Moscow International Film Festival Announces Program and Jury

The official press conference of the 45th Moscow International Film Festival was recently held at the StandardArt Hotel and introduced the framework for the competition program and announced the members of the jury for this year's program.

The 45th MIFF will be held from 20 to 27 April in Moscow.

It was attended by: chairman of the MIFF selection committee Ivan Kudryavtsev, members of the selection committee - Moscow film critic Evgenia Tirdatova, Moscow film critic Yegor Moskvitin, Moscow film critic Sergei Lavrentiev, member of the selection committee of the MIFF short film competition Nadezhda Koroleva, as well as curators of the Free Thought program and the competition documentaries MIFF Grigory Libergal and Sergey Miroshnichenko.


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At the press conference, the jury of the main competition and short films were announced, the films included in the main competition, the documentary and short films competition were also announced, and details about out-of-competition programs became known.

Ivan Kudryavtsev congratulated everyone on the upcoming 45th festival and spoke about the main trends in this year's program. In particular, the attention of Russian and world cinema is now riveted to the problems of youth and future generations.

"The pandemic had to start the production of films that are coming this year to the Moscow International Film Festival and other festivals. Being isolated together with their children and relatives, filmmakers realized that there was a strong gap between different generations, it was necessary to build bridges, find a common language. We even formed a separate out-of-competition program called "A Difficult Age" that specifically focuses on this issue. But in general, this theme can be traced from the opening film to the main competition and out-of-competition programs," he said.

Ivan Kudryavtsev also spoke about the innovation of this year - for students of cinematographic universities there will be a special student accreditation for the festival, which will allow students of creative universities to attend a film screening every day and take part in various events such as meetings with directors of the competition program, and attending lectures.


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This year, the geography of countries participating in the MIFF has expanded. Films from more than 60 countries are presented in various programs, including Sweden, Bulgaria, Denmark, Thailand, Norway, Portugal, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, etc.

The opening film of the festival will be the film "Bullfinch" directed by Boris Khlebnikov based on the script by Boris Khlebnikov and Natalia Meshchaninova based on the novel "Three Minutes of Silence" by Georgy Vladimov. The MIFF will close with the Spanish-French film "42 Seconds" by Alex Morello and Dani De La Orden about the fight against inner demons and the victory of the spirit.

MAIN COMPETITION

Evgenia Tirdatova, presenting the main competition, indicated that it included 12 films, 2 of which were Russian.

The jury of the main competition of the MIFF this year included: leading Indian cinematographer Rahul Ravel (chairman of the jury), actor and producer Alexei Guskov (Russia), actress Samal Yeslyamova (Kazakhstan), actress Svetlana Ivanova (Russia), director and screenwriter Ciro Guerra (Colombia) ).

Films of the main competition:

1. "14+ continuation" / 14+ SEQUEL, director Andrey Zaitsev, Russia
2. THE SCENT OF SIN, directed by Nural Alam Atik, Bangladesh
3. THE DEADMAN'S BRIDE, directed by Cornel Georgita, Romania, France
4. "First Love" / FIRST LOVE, director Svetlana Proskurina, Russia
5. Paradise Lost / PARADISE LOST, directed by Geng Wenxiao, China
6. "Road to Success" / ROAD TO SUCCESS, director Sebastian Rodriguez, Argentina
7. TRAIL OF THE BEAST Directed by Nenad Pavlovic, Serbia
8. THE ONES FROM BELOW, directed by Alejandro Quiroga, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay
9. "Three brothers" / THREE BROTHERS, directed by Francisco Paparella, Argentina, Chile
10. "Phi1.618" / PHI1.618, director Teodor Ushev, Bulgaria, Canada
11. Black Moon / BLACK MOON Directed by Tonatio Garcia, Mexico
12. "Fragile flowers in the stream of days" / DRIFTING FLOWERS, FLOWING DAYS, director Yutaka Tsunemachi, Japan.


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DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Sergei Miroshnichenko presented the documentary program of the festival, noting that it included 7 films, 3 of which represent Russia.

Grigory Libergal introduced the jury of the documentary film competition, which included Chinese director Hao Yun (jury chairman), director and producer Kim Jigon (Republic of Korea), director Yulia Sergina (Russia).

Films of the Documentary Film Competition:

1. "Fathers" / FATHERS, director Yuri Mokienko, Russia
2. INTO THE SHAOLIN Directed by Hongyun Sun, China
3. MOM SHOKOUH HOUSE directed by Mehdi Bakshi Moghadam, Iran
4. "Let me win" / LET ME WIN, directors Maria Finkelstein, Svetlana Muzychenko, Russia
5. Anna and the Egyptian Doctor / ANNA AND THE EGYPTIAN DOCTOR, director Talia Finkel, Israel
6 "The history of Russian prisons. Vladimirsky Central / THE VLADIMIR CENTRAL, director Yulia Bobkova, Russia
7. "La Singla" / LA SINGLA, director Paloma Zapata, Germany, Spain

COMPETITION OF SHORT FILMS

Nadezhda Koroleva pointed to the wide geography of the films of the short competition - this year it presents 16 films from 15 countries (Latin America, Asia, Europe). The program reflected the general trend of the festival - the main topics of the competition films were family, family relationships, the search for mutual understanding with parents, attitudes towards social networks and Internet addiction.


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The jury of the short film competition included director, screenwriter and actor Giorgio Cugno (Italy, chairman), theater, film and TV actress, producer Alena Babenko (Russia), independent filmmaker Dzhuboraj Shamim (Bangladesh).

