that they only took cash, but I can't say that for sure. I do remember seeing a tweet saying that sometimes individual ticket holders got in late and often missed the film introductions. Your mileage may vary. See the TCMFF web site lists more details on Individual Tickets. The info there now is fairly sparse, so check as we get closer for better details.
I do want to stress that I make no claim that the above information is definitive. You should always consult the TCM Classic Film Festival web site for details on passes.
Line numbers
These
If memory serves me, and nothing has changed, line numbers are given out an hour before the screening starts. If you get there early, you can wait in line until they give them out. Most of the time, when you get in line for a screening, you will be given a number as you enter the line, in the order you enter the line, this means you can leave the line and go do something if need be, use the rest room, grab a snack, or whatever. I would check to see when they're going to move the line. Usually the people giving out the numbers have a good idea. That way, you know how much time you have. You need to make sure you get back in line before your number moves in. They will not hold a seat for you just because you have a number. Take advantage of it when you can. It could be the difference between a sandwich for dinner and Red Vines.
It's really simple if the line doesn't get messed up, which does happen sometimes, especially on Thursday night. Say you and the person you're with get line numbers and want to leave to get popcorn. You get back to the line and figure out where your number should be. Most people put the numbers in the pocket of their badge, so you can usually see where you need to go. If you need to ask someone what number they are, go ahead. People are really good about helping you out. Say you and the person you're with have numbers 75 and 76. You find the people closest to yours. It might be 72 and 77. So you get in line in front of 77 and behind 72, knowing that 73 and 74 have to get back in line in front of you.
If you get in line and decide to just stay in line, it's better not squish the line forward. There's are always going to be people who will need to get back in ahead of you. Sometimes the line will be really full, and you don't want to make it worse. Just figure out where you need to be and find out who has the numbers around yours. Then when the line starts to move you can get back in at the proper spot.
Venues
The important thing to keep in mind about the venues is where they are and how big they are. The schedule for TCMFF can be very tight. You generally want to get in line by about a half hour before a screening, earlier if it's something you'd be devastated if you missed it. Obviously, if you have to hoof it out to the Legion Theater, you need to allow time for that. Generally speaking, one of the theaters in the TCL Chinese 6 is relatively small. You probably need to get there even earlier for those, because they are the most likely to have to turn people away.
I’ve arranged the venues by how close they are to the Roosevelt Hotel, since that is the host hotel:
- Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel – Home to Club TCM and the Poolside screenings. Club TCM is where a most of the guest interviews and special programs will be. In years past, there was a fairly low stage, rows of chairs and a standing area behind the chairs. If you’re at the back of the standing area, you might not be able to see very well. If there is an event that is really important to you, make sure you get there extra early. The pool is just that, a swimming pool with a screen at the one end. Everybody says get there extra early if you want one of the lounge chairs. I've only been to a coupled of the poolside screenings.
- Chinese Theatre IMAX (920 seats) – This is the old Grauman’s Chinese theater. If you cross Hollywood Blvd. from The Roosevelt, you’re there. Okay, it's down a little bit, but it is very close. For lines, they usually run some Disneyland-style switchbacks in front of the theater and then break the line and start up again up the stairs up into the Ovation Hollywood mall. Don’t panic if the line goes back a long way. It’s a huge theater. In the past I've seen the line wind through the mall, out the side of the mall and almost all the way back to the front of the theater, and I still got in.
- TCL Chinese 6 Theatres – Located inside the Ovation Hollywood mall. Currently, the TCMFF site only says that three screens are being used, but not the size of the theaters. Last year, the following screens were used:
- House 1 (448 Seats)
- House 4 (177 Seats)
- House 6 (266 Seats)
- Legion Theater at Post 43 (484 Seats) – Located at 2035 N. Highland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90068. This is a refurbished historical theater in the American Legion Post 43. It's a very cool venue, and they have a bar in the basement that makes an awesome old fashioned. According to Google Maps, the distance from the Hollywood Roosevelt to Legion Theater is 0.6 miles (compared to 0.3 miles to the Egyptian, no word on whether the Egyptian is being used this year). Google Maps calls it a 12 minute walk. The TCMFF web site calls it a 15 to 20 minute walk. It is uphill from the rest of TCMFF. It is possible to cut through Ovation Hollywood mall, and you might shave time off that, hard to say. If you were coming from the TCL Chinese 6, it definitely would be faster to go out the back or the east side of the mall. I'll have more details on getting around in Part 2 of this post.
