Search for a national film review: which festival can replace Kinotavr

According to the Bulletin of the Film Distributor, the Russian festival Kinotavr will not receive support from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

The formal reason for the refusal was the lack of an application for inclusion in the register of events claiming support from the federal budget.

“In fact, the reason is the reluctance to return to the old brand, which is not relevant in the new reality,” the source said.

Since the mid-2000s, the show has been directed by producer Alexander Rodnyansky*, known for his anti-Russian statements.

In March last year, he announced that the festival, which was supposed to take place from September 13 to 20 in Sochi, was canceled.

Back in March 2022, Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova at a meeting of the relevant committee announced that a replacement would be found for Kinotavr.

“The ongoing events should not paralyze us, unsettle us.

We should not be told that we will not have festivals, that we are closing Kinotavr for you.

If there is no Kinotavr in Sochi, there will be a national film review, where people will come, because a generation of filmmakers has grown up there,” the minister stressed.

“No one should deprive us of the tradition of meeting at the Winter Theatre.

There will be no name "Kinotavr" - we will come up with something else with the industry.

At the same time, the head of the department clarified that the Ministry of Culture had funds for holding such a festival.

BK sources specify that the ministry is currently considering two main "candidates" to replace the Sochi show.

The first is the Window to Europe festival, which has been held in Vyborg since 1993.  

“The Vyborg show in the hierarchy of festivals of national films has always taken a solid second place, but in order for the Window to Europe to be perceived as the main festival of Russian cinema, changes are needed,” BK quotes its insider.

The second candidate for the top spot in the list of Russian film festivals is Zimny, which was first held in Moscow in 2022.

The BK source suggests that the final choice in favor of anyone is unlikely to be made in 2023.

"Winter" should be held in Moscow from 1 to 8 December this year, but moving to a new site and other dates is not ruled out in the future.

“Everyone remembers that Kinotavr screenings were held at the Sochi Winter Theater.

The organizers of the "Winter" think: "Winter" in the Winter - it's beautiful.

Even if it takes place in the summer, ”BC quotes an insider.

At the same time, there are still many venues for presentations of projects by domestic filmmakers: at a meeting of the Film Festival Council of the Ministry of Culture on November 10, 2022, 66 film festivals were selected, which will receive support from the department.

Among the most famous are “In short”, “Bitterfest”, “East & West.

Classics and Avant-Garde”, “Mirror”, “Amur Autumn”, Moscow International Film Festival, VGIK student festival, “Stalker”, “Pilot”.

Kinotavr has been held annually in Russia since 1991, its prototype - the "Festival of Unpurchased Cinema" - was held in Podolsk near Moscow in 1990 under the direction of Mark Rudinshtein.

This review was intended to support the domestic cinema in the conditions of the collapse of the all-Union film distribution.

On the wave of approval from filmmakers, a year later, Rudinshtein and Oleg Yankovsky held the first Kinotavr in Sochi.

In 1993, Yankovsky took over as president of the review, which he held until 2004, when the festival changed owners.

Alexander Rodnyansky and Igor Tolstunov began to lead the forum.

At the same time, a board of trustees was created, which included Pyotr Aven, Konstantin Ernst, Oleg Deripaska and others.

Over the years, Kinotavr prizes have been awarded to such films as Brother by Alexei Balabanov, Depicting a Victim by Kirill Serebrennikov, Dancer's Time by Vadim Abdrashitov, The Geographer Drank His Globe Away by Alexander Veledinsky, Driver for Vera by Pavel Chukhrai and many others. iconic pictures for Russian cinema.

The last review was held in Sochi in 2021.

Shortly after the start of the special military operation, the president of Kinotavr, Alexander Rodnyansky, left Russia and announced that the festival would not take place in 2022.

* Included in the register of individuals acting as a foreign agent by decision of the Russian Ministry of Justice dated October 21, 2022.