If you follow this site, you know that every year I do a survival guide for attending the Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival (TCMFF). Over the years as I've refined and added info, the guide has grown into four parts covering different aspects of attending TCMFF.
This is the tenth version of this guide:
- Part 1 (this part) covers when you come and where your stay and one bit of advice on travel
- Part 2 covers the nuts and bolts of how TCMFF works.
- Part 3 covers making the most of your experience.
- Part 4 covers trying to preserve your sanity in the craziness of TCMFF.
Up until last year, when I added this part, I published this guide in three parts roughly late-January to late-March with TCMFF being held in April. As a result, there are a couple of issues in attending the festival that I purposefully did not mention (when you come and where you stay). I've always figured that if I was posting my guide in the two or three months before the festival, by that time, most people have already locked in their travel and housing arrangements, so why bother talking about it.
When Do You Come
The big determining factor is on when to come is dates of TCMFF itself obviously. For the last several years, TCM has announced the dates of the festival in October of the year before, and I expect it to be the same for the 2026 festival. Since we are already in October, I would look for an announcement in the coming weeks.
TCMFF is held over a four-day period starting early afternoon Thursday and running until late Sunday with the closing night party, so does that mean you arrive early Thursday and leave late Sunday? You could, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you are flying into Los Angeles, you will likely be flying into LAX and can count on two hours maybe longer to retrieve your luggage and make it to your hotel. Unless you are coming in very very early on Thursday, you are going to have a tough time making it to the Thursday afternoon events. If you are flying out Sunday, you almost certainly will miss the closing night party and likely have to miss the late Sunday screenings as well.
Adding a day or two to the beginning and/or end of the trip makes a lot of sense. If you're a first timer and have never been to Hollywood, you're going to want to explore a little, but I should warn you that the bloom on the Hollywood rose was gone a long time ago. The first time I went to Hollywood was in the early 1990s for a David Bowie concert at Dodger Stadium. Even back then, Hollywood was kind of a let-down. Still, this is where it all happened, and though most of the glamour and history is gone, there are still bits of it around, and TCMFF is the time and place to find it.
Before I go any further, the definitive source of info on TCMFF is the official web page at https://filmfestival.tcm.com/. At the time of this writing, there is no 2026 info there, but it's a bit early yet. If you are on social media, search for TCM Film Festival, TCMFF, and/or #TCMFF as appropriate for whatever platform you are on. I could be wrong, but there is bound to be something of a TCMFF community there. Me, I do Facebook, Bluesky, Twitter (but trying to wean myself off it), and a little bit of Instagram. I'm guessing if you're on TikTok, Snapchat, or whatever, there are probably TCMFF people there as well.
Now, I strongly suggest if you are on Facebook that you join the Going to TCM Classic Film Festival! Facebook group. It is a closed group you have to request to join, but the moderators are quick about adding people and do posts once or twice a week introducing new members. The group has roughly 2800 members, and multiple discussions about TCMFF and classic film in general at any given time. It is a great place to ask questions and meet people. It is a politics-free zone. I've been dinged on that myself and have committed to being better. If you refuse to do Facebook, or have sworn off it for good, I do understand, but I would still encourage you to reconsider, just for this group.
The official TCMFF events start about mid-day Thursday, but there are a number of unofficial and semi-official events that you might be interested in. The big unofficial event is the Going to TCM Classic Film Festival! Facebook group TCMFF Pre-Fest Party (the Wednesday before TCMFF). This is something I would not miss. For the last few years, this event has been held at the Hollywood Heritage Museum about a 10-15 minute walk from the festival area. There is a nominal fee for this event to cover the cost of the venue, pizza, soft drinks, and desserts and includes entry to the museum. It's BYOB non-soft drinks if you want that. If you get to know people online, this party is a good way to meet them in person and hang out before things get crazy.
