Posted by Larry Gleeson

TCM Announces 2022 Classic Film Festival Tributes
Bruce Dern, Piper Laurie, and Floyd Norman to be honored

Additional Screenings Announced for 2022 TCMFF in Hollywood, April 21-24, 2022

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) today announced it will honor Academy Award-nominated actor Bruce Dern, Academy Award-nominated actress Piper Laurie, and animator and story director Floyd Norman during the 13^th annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood April 21 – 24, 2022. Festival passes for the annual event are currently on sale.

Each year the TCM Classic Film Festival pays tribute to a select group of individuals whose work in Hollywood has left a lasting impact on film. Throughout his prolific career, Dern earned critical praise and his first Academy Award ® nomination for his performance in Coming Home (1978) and another nomination for his performance in Nebraska (2013), both of which will be screened at the Festival. Laurie has worked with some of the most iconic directors and stars of classic Hollywood while making a name for herself in Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952) and her Academy Award ® nominated turn in The Hustler (1961). Laurie will introduce both films at the Festival. Having bolstered his career through a lasting partnership with Walt Disney Studios, Norman worked as an animator on several Disney classics including The Jungle Book (1967) which will play at the El Capitan Theatre during the Festival.

One of the Festival’s many fan-favorite events includes the poolside screenings presented by Citi, the Official Card of the Festival, at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. This year is no exception with cult favorites like Soylent Green (1973), which is set in 2022, with actress Leigh Taylor-Young in attendance; a 40th-anniversary screening of Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982); and the Elvis classic Blue Hawaii (1961) being featured.

Other screenings during the TCM Classic Film Festival include a midnight screening of Polyester (1981) with Odorama; the film noir I, The Jury (1953) in its original 3-D format; and a special presentation of the silent film 7^th Heaven (1927), accompanied in person by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

TCM recently updated the health protocols and safety measures for the event. Get the latest guidelines here: tcm.com/festival.

About the 2022 TCM Classic Film Festival

Movie lovers from around the globe will descend upon Hollywood for the 13^th edition of the TCM Classic Film Festival. The 2022 Festival is set to take place from Thursday, April 21 – to Sunday, April 24, 2022. Over four packed days and nights, attendees will be treated to an extensive lineup of great movies, appearances by legendary stars and filmmakers, fascinating presentations and panel discussions, special events, and more.

TCM Primetime host Ben Mankiewicz will serve as the official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival. The Festival’s official hotel and central gathering point will be The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, which has a longstanding role in movie history and was the site of the first Academy Awards® ceremony. The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel will also offer special rates for Festival attendees. Screenings and events during the Festival will be held at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres, the Hollywood Legion Theater at Post 43, and the El Capitan Theatre. For the latest news and information, follow us on social at #TCMFF.

This year’s theme is “All Together Now: Back to the Big Screen.” In 2022, reunite with fellow fans, the movies, the memories, the stars, and the glamour. It’s all back live and in person, just as it should be, and where it all began in Hollywood. From high school reunions to homecomings, TCM will celebrate milestones from the past as we look forward to making new memories together.

About Bruce Dern

Two-time Oscar nominee Bruce Dern’s tremendous career is made up of playing both modern-day heroes and legendary villains.  Through decades of lauded performances, Dern has acquired the reputation of being one of the most talented and prolific actors of his generation.

A celebrated stage actor, Dern was trained by famed director Elia Kazan at the legendary The Actor’s Studio and made his film debut in Kazan’s “Wild River” in 1960.  In the ’60s, Dern also found success as a distinguished television actor.  He appeared  regularly in contemporary Western TV series, as well as on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”  Mr. Hitchcock was such a fan of Dern’s that he cast him in “Marnie” and “Family Plot” (Hitchcock’s final film).

