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A film festival is a mostly annual festival showcasing films, usually of a recent date, sometimes with a focus on a specific genre (e.g. animation) or subject (e.g. gay and lesbian film festivals).
The world's first major film festival was held in Venice in 1932; the other major film festivals of the world (Cannes, Berlin, Moscow and Karlovy Vary) date back to the 1940s and 1950s.
The first North American film festival was the San Francisco International Film Festival held in March 1957 in San Francisco. It played a major role in introducing foreign films to American audiences. Among the films were Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali.
The Toronto festival (which began in 1976) has now become the major North American festival.
The festivals in Toronto, Venice, Sundance, Cannes, Berlin, Moscow, (since 2002) Locarno and Karlovy Vary are listed as so-called "A festivals", or the most prestigious in the world. New films may be screened at only one of these festivals.