[Shameless Plug] On the Tuesday night before TCMFF for the last several years, I've organized an unofficial opening party at a bar with fairly reasonably priced drinks within walking distance of the festival area. I'll be doing so again for 2026, details later. [End of Shameless Plug]
In addition, at TCMFF 2025 and the year before, TCM did a live recording of their Talking Pictures podcast with Ben Mankiewicz on Wednesday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. In 2024, this featured Mario Cantone and in 2025, it featured Eli Roth. Both years, the announcement of these events came only about a week out. If you had already booked a flight that arrived in LAX at 6 pm on Wednesday, it's very unlikely you could make it to Hollywood in time to attend. I'm guessing that the late announcement was a way of limiting attendance, as the room where this happened and also serves as Club TCM during the festival only holds so many people.
Will TCM be doing something similar next year. No promises, but it wouldn't surprise me. There are quite a few other unofficial events. I try to cover these in my TCMFF Survival Guide Part 3 – Making the Most of Your Experience post. I will update that for 2026 in the coming months. By that time, I should have details on at least some of them.
In addition, you probably wouldn't mind doing one of the studio tours or a visit to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. You might think that you can squeeze this in on a morning or afternoon during TCMFF. Yes, you could but you might have to sacrifice seeing one of your all-time favorite films on the big screen at the TCL Chinese Theater, which is the whole point of coming to TCMFF in the first place. When you attend TCMFF, you are bound to make new friends. A day or two on the beginning or end of the trip gives you a chance to hang out with them. Finally, Hollywood and Los Angeles is also the home to a lot of great movie theaters, some of which screen classic films, and if you're in town before or after, you might be able to catch something cool.
A little confession, I've lived my whole life in San Diego, and San Diegans, we like to look down our noses at our neighbor to the north. The traffic is terrible. It's too crowded and too expensive. While this may be true, with the exception of Comic-Con and possibly craft brewing, everything we have in San Diego, they have bigger and better up in LA. Don't get me wrong, I love San Diego, but down here, we tend to let this provincial snottiness blind us to a lot of great stuff happening just a two hour drive away, okay, three hours with traffic. LA is a great town. There's amazing restaurants and entertainment and tons of cool areas to explore. Where am I going with all of this? Well, if you haven't figured out by now, you really need to add a day or two to your itinerary. For me, a trip to LA is not a big deal, but if you're coming from somewhere else, you may as well take advantage of it while you're here.
I have been coming to TCMFF since 2014, and every year, I've left on the Monday after the Festival. I know me. Even before I attended my first TCMFF in 2014, I knew I would be exhausted by the time Sunday rolled around. That's why I've always opted for adding days to the beginning of the trip and not to the end. Your mileage may vary. In the years I've attended, I've arrived on Wednesday, Tuesday, Monday, and one year when Noir City Hollywood was the weekend before TCMFF, I arrived on the Saturday before and stayed through the week.
Where Do You Stay
Bear in mind that I am not necessarily an authority on lodging in the area around TCMFF, but maybe some of what I picked up will be of help.
The host hotel for TCMFF is the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. That's where Club TCM and the poolside screenings are. It's pretty much across the street from the TCL Chinese and the mall where the TCL Chinese Multiplex are. Okay, it's actually across the street and down a little bit but who's counting. The Roosevelt is an expensive hotel. My guess is that the rates go up considerably for the week of TCMFF, more on this later. I do know that anything that is considered a low-priced room at the Roosevelt (if such a thing exists) is going to sell out almost immediately once the dates are announced.
I stayed there in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, I booked a room at about 4 pm (Pacific time) on the day they announced the dates, and by the time I booked, the cheapest room available was a minisuite at $700 a night (and that is in 2015 dollars). It turns that I ended up taking my daughter that year, and the minisuite worked out really well for us. My advice is if you want to stay at the Roosevelt, book as early as possible the day TCM announces the dates. Keep a close eye on your email in the coming weeks, and be ready to book right when you see the announcement.
Another thing to bear in mind is that the Hollywood Roosevelt is an old hotel, built almost a hundred years ago in 1926. The history of the place is very cool. The elevators, not so much. The elevators are tiny by modern standards, and at least when I stayed there in 2015 and 2016, they were very slow. That was my only real complaint about the hotel, other than the price. They may have upgraded them since, so they may run faster, but I'm pretty sure they haven't made them any bigger. Still, one time we got on the elevator, and a very hot older woman got on with a distinguished gentleman, who turned out to be Dick Cavett (one of the guests that year). We got to talk to him the whole way down, one of the few times, the slow elevator worked in our favor.