- Other venues. In years past, TCMFF has held a small number of events at other venues:
- The Egyptian Theatre is still undergoing renovations. According to a news story posted in October, the plan is to open the Egyptian Theatre in 2023, but I have no idea whether that would be soon enough for TCMFF. I'm a glass-half-full type of person, so I'm hoping that there will be at least limited screenings at the Egyptian. Unless things have changed, the Egyptian is the only theater in the area equipped to show nitrate prints of films. Looking at the American Cinematheque site, which administers the Egyptian Theater, nothing is scheduled at the Egyptian through the end of February, but they don't have a schedule posted beyond that. I wouldn't hold your breath.
- Also last year, TCMFF did do one film, Disney's Jungle Book (1967) at the El Capitan Theatre, a huge restored vintage theater comparable in size to the Chinese IMAX theater. Note that the El Capitan is owned by Disney, and I'd be surprised if they allowed anything other than a Disney-owned property to be screened there. Then again, Disney owns half the free world at this point, so there's a lot to work with. Also, the El Capitan has a pipe organ, and they play live music before the films. It's almost worth it just for pipe organ and to see the inside of the theater.
- Finally, last year, TCMFF did all of the guest interviews in Club TCM at the Hollywood Roosevelt, but several years ago, guest interviews were done at a different theater, such is the Montalbán Theatre on Vine St. I'm not sure when they stopped doing that, but it isn't outside the realm of possibility that TCMFF might do something like that again this year. It would be a much better venue for recording to show on the network later than Club TCM.
Regarding the TCL Chinese 6, a word of warning about the Ovation Hollywood mall. It was designed to be explored. There are multiple levels, and it's not always easy to know what level you are on and how to get up or down, and more importantly where you are in relationship to the TCL Chinese 6 and/or the Chinese IMAX/Roosevelt. There are a few tricks to getting around which I will cover in Part 2 of this post. The abridged version is that if you have any time before TCMFF starts, go to the Ovation Hollywood mall and at the very least figure out where the TCL Chinese 6 is. It is very easy to get lost, and the time you get lost is bound to be the time you only have a very short window to get to the next screening.
Schedule
The full schedule is posted online about three weeks before TCMFF (with the smartphone apps being released about a week before the Festival). For the most part, films are scheduled in blocks, with all theater venues running films at the same time, not counting Club TCM events, handprint ceremonies, etc. For example, on Friday and Saturday, there is usually a morning block, a mid-day block, an afternoon block, an early evening block, a late evening block, and one midnight movie each, on Friday and Saturday nights only.
There's roughly an hour between blocks, and you would think that leaves you plenty of time to get from one screening to the next, but it doesn't always work out that way. Let's say, one person goes to a screening of a 90-minute movie that starts at 9 am, and another person goes to 2-hour movie that also starts at 9 am. The 90-minute movie person has an extra half hour between blocks and probably won't have much trouble getting to a second screening at 12, whereas the 2-hour movie person might be scrambling. All films have someone introducing them. Sometimes, it's a simple 5-minute intro like we're used to seeing on the network. Other times, it may be a 20 minute presentation or interview with one the film's stars or director. You really need to pay close attention to start and end times.
Epics, like Gone with the Wind or Lawrence of Arabia will take up two blocks. Sometimes blocks will pair a longer movie, say a 2 1/2-hour movie opposite a pair of short movies, like a 70-minute pre-code and an 80-minute film noir. It can get pretty complicated, and the time windows between blocks of movies do not always align perfectly well.
The TCMFF program schedule is normally broken into a number of categories:
- Essentials – Classics that pretty much every one knows, Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz, Double Indemnity
- Discoveries – Lesser known classic and sometimes foreign films, Merrily We Go to Hell, When Worlds Collide, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
- Special Presentations – Films with more in-depth discussions/celebrity interviews, collections of short films, silent films with live accompaniment, and so on
- Tributes – Films that also feature appearance by/interviews with high profile guests
- Often, there are films grouped around themes. The only one I have seen so far for 2023 is a spotlight on the legacy of Warner Bros. to mark the studio’s 100th anniversary.
Finally, on Sunday, there are four or five To Be Announced (TBA) screenings. These are almost always repeat screenings of particularly popular films that had to turn people away, so if you do get locked out on something, there's still a chance you can see it on Sunday. The TBA films are announced by early evening on Saturday. A list will be posted at the Info Desk at the Roosevelt, on the Apps, Twitter, etc., and the film intros late Saturday will usually announce them as they become available.
I know what you're thinking. How do you choose and when do you eat? Both are good questions. The answers are a bit complicated, but I'll do my best to answer in subsequent parts of this Guide.
Shameless Plug
Last year, I broke down and ordered some enamel pins (to sell). They came out really nice, and if I sell 10 or 15 more, I'll actually break even.
You can order them at: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1177079470/asta-dog-enamel-lapel-from-classic-film.
Also, I will be selling them in-person at TCMFF, $10 cash.
