“31 Days of Oscar” on Turner Classic Movies has recently made some fascinating, big changes in how it presents the movies in its latest, annual presentation of the top films that once competed for Hollywood’s highest honor.
Usually, the series showcases films that have either won or were nominated for Oscars. “This year we’re just presenting Oscar-winning movies,” notes the series’ savvy host Dave Karger, who contributes his predictions to Gold Derby. “So it’s only Oscar-winning movies for the entire month of March, 24 hours a day, no commercials. That gives us some cachet.”
Below are the air dates of just some Best Picture winners. See the full “31 Days of Oscar” schedule here and take note that the movies tend to be grouped by different decades each day. “That’s so interesting because you get to see how the Oscars have changed over this passage of time,” notes Karger.
He’s right. That chronological roll-out really reveals how different the recent winners have been, like “No Country for Old Men” (2007) compared to the type of big, lavish, studio epics (“Lawrence of Arabia”) and entertainments that used to prevail: “My Fair Lady” (1964) and “The Sound of Music” (1965).
Watch Dave and my full chat in the video above. Below: See the scheduled times of Oscar Best Picture winners listed in Eastern time. Above: watch Dave and my discussion of what films and performances of this year are most likely to prevail at the upcoming Oscarcast this Sunday.
’31 DAYS OF OSCAR’ – Best Picture Winners
TODAY, March 22 – “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940) at 8 p.m.
“How Green Was My Valley” (1945) at 10:15 p.m.
March 23 – “On the Waterfront (1954) at 10:15 p.m.
March 24 – “Tom Jones” (1963) at 9:45 p.m.
March 26 – “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946) at 7:45 a.m.; “Casablana” (1942) at 11 a.m.; “Lawrence of Arabia” (1942) at 11 a.m.; “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957) at 5 p.m.; “The Last Emperor” (1987) at 11 p.m.
March 27 – “Grand Hotel” (1932) at 5:45 a.m.; “It Happened One Night” (1934) at 7:45 a.m.; “All the King’s Men” (1949) at 9:30 a.m.; “All About Eve” (1950) at 11:30 a.m.; “An American in Paris” (1951) at 2 p.m.; “Gone with the Wind” (1939) at 4:45 p.m.; “The Artist” (2021) at 8 p.m.
PREDICTING THIS YEAR’S OSCARS
Please note that this video was shot a day or so before “CODA” won Best Picture from the Producers Guild of America. At the time that Dave and I are conversing here, “CODA” hadn’t demonstrated as much awards muscle earlier in the derby – except, of course, when it triumphed with the SAG Ensemble Award (usually a fairly good bellwether for Oscar love) and dominating Sundance trophies early in 2022. Meantime, “The Power of the Dog” just won Best Picture at BAFTA, DGA and the Critics Choice Awards, so let’s not all get too carried away with the idea that “CODA” will automatically pull off an upset over the longtime frontrunner. As of now, I’m still sticking with “Dog” to win, which can be described as, depending on how you look at it, like atsy fare, or instead as a big epic (produced by Netflix).
But the same can be said of “CODA” (distributed by Apple after the little artsy indie was acquired at Sundance). No streamer has won Best Picture yet.
Dave and I also cover all of the other top Oscar races, too. Tune in.
