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film festival

film festival

33 2.3
An event where people watch a set of films, often with first showings and awards
  • noun
  • /fɪlm ˈfɛstəvəl/
translation icon : festival de cine
  • I was at the Cannes Film Festival and a Russian woman did my makeup.
  • annual film festival

So I'm going to Cannes twice for Film Festival and then for Cannes Lions.

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Examples

  • I've just come home from one of my favorite things, a film festival.

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  • My parents took me to a 3-D film festival.

  • Dad and I went to Russia once, to a film festival.

  • So go and attend a Film Festival that is near your area.

  • We go to see the Sam Fuller film festival.

  • The film will also play at film festivals throughout October and November.

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  • So this, this film is now in Washington, DC as it is competing in the Politics on Film Festival that is this weekend.

  • The movie is touring film festivals worldwide in 2012 and 2013.

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  • It's a Toronto Film Festival, which is, I mean, for those of you watching, that's like our Super Bowl in a sense.

  • Every summer, I look forward to attending the local film festival where new movies are showcased.

How Big

film festival
33 2.3
regional
29 3.3

Surface Forms

film festival singular

Morphology

film + festival

The meaning 'an event showing a selection of films' is directly and compositionally derived from 'film' (movies) + 'festival' (a public series/showcase of works). This is a common, literal compound pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Film festival comes from joining film and festival: imagine a big public event where many movies are shown. At a film festival the films are 'shown' and 'celebrated' and sometimes given awards, so the term means an event where a selection of films is presented to an audience.