2004-2-22
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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to This is America in VOA Special English. I'm Steve
Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Today, we tell about the seventy-sixth
Academy Awards ceremony which takes place on Sunday. It is a night
of excitement for people who make movies and for people who watch
them.
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VOICE ONE:
On February twenty-ninth, actors, directors and other filmmakers
will gather in Los Angeles, California. It will be the most
important day of the year for hundreds of people in the movie
industry. Filmmakers will receive Academy Awards for the best
acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies
released last year.
The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. It is shaped
like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The
statue is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less
than four kilograms. But the award can be priceless to the person
who receives it. Winning an Oscar can mean becoming much more
famous. It can mean getting offers to work in the best movies. It
also can mean earning much more money.
VOICE TWO:
Movies from the United States and several other countries are
competing to win Academy Awards. Five movies were nominated as best
foreign language film. They are "The Barbarian Invasions," a film
from Canada; "Evil," from Sweden; "The Twilight Samurai," from
Japan; "Twin Sisters," from the Netherlands and "Zelary," from the
Czech Republic.
This year, there are many more Academy Award nominees from
countries outside the United States and Britain than in years past.
Some examples are the nominees for best acting awards. They include
Keisha 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 Academy
Awards. A French-Canadian director, Denys Arcand, is nominated for
best original screenplay. And "The Triplets of Belleville," from
France, is nominated for best animated feature film.
VOICE ONE:
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return
of the King" received the most Academy Award nominations. It
received eleven nominations, including best motion picture of the
year. It is a story about a struggle to save the world from the
forces of evil. It is the third of three movies in the "Lord of the
Rings" series. These are based on the books by British writer J-R-R
Tolkien about an imaginary place called Middle-earth.
An adventure film that takes place on a British battleship in the
eighteen-hundreds is nominated for ten Academy Awards. The
nominations for "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"
include best motion picture of the year.
VOICE TWO:
"Seabiscuit" is also nominated for
best picture. It is about a famous American racehorse in the
nineteen-thirties. The movie is nominated for seven Academy Awards.
"Cold Mountain," a love story that takes place during the American
Civil War, is also nominated for seven awards. But, surprisingly, it
did not receive a nomination for best picture.
"Mystic River" is another film nominated for best picture of the
year. It is about three friends and the tragic events in their
lives. The last nominee for best picture is "Lost in Translation."
It is about two Americans who meet in Tokyo. One is a famous movie
star and the other is a lonely young woman.
VOICE ONE:
"Lost in Translation" was directed by Sofia Coppola. She is only
the third woman in Academy Award history to be nominated for best
director. She is also the first American woman to get the
nomination. Her father is the famous movie director Francis Ford
Coppola.
The other best director nominees are Clint Eastwood for "Mystic
River," Peter Jackson for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King" and Peter Weir for "Master and Commander." Brazilian filmmaker
Fernando Meirelles was nominated as best director for "City of God."
The film is about the violent lives of young people in a poor area
of Rio de Janeiro.
VOICE TWO:
Other important Academy Awards are
given for the best performance by an actor in a leading role. Sean
Penn is nominated for his role in "Mystic River." Bill Murray is
nominated for "Lost in Translation." The other nominees are Jude Law
in "Cold Mountain," Ben Kingsley in "House of Sand and Fog," and
Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black
Pearl."
There was one surprise among the nominations for best actress in
a leading role. Thirteen-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes from New
Zealand was nominated for her performance in "Whale Rider." She is
the youngest person ever nominated for this award. Other nominees
are Diane Keaton for the comedy "Something's Gotta Give" and
Samantha Morton for "In America." Charlize Theron was nominated as
best actress for the film "Monster." And Naomi Watts was nominated
for "Twenty-one Grams."
VOICE ONE:
Oscars also are awarded for the best music in movies and the best
song. Five songs are nominated as best original song. Two of them
are from the movie "Cold Mountain." One of these is "The Scarlet
Tide" written by Henry Burnett and Elvis Costello. Alison Krauss
sings this song.
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VOICE TWO:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the
Oscars each year. Almost six-thousand people who work in the movie
industry belong to the organization. It was established in
nineteen-twenty-seven to support the film industry. The Academy
began presenting awards in nineteen-twenty-nine. At that time, films
were just starting to have sound.
The awards were not called Oscars until much later. Some people
said this is how the statue got its name: In nineteen-fifty-one, a
woman who worked in the Academy library said the statue looked like
a family member -- her Uncle Oscar. A reporter heard this story and
wrote about it.
But actress and former Academy president Bette Davis disputed
this version. She said she named the award Oscar in honor of her
first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson.
VOICE ONE:
The process of choosing award winners begins with members of the
Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. These people work in
thirteen different professions. They nominate candidates for Academy
Awards. The members choose among people doing the same kind of work.
For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate
directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote
among those nominated to choose the final winners.
VOICE TWO:
The awards are presented every spring. This year, the ceremony is
being held one month earlier than usual. It will be held in the
Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industry
attend 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 the
photographers and television cameras.
During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actresses
announce the names of the winners. Then the winners walk up onto the
stage to receive their Oscars. Their big moment has arrived. They
cry. They laugh. They thank all the people who helped them win the
award.
VOICE ONE:
Thousands of Americans in forty-six cities will attend Oscar
Night 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 around
the world will watch the Academy Awards show on television Sunday.
The American film industry will honor the best movies, actors and
technicians. 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 by
Caty 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.