Moscow Premiere, a film festival specializing in Russian films, is opening today in the Russian capital, ITAR-TASS reports. The audiences of the 12th edition of the festival have the opportunity to watch more than 60 free showings, competitive and retrospective screenings, evening art events and meetings with filmmakers. The tickets for most showings have been made available via vouchers in the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, which in turn can be exchanged for invitational tickets.
The festival opens at the Eldar film club with a screening of director Ivan Tverdovsky’s drama Corrections Class, which focuses on a gaggle of disabled teens in a Russian high school. Ghettoized and neglected by the school and bullied by their peers, the kids turn on each other when the fragile balance of the group is thrown out of whack by the arrival of a newcomer.
The opening ceremony will include a special nod to director and People’s Artiste Sergei Soloviev, who recently marked his 70th birthday on August 25. He will be presented with a special award for his contribution to the development of filmmaking. Another special award will be presented to team of the Eldar film club, created a decade ago by the famous director Eldar Ryazanov.
The festival includes several competitive programs – The MK’s Great Seven, Art Line, Family Cinema and Seven Debuts. The films in all of these programs will be shown to Moscow audiences for the first time. The festival also has a noncompetitive program called Second Premiere, which is devoted to films which debuted last year but had only limited runs.
One of the most important events of the festival will be the presentation of the exhibition “Tarkovsky House: The Contours of a Moscow Museum”. The exhibition will acquaint visitors with artefacts from the life and works of Arseny and Andrei Tarkovsky. The exhibition opens on August 30 at the Fitil cinema club.
The main prize is traditionally awarded according to the results of voting by audience members. At the end of each film the viewers can rate the film on the special invitational tickets and drop them in special urns at the theaters. The other awards will be awarded by a jury, which includes the public figure Mikhail Abyzov, Russian cardiologists and academician Renat Akchurin, ballerina Maria Allash, cosmonaut Sergei Ryazansky, politician Alexander Khinstein and television host Arina Sharapova. The festival runs through September 7.
Russkiy Mir Foundation Information Service
