Give a Standing Ovation to This Film Festivals Quiz

Since 1963, the New York Film Festival (NYFF) has showcased top-quality international cinema, especially focusing on arthouse film. One of the festival's most favored directors was the French filmmaker Jean-Luc Goddard. His films were selected for inclusion in the festival for nine of the first 10 years, and in 1967, three of his films were screened at NYFF.

Sundance is one of the most important festivals for independent films. Many of the movies that have premiered at Sundance, including “Four Weddings and a Funeral” (1994), “Napoleon Dynamite” (2004), and “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006), have gone on to critical and commercial success. “The Pianist” (2002), which won three Academy Awards, held its premiere at Cannes.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was established in 1976 and has become one of the key festivals to predict which films will win prizes in the coming award season. In 1978, TIFF launched the People’s Choice Award, which lets attendees of the festival vote for their favorite film. “Chariots of Fire” (1981) was the first movie to win the People’s Choice and also the Best Picture Oscar.

The first full Cannes Film Festival in 1946 featured Portuguese director Barbara Virginia’s film “Tres Dias Sem Deus,” but it would be many years until a woman actually won the top prize. In 1993, director Jane Campion became the first woman to be awarded the Palme d’Or for her film “The Piano.” The film also received a number of Oscars the following year, including Best Supporting Actress for 11-year-old Anna Paquin.

Most of the leading film festivals award a series of prizes to celebrate the best films and honor the top actors. These prizes are usually selected by a jury, convened afresh each year. The Golden Bear is the top prize given at the Berlin International Film Festival and was created to represent the city’s heraldic mascot. Ang Lee is the only filmmaker to have taken the top prize twice.

The first Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale, was held in June 1951, and the very first film to be shown was Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” (1940). The film, released a decade earlier, had enjoyed critical success and won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1941. Today, Berlinale screens more than 400 films over 10 days.

Since 1969, Lincoln Center has been home to the New York Film Festival (NYFF). The historic venue is located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It is one of the most prestigious art venues in North America, playing host to the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, and the New York Philharmonic. The NYFF celebrates American and international films but does not give prizes.

Since 1946, the Cannes Film Festival has awarded a top prize. However, it was not until 1955 that the award became known as the Palme d’Or, which is French for “golden palm.” In 1954, jewelers were asked to submit designs for the prize based on the city’s coat of arms, and Lucienne Lazon won. With the new prize came a new international jury of filmmakers and actors to judge it.

Venice is one of the oldest film festivals, first opening in 1932. However, at the time, Italy was in the grip of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. In 1938, Adolf Hitler and Mussolini pressured the jury to award the festival prize to a Nazi documentary and the international film community was aghast. Mussolini’s meddling ultimately inspired other countries to set up their own film festivals.

Originally, the most prestigious film festivals were known as the Big Three and included Cannes, Berlin, and Venice. However, as additional film festivals were established, the list expanded to the Big Five to include Toronto and Sundance. These festivals are considered the most important and influential film festivals in the world, and often premiere the most highly anticipated movies each year.

The Sundance Film Festival is held annually in Park City, Utah. The festival was first established as the Utah/US Film Festival in 1978 as an effort to promote Utah as a filmmaking location. The festival has been known as Sundance since 1991 and continues to be an important cultural event in Utah, attracting around 46,000 attendees each year.

Filmmakers who dream of winning a Golden or Silver Lion must get their work accepted into the world's oldest film festival. The Venice Film Festival was first held in August 1932 as part of the Venice Biennale, one of the world's oldest art exhibitions. Other than pauses during World War II and the 1970s — owing to social unrest in Italy — the festival has been a stalwart in the cinema calendar.

South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual festival of film, music, television, comedy, and technology held in Austin, Texas. The festival was first held in 1987, and its focus was largely on highlighting the music scene in Austin. Since then, it has grown, and in 1994, a film festival component was introduced.

In 1981, Robert Redford set up the Sundance Institute to help support independent films and filmmakers. The institute took over the running of the Utah/US Film Festival in 1984 and relaunched the event as the Sundance Film Festival in 1991. It quickly became one of the most important events in the film festival circuit and is celebrated as a champion of independent film.

After the success of the Venice Film Festival in the early 1930s, Jean Zay, the French minister for education and fine arts, suggested setting up a similar festival on the French Riviera. The first Cannes Film Festival was held in 1939, but was curtailed after one day due to the outbreak of WWII. In 1946, when the war was over, the festival returned, attracting many visitors to the glamour of Cannes’ beaches and its famous promenade, La Croisette.