Also during the 60s, Dern went on to work with director Roger Corman and appeared in several of his classic and decade-defining films including “Wild Angels.” He also received critical success during that time for films such as “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” and “Drive, He Said.”  Dern goes down in history for his role as Long Hair in “The Cowboys,” in which he became the only man ever to kill John Wayne on screen.

Dern went on to star in such classic films like “The King of Marvin Gardens” with Jack Nicholson and Ellen Burstyn as well as playing Tom Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby” (for which he received a Golden Globe nomination).  It was his brilliant and powerful performance in Hal Ashby’s “Coming Home” that earned him both an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination.

Dern has starred in over 100 films in his career, including: “Silent Running,” “The Haunting,” “Last Man Standing,” “The Hateful Eight,” “Our Souls at Night,” “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

In 2013, Dern earned his second Academy Award nomination for his heralded role in Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska.” That role also garnered him the Best Actor Award from the Cannes Film Festival and the National Board of Review.  He was also nominated for a BAFTA, Golden Globe, Independent Spirit Award, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award. Dern was also nominated for an Emmy in 2011 for his portrayal of polygamist patriarch Frank Harlow in HBO’s hit drama “Big Love.”

In 2010, Dern received the prestigious Hollywood Walk of Fame star along with his ex-wife Diane Ladd & daughter Laura Dern, the only family in history to receive their Stars in one ceremony.

About Piper Laurie

Piper Laurie was born Rosetta Jacobs in Detroit, Michigan, to parents of Russian and Polish ancestry. Piper had been studying acting with Benno and Betomi Schnider for three years when she auditioned for Universal Studios, who signed her to a long-term contract. They made more than 20 films starring the teenage girl opposite such actors as Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, and Tyrone Power. Disgusted with the lack of serious roles, Laurie finally broke her lucrative Hollywood contract, moved to New York, lived on a budget, worked on live television and in theater, and within two years changed her life and her career.

Piper Laurie is a three-time Oscar nominee. She was nominated by BAFTA, as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for Best Foreign Actress and Best Actress in a Leading Role, respectively, for her performance in The Hustler (1961) with Paul Newman. She stopped working for 15 years after The Hustler to devote her energies to the Civil Rights movement and to the Vietnam War, feeling acting was less important. When she accepted work again, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the original Carrie (1976) with Sissy Spacek and again as Best Supporting Actress in Children of a Lesser God (1986) with Marlee Matlin. Laurie won the Golden Globe for her role in the David Lynch cult favorite Twin Peaks and was nominated for an Emmy for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in Twin Peaks. She has been nominated 12 times for an Emmy, including one for the original and celebrated live broadcast of The Days of Wine and Roses with Cliff Robertson and directed by John Frankenheimer, as well as for her comedic performance in Frasier. She won the Emmy for Promise opposite James Woods and James Garner. She was Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year, and she also received an SFECA award for her performance as Dolly in the film The Grass Harp (1995).

In 2010, she played an ancient grandma who learns to smoke a bong in the feature film Hesher, with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Natalie Portman. Most recently she has appeared as Grandma Verna Wershe in White Boy Rick (2018), starring Matthew McConaughey, and as Rose Muller in Snapshots (2018) directed by Melanie Mayron.

In 2013, she made her musical stage debut in A Little Night Music as the glamorous Madame Armfeldt.

Ms. Laurie performed on Broadway in the Tony-nominated Lincoln Center production of Mornings at Seven directed by Dan Sullivan at the Lyceum Theatre. She also appeared on Broadway in the 20th Anniversary production of The Glass Menagerie at the Brooks Atkinson, in which she played Laura, with Maureen Stapleton as Amanda.

Off-Broadway, she has appeared in Molly Kazan’s Rosemary and the Alligators and Larry Kramer’s The Destiny of Me. She toured in a one-person play about Zelda Fitzgerald, written by Bill Luce. In 2010, she directed Jim Brochu in his one-man show Zero Hour, for which he received the Drama Desk Award for best solo performance on or off-Broadway, playing Zero Mostel.

