Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is set to take movie fans on the ultimate studio tour this February with the 2013 edition of 31 DAYS OF OSCAR®. Under the theme Oscar by Studio, the network will present a slate of more than 350 movies grouped according to the studios that produced or released them. And as always, every film presented during 31 DAYS OF OSCAR is an Academy Award® nominee or winner, making this annual event one of the most anticipated on any movie lover's calendar.
As part of the network's month-long celebration, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has graciously provided the original Academy Awards® radio broadcasts from 1930-1952. Specially chosen clips from the radio archives will be featured throughout TCM's 31 DAYS OF OSCAR website.
Hollywood was built upon the studio system, which saw nearly ever aspect of the movie industry controlled by the studio bosses. As the movie industry grew, so did the power wielded by the studios, which reached their zenith during the 1930s and '40s before more independent forces began to point the industry in a new direction.
TCM's 31 DAYS OF OSCAR showcase will feature collections from all of the major studios including the five largest, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Twentieth Century-Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros. and RKO Radio Pictures as well as the studios that were lesser in power, but just as influential in style, Universal, Columbia and United Artists, the latter of which operated primarily as a distributor of independently produced films.
The February lineup will also feature masterworks from a number of smaller studios that dealt in lower budgets, the so-called “Poverty Row” studios like Republic and Monogram Pictures, both domestic and foreign, including Ealing Studios and Otto Preminger Films. In addition, the lineup includes films from studios that challenged traditional Hollywood, like Seven Arts Productions and Embassy Pictures Inc., or that found success in the corporate Hollywood of the 1980s, like Touchstone Pictures.
TCM's 2013 edition of 31 DAYS OF OSCAR offers a rare opportunity to explore the unique style each studio developed, from the glitz and glamour of MGM to the rough-and-tumble grittiness of Warner Bros. Throughout it all, TCM's Robert Osborne, the official biographer of the Academy Awards®, and Ben Mankiewicz will guide viewers on a fascinating tour through each studio's history, stars and signature films.
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