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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to This is America in VOA Special English. I'm SteveEmber.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Today, we tell about the seventy-sixthAcademy Awards ceremony which takes place on Sunday. It is a nightof excitement for people who make movies and for people who watchthem.

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VOICE ONE:

On February twenty-ninth, actors, directors and other filmmakerswill gather in Los Angeles, California. It will be the mostimportant day of the year for hundreds of people in the movieindustry. Filmmakers will receive Academy Awards for the bestacting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on moviesreleased last year.

The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. It is shapedlike a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. Thestatue is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs lessthan four kilograms. But the award can be priceless to the personwho receives it. Winning an Oscar can mean becoming much morefamous. It can mean getting offers to work in the best movies. Italso can mean earning much more money.

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Movies from the United States and several other countries arecompeting to win Academy Awards. Five movies were nominated as bestforeign language film. They are "The Barbarian Invasions," a filmfrom Canada; "Evil," from Sweden; "The Twilight Samurai," fromJapan; "Twin Sisters," from the Netherlands and "Zelary," from theCzech Republic.

This year, there are many more Academy Award nominees fromcountries outside the United States and Britain than in years past.Some examples are the nominees for best acting awards. They includeKeisha Castle-Hughes from New Zealand, Shohreh Aghdashloo from Iran,Ken Watanabe from Japan and Djimon Hounsou from Benin.

A movie from Brazil, "City of God," is nominated for four AcademyAwards. A French-Canadian director, Denys Arcand, is nominated forbest original screenplay. And "The Triplets of Belleville," fromFrance, is nominated for best animated feature film.

VOICE ONE:

Lord ofthe Rings: Return of the King

"The Lord of the Rings: The Returnof the King" received the most Academy Award nominations. Itreceived eleven nominations, including best motion picture of theyear. It is a story about a struggle to save the world from theforces of evil. It is the third of three movies in the "Lord of theRings" series. These are based on the books by British writer J-R-RTolkien about an imaginary place called Middle-earth.

An adventure film that takes place on a British battleship in theeighteen-hundreds is nominated for ten Academy Awards. Thenominations for "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"include best motion picture of the year.

VOICE TWO:

ColdMountain Promotion

"Seabiscuit" is also nominated forbest picture. It is about a famous American racehorse in thenineteen-thirties. The movie is nominated for seven Academy Awards."Cold Mountain," a love story that takes place during the AmericanCivil War, is also nominated for seven awards. But, surprisingly, itdid not receive a nomination for best picture.

"Mystic River" is another film nominated for best picture of theyear. It is about three friends and the tragic events in theirlives. The last nominee for best picture is "Lost in Translation."It is about two Americans who meet in Tokyo. One is a famous moviestar and the other is a lonely young woman.

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"Lost in Translation" was directed by Sofia Coppola. She is onlythe third woman in Academy Award history to be nominated for bestdirector. She is also the first American woman to get thenomination. Her father is the famous movie director Francis FordCoppola.

The other best director nominees are Clint Eastwood for "MysticRiver," Peter Jackson for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of theKing" and Peter Weir for "Master and Commander." Brazilian filmmakerFernando Meirelles was nominated as best director for "City of God."The film is about the violent lives of young people in a poor areaof Rio de Janeiro.

VOICE TWO:

Scenefrom

Other important Academy Awards aregiven for the best performance by an actor in a leading role. SeanPenn is nominated for his role in "Mystic River." Bill Murray isnominated for "Lost in Translation." The other nominees are Jude Lawin "Cold Mountain," Ben Kingsley in "House of Sand and Fog," andJohnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the BlackPearl."

There was one surprise among the nominations for best actress ina leading role. Thirteen-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes from NewZealand was nominated for her performance in "Whale Rider." She isthe youngest person ever nominated for this award. Other nomineesare Diane Keaton for the comedy "Something's Gotta Give" andSamantha Morton for "In America." Charlize Theron was nominated asbest actress for the film "Monster." And Naomi Watts was nominatedfor "Twenty-one Grams."

VOICE ONE:

Oscars also are awarded for the best music in movies and the bestsong. Five songs are nominated as best original song. Two of themare from the movie "Cold Mountain." One of these is "The ScarletTide" written by Henry Burnett and Elvis Costello. Alison Krausssings this song.

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VOICE TWO:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents theOscars each year. Almost six-thousand people who work in the movieindustry belong to the organization. It was established innineteen-twenty-seven to support the film industry. The Academybegan presenting awards in nineteen-twenty-nine. At that time, filmswere just starting to have sound.

The awards were not called Oscars until much later. Some peoplesaid this is how the statue got its name: In nineteen-fifty-one, awoman who worked in the Academy library said the statue looked likea family member -- her Uncle Oscar. A reporter heard this story andwrote about it.

But actress and former Academy president Bette Davis disputedthis version. She said she named the award Oscar in honor of herfirst husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson.

VOICE ONE:

The process of choosing award winners begins with members of theAcademy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. These people work inthirteen different professions. They nominate candidates for AcademyAwards. The members choose among people doing the same kind of work.

For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominatedirectors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members voteamong those nominated to choose the final winners.

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The awards are presented every spring. This year, the ceremony isbeing held one month earlier than usual. It will be held in theKodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industryattend the ceremonies. Crowds of people wait outside the theater.They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive for the ceremony.The women wear beautiful dresses given to them by famous designers.Camera lights flash. Actors and actresses smile for thephotographers and television cameras.

During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actressesannounce the names of the winners. Then the winners walk up onto thestage to receive their Oscars. Their big moment has arrived. Theycry. They laugh. They thank all the people who helped them win theaward.

VOICE ONE:

Thousands of Americans in forty-six cities will attend OscarNight parties to re-create the excitement of the Academy Awards.These parties raise money for local aid organizations.

Hundreds of millions of people in the United States and aroundthe world will watch the Academy Awards show on television Sunday.The American film industry will honor the best movies, actors andtechnicians. These winners will go home with a golden Oscar.

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VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced byCaty Weaver. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA,in VOA Special English.