Held over four days in the heart of Hollywood, the TCM Classic Film Festival is a place where movie lovers from around the world can gather to experience classic movies as they were meant to be experienced: on the big screen, in some of the world’s most iconic venues, with the people who made them. Moreover, the TCM Classic Film Festival strives to be a place where a community of movie fans of all ages can share their love of classic movies with each other, make new friends and see films as they are seldom seen today.

2026 TCM Classic Film Festival Theme: THE WORLD COMES TO HOLLYWOOD
 

A remarkable merging of immense creativity and shrewd business sense established the filmmaking capital of the world in Hollywood, USA. But from the beginning, homegrown studios, founded mostly by immigrants who came to America as children, embraced new measures of genius and influence from other lands. Men and women of disparate talents and distinct styles journeyed from around the globe to America, already fluent in the same language of cinema as industry veterans, to create and collaborate, and in many instances, just to live another day. This was not an intrusion, but an infusion of fresh ideas and startling visions of what movies could be, shared by those now emboldened by the adopted ideals of their new home: freedom and liberty. The movies they made helped to transform Hollywood into more than a dream factory, but a place where movies could galvanize generations with conviction and inspire in truth, reminding us of who we have been, who we are, and who we strive to be.

The TCM Classic Film Festival invites you to celebrate gifted and vital artists, innovators and craftsmen who once walked through that golden door from teeming shores and advanced the art, commerce and culture of cinema with extraordinary motion pictures, many now enshrined as part of our national film heritage.