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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. Today, we tell about the seventy-eighth Academy Awards ceremony which takes place next Sunday in Los Angeles, California. For people who make movies and for people who love to watch them, it is the most exciting event of the year.

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VOICE ONE:
On March fifth, actors, directors, producers and other filmmakers will gather in Hollywood, the center of the American film industry. They 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. This statue is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The Oscar 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:
Five films are nominated for best motion picture. They are "Brokeback Mountain", "Good Night & Good Luck", "Crash", "Capote" and "Munich". The directors of these movies were also nominated for best director.

These five films are different from the ones that are often nominated for best picture. They are all realistic films for adults that deal with serious political or social issues. Four of the movies were mainly produced outside the major Hollywood movie studio system. They cost far less money to produce than most major Hollywood movies.

VOICE ONE:
"Brokeback Mountain" received eight nominations, the most of any movie this year. They include best director for Ang Lee and nominations for two actors and one actress in the film.

"Brokeback Mountain" is the story of two young cowboys in the western state of Wyoming. They fall in love during the nineteen sixties. They marry young women and have children. But the two men continue their secret relationship for twenty years.

VOICE TWO:
Two of the other films received six nominations each. "Good Night, and Good Luck" is about the television newsman Edward R. Murrow in the nineteen fifties. His broadcasts opposed the powerful Senator Joseph McCarthy.

George Clooney directed "Good Night, and Good Luck". He also wrote the screenplay with Grant Heslov. And Clooney acts in the movie. Clooney was also nominated as best actor in a supporting role in another movie, "Syriana". He plays a secret United States government agent in the Middle East.

The film "Crash" also received six nominations. Paul Haggis wrote and directed the movie. "Crash" is about racial tensions among a group of people in Los Angeles. These strangers meet during thirty-six hours and are involved in car crashes and crimes.

VOICE ONE:
Bennett Miller directed "Capote," another nominee for best picture. It is a true story about the writer Truman Capote. It tells about his relationship with two men sentenced to be executed for killing a family in a small town in Kansas. "Capote" wrote about the killings in his famous book, "In Cold Blood".

The last nominee for best picture is "Munich" directed by Steven Spielberg. It is also based on true events. "Munich" deals with the killing of eleven Israeli athletes and coaches by Palestinian terrorists. That happened at the Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, in nineteen seventy-two. The movie is about Israeli agents and their efforts to find and kill the men responsible for the deaths.

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VOICE TWO:
Five men were nominated for the best performance by an actor in a leading role. Three of them play famous American men during the nineteen fifties and sixties. The three actors changed their appearances and voices to look and sound like the real people

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