Turner Classic Movies is bringing back "Films on Film," a franchise that pairs a documentary about cinema with a lineup of related feature films — and the first slate runs deep into autumn, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Ben Mankiewicz hosts the franchise, which airs Fridays starting at 5 p.m. PT on TCM. The format is straightforward: a documentary screens first, followed by a curated selection of movies connected to the doc's subject. Charlie Tabesh, TCM's senior vice president of programming, said the idea came from an associate of Steven Spielberg, who suggested the channel build a franchise around how films are made.

The name is not entirely new. TCM ran documentaries under a "Films on Film" umbrella on weekend mornings roughly 20 years ago, and the brand has surfaced periodically since — including programming blocks in 2023 that featured documentaries like Film: The Living Record of Our Memory (2021).

The revived franchise kicks off with the broadcast premiere of Charles Grodin: Rebel With a Cause (2025), a documentary about the actor known for Midnight Run and The Heartbreak Kid. After the doc, TCM screens Midnight Run (1988), 11 Harrowhouse (1974), Seems Like Old Times (1980), and The Woman in Red (1984) — four films spanning Grodin's career.

On September 11, the spotlight turns to music. Ennio (2021), Giuseppe Tornatore's documentary about composer Ennio Morricone, is followed by four films scored by the maestro: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), The Great Silence (1968), The Mission (1986), and The Battle of Algiers (1966).

A week later, on September 18, TCM premieres Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood (2026), presented with film historian Luis Reyes and timed to Hispanic Heritage Month. The documentary is paired with Mi Familia (1995) and Giant (1956).

September 25 brings The Tramp and the Dictator (2002), co-directed by Kevin Brownlow and Michael Kloft and narrated by Kenneth Branagh, which examines comedy's confrontation with fascism during the Second World War. Five features follow: The Great Dictator (1940), To Be or Not to Be (1942), The Producers (1967), Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942), and Which Way to the Front? (1970).

October's lineup widens the lens further, with documentaries on Lon Chaney, John Boorman, Alfred Hitchcock, Universal founder Carl Laemmle, and Vincent Price. The companion films range from silent-era He Who Gets Slapped (1924) to Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) and the original The Fly (1958).

For viewers who treat a documentary as the appetiser and the films as the main course, the new "Films on Film" offers a ready-made Friday night — programmed by people who clearly love the connections between them.