Steven Spielberg To Screen The “Director’s Cut” Of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND At TCM Classic Film Festival

By Melissa Thompson | March 21, 2024

For those of us who remember going to the movies in 1977, we were treated to STAR WARS, SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, AIRPORT 77, THE CAR, ORCA and CAPRICORN ONE. There was a rich wealth of movies to choose from and a time when audiences in their local cinemas would cheer and clap for the heroes. Then on December 14, 1977, coming off the success of JAWS, that director Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi masterpiece graced the screens. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND was the filmmaker’s next movie and, along with star Richard Dreyfuss and the magnificent score from composer John Williams, took audiences on a journey of mankind’s first meeting with aliens and let us know we are not alone in the universe.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning for Best Cinematography by Director of Photography Vilmos Zsigmond (The Sugarland Express).

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) today announced additional talent and programming for this year’s 15^th annual TCM Classic Film Festival running April 18 – 21, 2024 in Hollywood, including a Q&A with Spielberg and UCLA Film School’s Howard Suber ahead of the director’s cut of the film.

The festival will also include a closing night screening of 1987’s comedy Spaceballs presented by writer and director Mel Brooks.

The lineup for the weekend will also feature:

• A Little Romance (1979) with star Diane Lane in conversation with TCM Host Ben Mankiewicz
• The Shawshank Redemption (1994) with stars Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins in attendance
• Filmmaker Nancy Meyers introduces the world premiere restoration of one of her favorite movies, North By Northwest (1959), completed by Warner Bros. and The Film Foundation
• Director David Fincher presenting a world premiere restoration IMAX® screening of his 1995 thriller Se7en
• A cast reunion for Little Women (1994) featuring Trini Alvarado, Samantha Mathis and Eric Stoltz
• A world premiere restoration of The Searchers (1956), completed by Warner Bros. and The Film Foundation, introduced by writer/director Alexander Payne
• Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings introduces a U.S. premiere restoration of The Small Back Room (1949), restored by The Film Foundation and courtesy of Rialto Pictures

In addition, TCM and Warner Bros. will present That’s Vitaphone!: The Return of Sound-on-Disc. For the first time in more 90 years, six hilarious, often outlandish, Vitaphone vaudeville shorts of the 1920s will be projected in 35mm, with sound played back from their original 16-inch discs on a turntable designed and engineered by Warner Bros. Post Production Engineering Department. In 1926, Warner Bros., with technology developed by Western Electric, introduced Vitaphone, a system of adding high fidelity synchronized sound to motion pictures, using discs mechanically coupled to the movie projector. Vitaphone would usher in the talking picture with the premiere of The Jazz Singer in October 1927.  By the early 1930s, though, sound-on-disc would be replaced industry-wide by the less cumbersome sound on film. This replica of a Vitaphone machine, the only in existence, marks the first time modern audiences will be able to experience these films as they did in the 1920s, using discs restored from the era. In attendance to provide context will be Bruce Goldstein, founder and co-president of Rialto Pictures, Warner Bros. post-production engineers Steve Levy and Bob Weitz, and Vitaphone expert Shane Fleming.

For more information, please visit http://tcm.com/festival.