Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
A film festival starts in Hollywood on October 21. It is called AFI Fest. This is the 40th time.
The first film is called Wildwood. It is an animated film. Small models move a little bit in each photo.
The story is about a girl. Her baby brother is taken away. She looks for him in a magic forest.
Many famous actors speak in the film. People can see it in cinemas on October 23.
- film festival
- An event where many new films are shown over a few days.
- animated
- Made from drawings or models that look as if they move.
- model
- A small copy of a person, animal or thing.
- story
- What happens in a book or a film.
- forest
- A large area covered with trees.
- magic
- Special powers that do not exist in real life.
- actor
- A person whose job is to perform in films or plays.
- cinema
- A building where people go to watch films.
Level 2 — Elementary
The American Film Institute has announced the opening film of its 40th festival. AFI Fest runs from October 21 to 25 at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, and this year it is presented by Canva.
The festival will open with the United States premiere of Wildwood, a stop motion film from LAIKA Studios. In stop motion, artists move puppets a tiny amount and take one photograph at a time, so a few seconds of film can take days of work.
Wildwood was directed by Travis Knight and is based on a novel by Colin Meloy. A teenager travels into an enchanted forest outside Portland, Oregon, to rescue her baby brother after he is carried off. The voice cast includes Mahershala Ali, Carey Mulligan, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay and Tom Waits.
The film took a very long time to finish. Knight said the team had been finding their way through Wildwood for sixteen years and that it was a privilege to finally welcome others inside. The festival will close with the documentary Being Heumann, and Wildwood opens in cinemas on October 23.
- premiere
- The first public showing of a film in a country or city.
- stop motion
- An animation method in which models are moved slightly and photographed frame by frame.
- puppet
- A figure of a person or animal that can be moved by hand.
- director
- The person who decides how a film is made and guides the actors.
- novel
- A long story published as a book.
- enchanted
- Under a magic spell.
- rescue
- To save someone from danger.
- documentary
- A film about real people and real events.
Level 3 — Intermediate
The American Film Institute has given its fortieth festival an opening night with an unusually long back story. AFI Fest 2026, presented by Canva, runs from October 21 to 25 at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, and it will begin with the United States premiere of Wildwood, the new stop motion feature from LAIKA Studios.
Wildwood is directed by Travis Knight, the Academy Award nominated filmmaker behind Kubo and the Two Strings, and adapted from the novel by Colin Meloy. The plot follows a teenager who crosses into an enchanted wilderness on the edge of Portland, Oregon, after her baby brother is carried off, and who finds both magical creatures and formidable enemies waiting there. The voice cast is unusually large for an animated film and includes Mahershala Ali, Carey Mulligan, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Amandla Stenberg, Charlie Day, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Richard E. Grant and Tom Waits.
Stop motion remains the slowest way to make a film. Animators adjust handmade puppets by fractions of a millimetre and expose a single frame at a time, so a finished minute of screen time can represent weeks of work on a single set. That arithmetic explains the production history Knight described when the lineup was announced: the team, he said, had spent sixteen years finding their way through Wildwood, and it was a privilege to welcome others inside at last.
AFI president and chief executive Bob Gazzale framed the selection as a rescue of sorts for audiences, praising the film for inviting viewers into a hand crafted and endlessly imaginative world. The festival will close with the documentary Being Heumann, and the programme in between carries a number of titles expected to feature in the awards conversation. Wildwood reaches cinemas two days after the premiere, on October 23.
- back story
- The history behind how something came to be.
- feature
- A full length film made for cinema release.
- adapt
- To turn a book or play into a film or television programme.
- wilderness
- A wild area where few or no people live.
- formidable
- Powerful enough to be frightening.
- frame
- One single photograph in a strip of film.
- lineup
- The full list of films or performers chosen for an event.
- programme
- The planned schedule of what will be shown at an event.
Level 4 — Advanced
There is a certain symmetry in handing the fortieth edition of AFI Fest to a film that took sixteen years to make. The American Film Institute confirmed that its 2026 festival, presented by Canva and running October 21 to 25 at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, will open with the United States premiere of Wildwood, the latest feature from LAIKA, the Oregon studio that has spent two decades insisting that stop motion deserves a place beside computer animation rather than a nostalgic footnote beneath it.
The film is directed by Travis Knight, whose Kubo and the Two Strings earned Academy Award recognition, and adapted from Colin Meloy's novel about a teenager who follows her abducted baby brother into an enchanted forest at the edge of Portland. The voice ensemble is conspicuously strong for the form, running from Mahershala Ali, Carey Mulligan and Angela Bassett through Awkwafina, Amandla Stenberg and Jemaine Clement to Tom Waits, a roster that signals how much ambition the studio attached to a project whose craft requirements made it almost impossible to schedule.
Those requirements are worth stating plainly, because they explain the timeline rather than excuse it. Stop motion animators manipulate physical puppets in increments measured in fractions of a millimetre and commit one frame at a time, which means a single week on a single set may yield a few seconds of usable footage. Knight's remark on the announcement, that the team had spent sixteen years finding their way through Wildwood and was finally privileged to welcome others inside, reads less as promotional language than as a description of the arithmetic of the medium.
AFI president and chief executive Bob Gazzale positioned the selection as a counterweight to the prevailing texture of contemporary screens, commending the film for inviting audiences into a hand crafted and endlessly imaginative world. The festival closes with the documentary Being Heumann, and its programme is stocked with titles angling for awards attention, which places Wildwood in a familiar double role: opening gala on October 21 and commercial release on October 23, expected to carry both a reputation for artistry and the burden of recovering sixteen years of patience.
- symmetry
- A pleasing correspondence between two things.
- nostalgic footnote
- Something treated as a minor relic of the past rather than a living practice.
- ensemble
- A group of performers working together in one production.
- conspicuously
- In a way that is easy to notice.
- increment
- A small amount by which something is increased or moved.
- footage
- Filmed material, measured as a length of film.
- counterweight
- Something that balances an opposing force or tendency.
- gala
- A grand ceremonial screening or celebration at a festival.
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