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EXPLORATIONS - Film Festivals Around the World Celebrate the Art and Industry of Movies
From Cannes to Cairo, festivals bring the movie industry, media and movie lovers together.
Transcript1 of radio broadcast:
27 May 2008

VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we travel to film festivals around the world to learn about their different histories and goals. Some of the festivals are major competitions, while others are smaller events to help draw attention to more experimental movies.

Some festivals have a set theme or subject matter, while others show a wide selection of movies. These many gatherings3 are important events for artists, the movie industry, the media and movie lovers.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

One of the most well known film festivals in the world takes place in the French town of Cannes during twelve days in May. The Cannes Film Festival started in nineteen forty-six as a social gathering2 for showing movies. Later, the popular event developed into an important competition.

Every year, members of the Cannes jury give awards for the best movies, actors and directors out of more than twenty competing movies. This year the jury included American actor and director Sean Penn and Iranian writer and director Marjane Satrapi. The awards were announced Sunday.

VOICE TWO:
 

French director Laurent Cantet and students from a Paris school with their Palme d'Or for "Entre les Murs," or "The Class"

The French film "Entre les Murs," or "The Class," won the top prize, the Palme d'Or. Laurent Cantet directed this movie about a teacher working in a school with many problems in Paris.

Critics praised the performances of the non-professional actors who play the students.
 

Benicio Del Toro

Benicio Del Toro was named best actor for playing the revolutionary leader Ernesto Guevara in the movie "Che." Sandra Corveloni won the best actress award for playing a working-class mother in Brazil in the film "Linha de Passe," or "Line of Passage." And Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan was honored for his movie about family secrets called “Three Monkeys.”

VOICE ONE:

Visitors to the festival also saw a series of short films, as well as films which did not compete for awards. But the Cannes Film Festival is more than about honoring special movies and seeing famous actors. The Marché du Film is one of the largest movie markets in the world. Each year, more than ten thousand people from almost one hundred countries gather to watch about nine hundred movies. This event helps link people from all areas of the movie industry. And, it helps filmmakers sell their movies to distributors so they can be shown in theaters around the world.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The Venice International Film Festival starts in late August. Started in nineteen thirty-two, it is one of the oldest movie festivals in the world. This year, “Burn After Reading” by American directors Joel and Ethan Coen, will open the festival. The movie has several famous American actors including George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt.

VOICE ONE:

The Venice and Cannes film festivals are widely considered “A List” or top festivals. The International Federation5 of Film Producers Associations lists these festivals as well as twelve others as “Competitive Feature Film Festivals.” Others on this list include festivals in Berlin, Germany; San Sebastian, Spain; Montreal, Canada; Tokyo, Japan; Moscow, Russia and Cairo, Egypt.

VOICE TWO:

In February, a movie by American director Martin Scorsese opened the fifty-eighth Berlin International Film Festival. “Shine A Light” gave an energetic look at the performances of The Rolling Stones rock and roll group. The singer Madonna presented the first movie she directed called “Filth and Wisdom.” Over three hundred eighty other films were presented at this festival. The Brazilian and Argentine movie “The Elite6 Squad” won the festival’s Golden Bear award.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Other film festivals have very specialized7 subjects. For example, in Belgium you can go to the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. For twenty-six years this festival has been showing science fiction and horror movies from around the world.

If this event seems too frightening, you can attend the International Children’s Film Festival in Frankfurt, Germany. At this event children even get to vote along with adults on which film receives a LUCAS award. In Turkey, the International Istanbul Film Festival shows movies about art, music, dance or literature.

VOICE TWO:

If you like animation8 movies, you could explore the Hiroshima International Film Festival in Japan or the International Animated9 Film Festival in Annecy, France.

There are also many festivals for documentary movies. In Spain, the International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao is celebrating its fiftieth year. At the Hot Docs festival in Toronto, Canada, the Best International Feature Documentary Award this year went to “The English Surgeon.” This movie tells about a British brain surgeon who helps patients suffering from brain tumors in Ukraine.

SILVERDOCS is an international film festival for documentary films that takes place at the American Film Institute’s Silver Theater. This festival in Silver Spring, Maryland is in its sixth year. The event helps bring attention to documentary films from around the world. Next month, the festival will honor the American director Spike10 Lee for his work in making powerful movies about social injustice11.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In the United States, two of the most well known film festivals for independent films are the Sundance and Telluride Film Festivals. Movies shown at these events are produced without the support of the major Hollywood studios. Filmmakers often show their movies for the first time to important people in the movie industry. Movie distributors can buy films that otherwise might be undiscovered and show them in theaters. Sometimes movie distributors start pricing wars as they compete to buy the rights to a movie they think will be a financial success.