Piper Laurie is divorced from Wall Street Journal’s movie critic, Pulitzer Prize-winner Joe Morgenstern. Their daughter lives in Oregon. Laurie’s autobiography Learning to Live Out Loud was published by Crown in 2011 to rave reviews and is now available as an audiobook on Audible.com.

About Floyd Norman

Disney Legend Floyd Norman is an American animator, storyman, and beloved “troublemaker” whose 65+ year career represents creative perseverance.  Born in Santa Barbara in 1935, Norman began his career in high school as an assistant to Bill Woggon on Archie Comic’s Katy Keene.  After honing his artistic skills at ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles, Norman was hired by the Walt Disney Company in 1956.  He would become the first African American artist to work at Disney long-term.

At 20 years old, he received daily masterclasses from Walt’s leading animators – the Nine Old Men.  After completing his work as an assistant inbetweener on Sleeping Beauty (1959), Norman was drafted into the military to serve in the Korean War.  After his tour of duty, Norman would return to Disney to work on 101 Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), and Mary Poppins (1964).  Simultaneously, Norman was placing pointed gag drawings around the Disney campus that satirized and poked fun at the company’s executives.  Walt Disney saw them and recognized Norman’s brilliance for visual storytelling.  Walt handpicked Norman to join The Jungle Book (1967) Story Department.  Norman would play a vital role in the design and creation of the “Trust in Me” sequence, among others.

In 1966, upon Walt Disney’s death, Norman would take a leap of faith and leave Disney to start Vignette Films, Inc., a first-of-its-kind production company creating stories about African American history-makers for U.S. schools.  Norman and Vignette Films also created animation for Sesame Street (1969,1970), Hey, Hey, Hey, It’s Fat Albert (1969), and the main titles for Soul Train (1971), among other one-of-a-kind projects.  Even with those successes, Vignette Films was viewed by the industry as a “Black company” which unfairly limited their client roster and led to their closing in the early 1970s, at which time Norman returned to Disney to work on Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and Robin Hood (1973). Around the same time, Saturday morning cartoons were becoming a cultural phenomenon and Norman found the creative opportunity at Hanna-Barbera writing for classics like Scooby-Doo, Josie and the Pussy Cats, and Captain Caveman, among others.

In the 1980s, Norman would join Disney Publishing where he wrote and illustrated a number of Disney children’s books, as well as the daily Mickey Strip.  In the mid 1990s, Norman returned to Disney Animation to work in the Story Departments of The Hunchback Notre Dame (1996) and Mulan (1998).  But an invite to the Bay area in the late 1990s would become a career highlight.  Norman was now working with John Lasseter and Steve Jobs at Pixar on Toy Story 2 (1999) and Monsters Inc. (2001) as a storyboard artist.

In 2007, the Disney company recognized Norman’s contributions to the organization by honoring him as a Disney Legend.  In 2013, Norman added to his writing resume by writing his autobiography Animated Life:  A Lifetime of Tips, Tricks, Techniques and Stories from a Disney Legend.  In 2016, his storied career became the focal point of the feature documentary Floyd Norman:  An Animated Life which was broadcast across North America as part of the 2020 TCM Classic Film Festival and is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel.

Today, at 86, Norman continues to illustrate and consult, taking on diverse creative roles in and outside of Disney.  In 2020, he notably returned to Sesame Street to create a new animation for the 50th season.  In 2021, Floyd was sought out by NBA superstar Stephen Curry to create original storyboards depicting his 3-point record-breaker. Norman’s illustrations helped raise nearly $4 million for Curry’s Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation.  In 2022, Norman is being inducted into the Society of Illustrator’s Hall of Fame, among other honors.  He is currently creating a new book about the Disney legacy, among other creative projects.

Floyd Norman continues to do what he loves with the passion of a man in his 20s – proof that age is just a number.

(Press release courtesy of Taryn Jacobs, Warner Media)