February is a time when a great portion of the world is not only chilly but also covered in snow and plagued with icy roads--not a month that inspires most people to eagerly jump into planes, trains or automobiles for travel, unless one is headed to a ski slope or hoping for a sunburn in the Sahara. But travel will be very much on our minds here at TCM this February, for 348 reasons: for the first time in one of our annual February salutes to all things Oscar,® we're going to give you multiple chances to go around the world, not in 80 days but in 31, without (here's the best part) ever leaving your cozy home and hearth.

We always enjoy finding a new theme for our annual 31 Days of Oscar® marathon, when every film we show is either an Academy Award® winner or nominee, and this go-around we'll be screening 348 features organized according to where their stories occur, be that movie set in Chicago, China, Colorado, Canada, California, Connecticut or the Caribbean (or perhaps in Boston, Baghdad, Berlin, Belgium or Brigadoon).

On February 1, for instance, among the films we'll be showing are six set in Pennsylvania, which include Paul Newman as one of The Young Philadelphians (1959), Sylvester Stallone among the Philly fight crowd in Rocky (1976), Katharine Hepburn as a Main Liner in 1940's The Philadelphia Story and Gregory Peck among the steel mills of old Pittsburgh, PA, in The Valley of Decision (1945).

Along the way we'll also bring you movies set in Mexico (two examples: 1934's Viva Villa! and 1948's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), India (1942's The Jungle Book and, from 40 years later, 1982's Gandhi), Africa (1931's Trader Horn and 1979's The Black Stallion), the French Riviera (1948's The Red Shoes and 1955's To Catch a Thief) also Australia, the South Seas, Ancient Rome, modern Italy, the Netherlands, the American Midwest, Texas and almost every other destination you can name--even Heaven! (On March 2, the final day of the marathon, we'll show several films which have to do with celestial matters.) Also, of course, the most logical film of the month, considering our theme, Michael Todd's multi-Oscared Around the World in 80 Days (1956).

And the treats don't stop with the various locales we'll visit. There will also be a sizeable lineup of evergreen films which never wear out their welcome (those in the Casablanca, North by Northwest, Gone With the Wind league) and a wide range of TCM premieres. In all, there will be 27 first-timers for us, including the rarely-shown 1933 version of State Fair with Will Rogers and Janet Gaynor, 1997's Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon and Robin Williams, 1940's The House of the Seven Gables with George Sanders and Vincent Price, Harry and Tonto (1974), which won Art Carney the Oscar® for "Best Actor in a Leading Role," Walter Wanger's dazzingly Technicolored 1942 Arabian Nights and John Avildsen's 1987 Happy New Year with Peter Falk and Tom Courtenay. In other words, stick with us in February and you'll be seeing and enjoying (to borrow the title of a movie which will have its TCM premiere on February 11) "The Best of Everything."

by Robert Osborne