VOICE TWO:

The Sundance Film Festival is organized by the Sundance Institute. The actor Robert Redford helped start the Institute in the early nineteen eighties. His aim was to create an environment to discover and support new and independent filmmakers. The festival takes place in and around Park City, Utah. The most recent one took place over ten days this past January. The director of the Sundance Film Festival, Geoffrey Gilmore, spoke12 at the awards ceremony.

GEOFFREY GILMORE:

“And as the festival comes to a close, I am struck by a profound sense of significance and emergence13 this year. Of another generation of independent filmmakers, of another year of really superb independent film.”

VOICE ONE:

“Trouble the Water” won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for documentary film. It tells how a wife and husband struggled to survive in New Orleans, Louisiana after the destructive effects of Hurricane Katrina.

The prize for best dramatic film went to “Frozen River” directed by Courtney Hunt. This movie is about two poor women trying to bring Chinese immigrants illegally into the United States from Canada. Here, the director talks about her movie.

COURTNEY HUNT:
 

Courtney Hunt

“This is a story about a white woman and a Mohawk Indian woman who team up to smuggle14 illegal immigrants across the Canadian border into New York State. It’s a unique situation where a reservation actually straddles the Canadian border and through it runs the St. Lawrence river, which freezes in the winter. And so the way these two smuggle, and the way the smuggling15 is done there is by driving across the ice. To me, that sort of everyday adventure that pushes people into another realm was fascinating to me. I don’t think you have to have a big international kind of movie with explosions and pyrotechnics and all that to have this sense of adventure.”

VOICE TWO:

This year, the thirty-fifth Telluride Film Festival in Colorado will take place on the weekend of August twenty-ninth. Telluride does not offer a prize. Instead, it is an honor for the makers4 of movies to be one of the twenty films or fifteen short movies chosen for the festival.

The festival shows all kinds of movies including documentary and animated films. The only requirement is that the movie has not been shown in North America before the festival. A movie shown at Telluride can get important attention from movie industry experts as well as the media. And, the event has an element of surprise. The festival does not announce what movies will be shown until the weekend visitors arrive.

VOICE ONE:

On any given day, a film festival is probably taking place somewhere around the world. And we have only discussed a small number of them. These important and exciting events help to celebrate the art and industry of movies.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Steve Ember. You can read scripts and download audio on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 transcript JgpzUp     
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书
参考例句:
  • A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
  • They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。
2 gathering ChmxZ     
n.集会,聚会,聚集
参考例句:
  • He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
  • He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。
3 gatherings 400b026348cc2270e0046708acff2352     
聚集( gathering的名词复数 ); 收集; 采集; 搜集
参考例句:
  • His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
  • During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次,其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。
4 makers 22a4efff03ac42c1785d09a48313d352     
n.制造者,制造商(maker的复数形式)
参考例句:
  • The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
  • The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 federation htCzMS     
n.同盟,联邦,联合,联盟,联合会
参考例句:
  • It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
  • Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。
6 elite CqzxN     
n.精英阶层;实力集团;adj.杰出的,卓越的
参考例句:
  • The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
  • We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。
7 specialized Chuzwe     
adj.专门的,专业化的
参考例句:
  • There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
  • These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。
8 animation UMdyv     
n.活泼,兴奋,卡通片/动画片的制作
参考例句:
  • They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
  • The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。
9 animated Cz7zMa     
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的
参考例句:
  • His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
  • We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。
10 spike lTNzO     
n.长钉,钉鞋;v.以大钉钉牢,使...失效
参考例句:
  • The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
  • They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。
11 injustice O45yL     
n.非正义,不公正,不公平,侵犯(别人的)权利
参考例句:
  • They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
  • All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。
12 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
13 emergence 5p3xr     
n.浮现,显现,出现,(植物)突出体
参考例句:
  • The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
  • Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生,随着社会的发展而发展的。
14 smuggle 5FNzy     
vt.私运;vi.走私
参考例句:
  • Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
  • She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境,没有被逮捕。
15 smuggling xx8wQ     
n.走私
参考例句:
  • Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
  • The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

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