TCM festival to reunite When Harry Met Sally stars and director for film's 30th anniversary

Turner Classic Movies will have what she’s having…

The network will kick off its 10th annual TCM Classic Film Festival with a 30th-anniversary screening of When Harry Met Sally, including a reunion with its iconic stars Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal and their esteemed director Rob Reiner. The film will mark the festival’s opening night on Thursday, April 11.

The 2019 festival is a big milestone for TCM, marking both the 10th annual festival in Hollywood, as well as the network’s 25th anniversary on the air. In addition to marking the 30th anniversary of the iconic romantic comedy, the film aligns perfectly with this year’s festival theme, Follow Your Heart: Love At The Movies.

When Harry Met Sally uses a simple question — “Can men and women really be friends?” — to set up a romance between its title characters, Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan), as they move from mutual dislike to friendship to perhaps something more over the course of 12 years of encounters. The Nora Ephron-penned romantic comedy is often held up as a paragon of its genre, grossing more than $90 million at the box office and earning Ephron an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.

“There are romantic comedies – and then there’s When Harry Met Sally…” said Ben Mankiewicz, TCM primetime anchor and official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival in a statement. “The chemistry between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan makes them part of a legacy that includes the greats of classic movies: Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn; Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell; and Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. And Rob Reiner — utilizing Nora Ephron’s word-perfect screenplay — follows in the rarefied air of the filmmaking giants who made those earlier pictures.”

The festival has welcomed a host of talent for its opening night gala screenings, including last year’s celebration of The Producers with Mel Brooks on hand and a 50th-anniversary presentation of The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer making an in-person appearance.

The TCM Classic Film Festival will be held Thursday, April 11 – Sunday, April 14, 2019 in Hollywood.

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