Moderated by Mark Johnson, producer of Diner, Rain Man, A Little Princess and Galaxy Quest. Featuring representatives of the 2003 Best Foreign Language Film Nominees (subject to availability)

	The participants in the Foreign Language Film Award Symposium, held in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on February 28. From left to right, they are: Ondrey Trojan, Denys Arcand, Foreign Language Executive Committee Chair Mark Johnson, Mikael Hafstrom, Ben Sombogaart and Yoji Yamada.

From what began as a small and intimate gathering of film directors representing their nominated films in the foreign language film category, this annual forum has turned into an SRO event that is as entertaining as it it informative. Each year the Academy invites the five directors to appear live on-stage, accompanied by clips from their nominated foreign language films.

This year’s symposium, as in the past, took place the day before the Oscar ceremony. Moderated by producer Mark Johnson, it brought together on one stage some of the world’s top filmmakers, discussing such wide-ranging topics as art, politics and moviemaking. In addition to featuring film clips, the approximately two-hour event also provided an opportunity for questions from the audience.