One thing seems to stir the souls of our Turner Classic Movie loyalists like no other: the 31 Days of Oscar® salute we've been delivering every year since 1995--a time we fill Academy Award® month with nothing but Oscar® -winning or Oscar®-nominated features and shorts 24/7. (If you're not aware, this year Academy Award® night is Feb. 27.)

And yes, we quite understand if you're new to TCM, you may be wondering why our Oscarama smorgasbord lasts for 31 days when February itself always consists of several days fewer. There's a simple explanation. When we began serving this annual feast of fabulous films, Oscar® nights took place in March, a month which does consist of 31 days. A few years ago, when the Academy decided to deliver its big giving-away gala one month earlier, we went with them, but we were hesitant to shrink the duration of our own Oscar® party. (Let's face it: 28 Days of Oscar® seems a tad anemic when one is used to that larger number.) Because of that, we decided to continue to celebrate Oscar® for extra days, even if it meant extending our festival into the first few days of March.

Therefore, this year we begin our homage at 6 a.m. Eastern on February 1 (starting with the fascinating 1933 documentary Eskimo, which was an Oscar® nominee for its editing) and finish in the wee hours of March 4 with Neil Simon's 1978 comedy California Suite (it won Maggie Smith a Best Supporting Actress Oscar®). Everything in between is pure gold.

This year's slate includes nine winners of the Academy's "Best Picture" prize, from the very first film to receive that award, 1927's Wings, to 2003's The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. We'll also be screening some 30 films we've never shown on the channel before, covering all genres and decades, including 1929's The Love Parade, 1931's Skippy, 1943's Coney Island, 1956's Bus Stop, 1968's Star!, 1975's Cousin, Cousine, 1985's Kiss of the Spider Woman, 1991's Thelma & Louise and the aforementioned 2003 film, which graces this month's N.P. cover.

We'll be serving up each of the 344 films in a unique way, too, grouping all these Oscar®-friendly movies by specific trivia themes. Example: on February 11 we'll show four films which won Oscars® or nominations for actors in roles which had earlier been turned down by others, in this instance, The Graduate (Doris Day nixed the part that brought Anne Bancroft an Academy Award® nomination), Forrest Gump (John Travolta was the first choice for the role that won Tom Hanks his second Oscar®), Pretty Woman (Molly Ringwald said "no" to the part that earned Julia Roberts attention from the Academy) and Cat Ballou (Kirk Douglas turned down the dual role which put an Oscar® in Lee Marvin's hands).

You'll have the chance to learn a great deal of fascinating info, hopefully have a ball and, at the same time, enjoy an incredible cinematic banquet. Never have so many amazing films been gathered together in one spot 24 hours a day for 31 days. To borrow the title of one of the films we'll be showing in the wee hours of February 11, we have great hopes it will make Thousands Cheer.

by Robert Osborne