I have heard rumors that some people book every weekend in April and then cancel the ones they don't need, but I've never spoken to anyone who has actually admitted doing that. I looked at the Hollywood Roosevelt just now and there was one weekend in April where prices jumped by almost 70% from the highest price for the rest of the month. That might mean something. It might not. Just know that the Roosevelt is a expensive hotel ($250-300 a night normally), but those prices might jump by a huge amount the weekend of TCMFF. Possibly, there are a small number of rooms that go for close to the normal rate, but if so, I'm guessing that is a very small number of rooms that sell out in the blink of an eye. That's just the way hotels work when a popular event is in town.
Another good option is the Loews Hotel Hollywood, which connects to the mall where the TCL Multiplex is. This may be the next best bet if you have to be a nice hotel that is very close. Still the Loews is expensive as well, and by the way it had a similar price jump in April as the Roosevelt, but on a different weekend.
There are plenty of other hotels in the area, but I've only stayed at a few of them. The last couple of years I've stayed at least part of the time at the Motel 6 on Whitley, though in 2025, they were completely sold out by January when I was looking. It's cheap and clean, though it can be kind of noisy, depending on the neighbors. It's about a 5 minute walk from the Egyptian Theatre (the furthest venue from the rest of TCMFF most years), so not exactly close. Still, it's kind of a bargain in Hollywood terms. I've also stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on Highland, which was a bit more pricey, but did include breakfast and worked well if TCMFF was using the Legion Theater, which has been used in years past, but was not in 2024 or 2025.
To be honest, of the other hotels/motels in the area, the reviews on the more reasonably priced ones range from "basic, but okay" to "oh my god I'd never stay there again". Another option that you might not think about is the Orange Drive Hostel. Yes, it is a hostel, but not a youth hostel, open to all ages, and it is very close to the festival area. Apparently, you can get a private room at a reasonable price if you act early. I spoken to a few people who stayed there and loved it.
For a few years, I stayed at AirBnBs, but since COVID, there doesn't seem to be as much available. I really liked AirBnB. Before COVID, there were tons of rooms everywhere, but since then their inventory seems low and fewer with reviews of people who have stayed in the place they're advertising. It may be that more becomes available as you get closer to the TCMFF dates, but if it's two months out and I don't know where I'm going to be, I get panicky and book something else. In 2025, I was having a hard time finding anything that seemed reasonable, and I ended up getting a place though booking.com that was effectively an AirBnB, just not booked through AirBnB.
Now, you may be thinking that booking a hotel is something of a feeding frenzy, and that's probably at least partly true if you want to be at the Roosevelt, but not really if you're staying elsewhere. You are probably better off booking a room fairly early. Hotels have a way of raising their prices as more rooms sell. Me, I usually wait until the beginning of the year to book and possibly that's a bad mistake. It least it seemed that way for me in TCMFF 2025. I may try to get it together earlier for next year, but we'll see what happens. I know me.
Travel
I don't want to say much about travel. A lot of it is going to vary based on where you're coming. For the last several years, I have driven up from San Diego. My wife doesn't attend TCMFF most years, but we usually drive up together on Tuesday. She spends the night Tuesday night. Wednesday, we split up. I do Hollywood, and she does whatever LA thing strikes her fancy and then drives home from there. Then on Sunday, she drives up again, spends the night, and we drive home together on Monday.
Most people will be flying in, and that probably means LAX. The only word of advice I can give is if flying into Burbank (BUR) is an option for you, the trip from the airport to the hotel might be enough better that it would be worth flying into the smaller airport. Burbank isn't even all that much closer to the festival area, but the traffic from Burbank is fairly reasonable, and from LAX, traffic is likely to be bad and could be worse than you could ever imagine.
I hope that this has been at least somewhat helpful. If anyone has any tips, and leave them in the comments, I'd really love to hear from you. Best wishes and see you in the Spring.
