Mel Brooks, who turned 100 in June, hand-picked 20 films for a screening series at the American Cinematheque that spans nearly nine decades of cinema he watched unfold in real time.

The series, "Programmed by Mel Brooks: 100 Years at the Movies," runs Sept. 3 through Nov. 12 at the Aero Theatre, the Egyptian Theatre and the Los Feliz 3, according to the Los Angeles Times. It marks the first time the Cinematheque has handed an entire series to a single guest programmer.

Brooks' picks range from Charlie Chaplin's 1931 silent classic "City Lights" to Eddie Murphy's 2019 "Dolemite Is My Name." In between: Hitchcock's "Psycho," the Marx Brothers' "A Night at the Opera," Fred Astaire in "Top Hat," Kevin Costner's "Dances With Wolves" and Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List." The lone foreign-language entry is Federico Fellini's 1953 comedy "I Vitelloni."

Brooks included one of his own films: "The Twelve Chairs" (1970), his adaptation of a Russian novel, which closes the series Thursday, Nov. 12 at the Egyptian.

"It was wonderful compiling a list of all these marvelous movies for American Cinematheque," Brooks said. "It reminded me about why I first fell in love with the art of film."

Cinematheque programming director Chris LeMaire said the list grew organically. Brooks sent an initial batch, then kept adding titles over several days. "He thought, 'Well, we can't forget John Ford. We've got to throw in The Grapes of Wrath,'" LeMaire said, describing how the selections reached 20.

Brooks conveyed his choices through his assistant by phone and email, offering little explanation for individual picks. LeMaire chose "City Lights" to open the series, reasoning that when Mel Brooks wants to show a Chaplin film, you open with it.

Born in Brooklyn during the silent era, Brooks grew up watching double bills at his neighborhood theater in the 1930s. The oldest film on his list came out when he was 4. The newest arrived when he was 93.

Brooks is not expected to appear at any screenings, though LeMaire didn't rule out a surprise. "I wouldn't want to get anyone's hopes up," he said. "I'll be there with everybody else, wishing and hoping."

Two titles present logistical challenges: "The Twelve Chairs" and Paul Mazursky's "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" (1986) lack readily available digital restorations, making screening materials harder to source, according to LeMaire.

The series opens Thursday, Sept. 3 with "City Lights" at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.