Films of the Short Film Competition:

1. "Twins" / GEMINI, directed by Orlando Mora Cabrera, Cuba
2. EVERYTHING Directed by Lu Helai, China
3. "Guasuvira" / GUAZUVIRÁ, directors Joaquin Araujo, Nicolas Sequeira, Uruguay
4. "Hole. A story in 9 scenes / THE HOLE. STORY IN 9 SCENES, director Pavel Korolko, Russia
5. Not My Home / NOT MY HOME, directed by Sonia Stiliano, Argentina
6. GENTLE HUM OF SPRING Directed by Simon Garez, Canada
7. THE NIGHT OF THE MONKEY Directed by Eloise Addad, France
8. "Where it all went" / WHERE IT BEGINS, directors Mohsen Asdagpour, Amirhossein Talebi, Iran
9. HONEY ISLAND Directed by Zhou Yang, China
10. Palestine 87 / PALESTINE 87, directed by Bilal Alkhatib, Palestine
11. Reimus / REIMUAS, directed by Magdalena Jakob, Germany
12. COLLECTION OF EXTREMELY SHORT STORIES, directed by Pedro Fraga Villas, Brazil
13. "Sushi" / SUSHI, directed by Ivan Morales, Spain
14. "Father's Footsteps" / FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS, director Mohamad Ali, India, Syria
15. Elsa / ELSA, directed by Jean-Marc Guillier, France
16. "Youtubers" / YOUTUBERS, directed by Jung-Bom-Sik, Korea.

COMPETITION "RUSSIAN PREMIERES"

Ivan Kudryavtsev said that this year the Russian Premieres competition included 7 films.

The jury of the Russian Premieres competition includes director Alexei Uchitel (chairman), screenwriter and producer Andrei Zolotarev, theater, film and television actress Anna Snatkina.

Films of the Russian Premieres competition:

1. "Ada" / ADA, directed by Stanislav Svetlov, Russia
2. Tin Head / JANE NOT SANE, director Ivan Kapitonov, Russia
3. Montevideo Unit / MONTEVIDEO UNIT, director Tatiana Lyutaeva, Russia
4. THE EDGE OF THE BROKEN MOON, directed by Svetlana Samoshina, Russia
5. "Secret attraction" / SECRET PASSION, director Stasya Venkova, Russia
6. "Pardon" / CLEMENCY, director Ainur Askarov, Russia
7. "Fog" / FOG, director Natalia Gugueva, Russia.

Among the out-of-competition programs are Recipe for Success, which includes inspiring and motivating films about life, love, and one's work, Difficult Age, about the problems of relationships between different generations, Blockbusters of the Peoples of the World, which presents films that break local box office records, Russian trace" about Russian culture in films from around the world and "Around the World in 8 Days". The focus of the out-of-competition program "Art-Cor" is films about one or another form of art.


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According to Evgenia Tirdatova, two programs - "Night over Chile", "Russian Hollywood on the Seine" - were directly proposed by the French and Chileans.

In addition, within the framework of the MIFF, there will be an "Open Lecture Hall", where all retrospectives will move, and discussions of films with the audience will take place. As part of the lecture hall, the program "Screen Wars. Episode IV: The Cinema Strikes Back, which will feature early widescreen films, including Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita.

Egor Moskvitin also presented two out-of-competition programs, of which he is a selector. The Wild Nights program will again include high-concept horror and thrillers from all over the world - from Vietnam and India to Mongolia and Canada. Among them were the Vietnamese nominee for the Oscars Magnum 578 and the Swiss film Crazy Heidi about the power of a cheese tycoon.

In addition, this year the serial program "The First Series" will be presented again.

MERCURY JEWELRY COMPANY IS THE OFFICIAL PARTNER OF THE 45TH MOSCOW INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Continuing its tradition of supporting the most significant cultural events in Russia, the Mercury jewelry company has been acting as an official partner of the Moscow International Film Festival for the third year in a row.

The Mercury jewelry company made the main prizes of the film festival: figurines depicting St. George on a silver horse slaying a dragon with a spear. The figure of the "Golden Saint George" is made of gilded silver, and the figure of the "Silver Saint George" is made of silver. The stone base of the figurine is made of serpentine, on which the golden Mercury logo is located. "Golden Saint George" is awarded for the "Best Film of the Competition Program" and "For Contribution to World Cinema". Laureates in seven nominations are awarded the Silver Saint Georges.


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The Mercury jewelry company is also the author of a chain with three medallions made of gilded silver, showing the main symbols of Moscow: the Spasskaya Tower, St. Basil's Cathedral and St. George. This chain represents the symbol of "power, wisdom and justice." As a sign of respect and recognition, the president of the film festival passes it on to the new chairman of the jury of the Moscow International Film Festival.

The original design is distinguished by a special prize "I Believe. Konstantin Stanislavsky ", which is awarded for conquering the heights of acting and loyalty to the principles of the school of K.S. Stanislavsky.

Mercury jewelry brand is known for its elegant classic jewelry, the high quality of the gemstones used, as well as the skillful work of jewelers. All Mercury jewelry is made from 18 carat gold and precious stones: diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. The company is justifiably proud of its collection of unique gemstones and fine jewellery. All gemstones are internationally certified and each piece comes with a Mercury Certificate of Authenticity.

Mercury jewelry brand is known for its cultural projects and long-term support of key events in the world of cinema. Since 2016, the company has been the author of the Golden Eagle National Film Award, and in 2020 it created updated MIFF prizes. For many years, famous actresses have appeared on the red carpets of film festivals and premieres wearing Mercury jewelry.

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