BEHIND THE LENS was on the Opening Night Red Carpet for the 16th Annual TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL for a Carpet Chat with “Jeopardy!” host KEN JENNINGS. And with the Opening Night celebrating the 45th Anniversary of “The Empire Strikes Back”, I even coaxed Ken into giving us his Yoda impersonation that he demonstrated on the finale of “Celebrity Jeopardy!” this year.
It’s that time again! Time to be transported back in time (and back to the future) in a cinematic galaxy far, far away by way of Hollywood and the 16th Annual TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL. With this year’s theme of “Grand Illusions: Fantastic Worlds on Film”, no worlds could be more well-known, fantastic, or beloved than those of classic film, and Star Wars, now a classic in its own right and joining the earlier films and luminaries in the cinematic firmament with an Opening Night screening of “The Empire Strikes Back”. Over 80 films are playing throughout the four-day festival, April 24-27, 2025, transporting us, entertaining us, stealing our hearts, and taking us into worlds we can only imagine. Wonderful honorees, world premieres of multiple film restorations, a cinematic tribute to the 90th anniversary ot the British Film Institute, and two screenings of Vista Vision films, a format which hasn’t been seen since the 1950s, are just a few of the wonders you’ll find at this year’s TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL.
As the portal into “Fantastic Worlds on Film”, TCM Classic Film Festival and TCM show us once again why this is the place to be for movie lovers of all 100+ years of cinema for everything “classic.”
