For Dave Karger, movies have never simply been about what happens on the screen. They are about the memories we attach to them, the people we watch them with, and sometimes the unexpected ways a film can become part of our own story.
That idea is at the heart of Karger’s new book, 50 Movie Nights, a personal journey through classic cinema featuring 50 actors, filmmakers and television personalities sharing the movies that mean the most to them.
It had been about a year and a half since I last caught up with Karger, the longtime Turner Classic Movies host and one of Hollywood’s most familiar awards-season experts. This time, I had been eagerly waiting to talk with him about the book.
Following his first book, which offered a more personal approach to Oscar history, Karger began discussing another project with Cindy Sapala, editor of the TCM books. The initial idea was a classic movie guide, but Karger knew he wanted something different from the usual collection of greatest films.
“I want it to be more personal,” he recalled.
That led to the concept behind 50 Movie Nights: invite 50 notable creative people—actors, filmmakers and television personalities—to select a classic movie that carries deep personal meaning for them.
Rather than declaring these the 50 greatest or most important movies ever made, Karger uses the selections to tell 50 personal stories.
“I very quickly realized that I was learning just as much about these celebrities as I was about the movies that they were talking about,” he said.
The choices belonged to the contributors themselves. Karger’s primary requirement was that the films come from the 20th century, spanning the 1930s through the 1990s. Once someone selected a movie, however, it was taken off the table for everyone else.
That approach also expands the definition of what constitutes a “classic.”
While TCM remains synonymous for many viewers with Hollywood’s golden age, Karger believes movies from the 1980s and 1990s deserve a place in that conversation as well.
“I think great movies from the ’80s and ’90s can be, and should be, considered classics,” he said.
Karger has seen that evolution happening at TCM, where more recent movies such as Dreamgirls and Almost Famous have joined films from earlier decades. While some longtime viewers prefer the channel to remain focused on older Hollywood, he believes broadening the definition can introduce classic cinema to an entirely new audience.
And 50 Movie Nights may be another way to make that introduction.
Looking over the finished selections, Karger noticed something surprising. Despite representing genres ranging from comedy and drama to musicals, westerns, thrillers and horror, the movies shared a common thread.
“They’re all human stories at their core,” he said.
There are no superheroes and few enormous spectacle-driven epics. Instead, the selections tend to focus on people and relationships—the type of storytelling Karger has always gravitated toward himself.
For younger viewers accustomed to contemporary franchises and effects-heavy blockbusters, he hopes the book becomes an invitation to discover something different: intimate stories centered on interesting people and complicated relationships.
Interestingly, despite being one of the most recognizable film experts on television, Karger doesn’t really consider himself a movie critic.
Although he belongs to Critics Choice and votes for its awards, he has never made professional movie reviewing the center of his career.
“I don’t have the temperament to be a critic,” he joked. “It would pain my soul to be so negative all the time.”
Instead, Karger sees himself as something closer to a movie cheerleader—someone who wants audiences to know about great films and performances.
That enthusiasm became part of the experience of making the book. When Kyra Sedgwick selected Tootsie, for example, Karger returned to a movie he had first seen and loved as a child. Watching it again before interviewing Sedgwick allowed him to rediscover the film while also seeing it through someone else’s eyes.
That, in many ways, captures the appeal of 50 Movie Nights: even a movie you think you know can become new again when someone shares why it matters to them.
There is also plenty for LGBTQ+ movie lovers to embrace.
Karger, who is openly gay, noted that several LGBTQ+ artists are represented in the book, including Tom Ford, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, John Benjamin Hickey and the late legendary costume designer Bob Mackie.
Mackie’s contribution carries even greater emotional weight following his passing. His selection was the Judy Garland classic Meet Me in St. Louis—a choice that certainly feels appropriate for the designer whose career became synonymous with some of entertainment’s greatest divas.
Then there is Da’Vine Joy Randolph choosing All About Eve.
“My gay self was really happy about that,” Karger laughed.
Scarlett Johansson offered another dose of Judy Garland by selecting Easter Parade.
Ultimately, Karger hopes readers use the book not simply as something to read, but as a gateway to their next movie.
A Paul Rudd fan, for example, might discover Withnail and I because Rudd loves it. Someone who already knows High Noon might watch it again after reading Bryan Cranston’s thoughts about the film.
The goal is discovery—and rediscovery.
The good news is Karger isn’t finished exploring Hollywood history.
He revealed that his next project will return to the Academy Awards with a sequel to his first book: 50 More Oscar Nights. In fact, the interview that made him a few minutes late for our conversation was for that very project.
The bad news? We have a little waiting to do.
The book is currently scheduled for January 2028.
Of course, I couldn’t talk with Dave Karger without asking about the approaching 2026–27 awards season.
For LGBTQ+ audiences, one film already on his radar is the Spanish-language La Bola Negra, which Karger described as a beautiful story unfolding across three different periods in Spain. Borrowing the filmmakers’ own description, he called it “the gayest war movie ever made.”
Karger also singled out Elsinore, featuring Andrew Scott as actor Ian Charleson, the Chariots of Fire star who died of AIDS in 1990. The film centers on Charleson during the final months of his life as he performs Hamlet at London’s National Theatre.
Karger called Scott’s work a “really powerful performance.” He also remains disappointed that Scott wasn’t Oscar-nominated for All of Us Strangers, while expressing strong confidence about the awards attention his latest performance will receive.
After decades of talking about movies, Karger still possesses something that can’t be manufactured: genuine enthusiasm for them.
That may be the real charm of 50 Movie Nights. It isn’t about telling us which movies we’re supposed to admire. It’s about sharing why people love the movies they love—and encouraging the rest of us to pull up the couch, make some popcorn and discover, or rediscover, one for ourselves.
And hopefully, I won’t have to wait until January 2028 to talk with Dave again.
50 Movie Nights is available wherever books are sold.
