‘The Sound of Music’s’ 50th Anniversary Headlines the TCM Classic Film Festival

The TCM Classic Film Festival has opened on Thursday and will run until Sunday.

From a report by Deadline, although the loose theme of this year's TCM Classic Film Festival revolves around the word "History" in every possible meaning of the word, organizers could easily have wrapped it around the word "anniversary" since so much of it seems to be tied to celebrating landmark years in the life of the movies, actors and filmmakers being honored this year.

In fact the festival, which runs all weekend, opened Thursday night with a stunning restoration of the beloved 1965 musical, The Sound Of Music, celebrating perhaps the most publicized 50th anniversary in the history of movie anniversaries. Star Julie Andrews has been everywhere lately and there was even an hour long ABC News special in its honor hosted by Diane Sawyer.

It was a natural to open this fest to a sold-out crowd at the TCL Chinese IMAX theatre and both Andrews and co-star Christopher Plummer (in a discussion moderated by former Academy President Sid Ganis) were in rare form reminiscing, like the old friends they are, about the making of the film which really seems to define "classic." Of course 20th Century Fox is cashing in with a new DVD/Blu Ray for the 50^th.

The opening night film and party was sponsored largely by the Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures, the new film museum scheduled to open sometime in 2017. The Academy Museum had a dry run over the last few months with the imported, and fantastic, Hollywood Costume exhibit that finally just closed on March 2nd.

The TCM Fest is known for showcasing restorations and there are plenty in store this year including the 1972 musical, 1776, the 1953 musical Calamity Jane, the 1959 version of Imitation Of Life, a 1931 comedy Don't Bet On Women and many others. At any given moment five or six must-see films are competing with each other.