Film festival played a major role in introducing foreign films to American audiences. Films in the first year included Akira Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" and Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali". Today, thousands of film festivals take place around the world—from high-profile festivals such as Sundance Film Festival and Slamdance Film Festival (Park City, Utah), to horror festivals such as Terror Film Festival (Philadelphia), and the Park City Film Music Festival, the first U.S. film festival dedicated to honoring music in film. Film Funding competitions such as Writers and Filmmakers were introduced when the cost of production could be lowered significantly and internet technology
Satyajit Ray and "Rupasi Bangla", Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's "Chander Pahar", Jim Corbett's "Maneaters of Kumaon," and Jawaharlal Nehru's "Discovery of India." He worked on a children's version of "Pather Panchali," a classic Bengali novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, renamed as "Aam Antir Bhepu" ("The mango-seed whistle"). Designing the cover and illustrating the book, Ray was deeply influenced by the work. He used it as the subject of his first film, and featured his illustrations as shots in his ground-breaking film. Along with Chidananda Dasgupta and others, Ray founded the Calcutta Film Society in 1947. They screened many foreign films, many of which Ray watched