TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 7, 2024: 31 Days of Oscar - Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible to submit a nomination and vote on the final ballot.
At the 1st Academy Awards ceremony held in 1929 (for films made in 1927 and 1928), there were two categories of awards that were each considered the top award of the night: "Outstanding Picture" and "Unique and Artistic Picture," the former being won by the war epic Wings, and the latter by the art film Sunrise. Each award was intended to honor different and equally important aspects of superior filmmaking. In particular, The Jazz Singer was disqualified from both awards, since its use of synchronized sound made the film a sui generis item that would have unfairly competed against either category, and the Academy granted the film an honorary award instead.
The following year, the Academy dropped the Unique and Artistic Picture award, deciding retroactively that the award won by Wings was the highest honor that could be awarded, and allowed synchronized sound films to compete for the award.Although the award kept the title Outstanding Picture for the next ceremony, the name underwent several changes over the years as seen below. Since 1962, the award has been simply called Best Picture.
Much more, plus the full list of Best Picture nominees and winners, at the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture
MGM art director Cedric Gibbons designed the Oscar statuette in 1927, shortly after the formation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley realized the design in three dimensions. Since the initial awards banquet on May 16, 1929, more than 3,000 statuettes have been presented. New golden statuettes are cast by Polich Tallix fine art foundry in New York’s Hudson Valley each January.
The statuette stands 13½ inches tall and weighs a robust 8½ pounds. The film reel features five spokes, signifying the five original branches of the Academy: actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers. It is solid bronze and plated in 24-karat gold.
More: https://www.oscars.org/oscars/statuette
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5:45 AM | Madame Curie (1943)
A female scientist fights to keep her marriage together while conducting early experiments with radioactivity.
Dir: Mervyn Leroy | Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon
8:00 AM | Captains Courageous (1937)
A spoiled brat, lost at sea, is rescued by a fishing boat where hard work and responsibility help him become a man.
Dir: Victor Fleming | Cast: Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore
10:00 AM | 42nd Street (1933)
Understudy becomes the star of a Broadway musical when the leading lady injured.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon | Cast: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent
11:45 AM | Foreign Correspondent (1940)
An American reporter covering the war in Europe gets mixed up in the assassination of a Dutch diplomat.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock | Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall
2:00 PM | The Letter (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Dir: William Wyler | Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson
4:00 PM | Libeled Lady (1936)
Screwball comedy about a newspaper editor who hires a "fixer" to compromise an heiress suing the paper for libel.
Dir: Jack Conway | Cast: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy
6:00 PM | Ninotchka (1939)
A coldhearted Soviet agent is warmed up by a trip to Paris and a night of love.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch | Cast: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire
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8:00 PM | Casablanca (1942)
Cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide to help his former lover and husband escape the Nazis.
Dir: Michael Curtiz | Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Raines, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Dooley Wilson
10:00 PM | Out Of Africa (1985)
True life story of Karen Blixen, a woman trapped in a loveless marriage, who finds happiness with an adventurer.
Dir: Sydney Pollack | Cast: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer
1:00 AM | My Fair Lady (1964)
A phonetics instructor bets that he can pass a street urchin off as a lady.
Dir: George Cukor | Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway
4:00 AM | Tom Jones (1963)
The romantic and chivalrous adventures of adopted bastard Tom Jones in 18th-century England.
Dir: Tony Richardson | Cast: Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh Griffith