Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will open the 15th annual TCM Classic Film Festival on Thursday, April 18 with a 35mm screening of the classic neo-noir Pulp Fiction (1994). Two-time Academy Award nominee John Travolta will attend to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film.
Pulp Fiction kicks off a weekend of programming set within the theme “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film,” as well as the 30th anniversary of the network.
“Pulp Fiction is one of the most important and influential movies of the 1990s. It was Quentin Tarantino’s magnum opus and the beginning of a well-deserved comeback for John Travolta,” said Ben Mankiewicz, TCM primetime anchor and official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival. “Like Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather, it changed our thinking about the type of stories Hollywood could tell.”
Pulp Fiction gives an inside look at a community of criminals, starring Travolta, Uma Thurman, and Samuel L. Jackson, who were all nominated for Academy Awards for their turns. The film earned writer/director Tarantino his first Oscar, as well as the Palme d’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2013, Pulp Fiction was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Rounding out the cast of this ensemble are Amanda Plummer, Bruce Willis, Bronagh Gallagher, Burr Steers, Christopher Walken, Eric Stoltz, Frank Whaley, Harvey Keitel, Julia Sweeney, Paul Calderon, Phil LaMarr, Rosanna Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, and Ving Rhames.
TCM previously announced academic and author Jeanine Basinger as the Robert Osborne Award recipient, which recognizes an individual who has helped keep the cultural heritage of classic film alive for future generations. She has chosen to introduce a screening of Westward the Women (1951) as part of this event.
Additionally, each year the event pays tribute to a select group of individuals whose work in Hollywood has left a lasting impact on film. Legendary leading man Billy Dee Williams will introduce his films Lady Sings the Blues (1972) and The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976) and Academy Award-winning makeup artist Lois Burwell will appear with her films Almost Famous (2000) and Lincoln (2012).
Both tributees will also sit down with a TCM host for a conversation in Club TCM, located in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
TCM also announced several titles that will screen during the 15th TCM Classic Film Festival:
- The Big Heat (1953)
- Grand Hotel (1932)
- The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
- Murder, She Said (1961)
- National Velvet (1944)
- Sabrina (1954)
- Send Me No Flowers (1964)