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Based on Screenplays and Visuals...


20.10.2015

Winner receives Evgeny Rodionov prize

On 18 October the 13th Yury Ozerov International Festival of War Films closed in Kaliningrad. The five-day event was organized with the support of the Government of the Kaliningrad Region, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, the Russkiy Mir Foundation and the Union of Veterans of Russia.

The festival became a real cinema marathon, with screenings of 70 films across 6 programmes held at 16 venues of the Kaliningrad Region, including universities, schools and even boarding schools and orphanages. The organization committee of the festival continues the practice it adopted several years ago—coming to the audience rather than inviting people to cinemas.

Every screening featured meetings with actors. Even young actor Yuri Borisov (Young Guard, Road to Berlin), the Best Actor award winner, stayed at the Border Institute for 6 hours despite coming to Kaliningrad with the sole purpose of presenting the film.

People’s Artist of Russia Alexander Pyatkov and Sergei Makhovikov appeared before the public at the House of the Officers of the Baltic Fleet; Igor Ugolnikov, producer of Fortress of War and The Battalion, was there on the closing day. An evening with People’s Artist of Russia Alina Pokrovskaya took place in Gvardeysk. People’s Artist Alexander Goloborodko recited his memoirs about the Fascist occupation before the students of the Kant Baltic Federal University.

The first prize “For Excellence in Acting” named after Vlad Galkin was given as early as at the opening ceremony on 14 October, the Mantle of Our Lady (opening the festival on this religious holiday is another tradition). The prize was awarded to Igor Lifanov by Acting Governor of the Kaliningrad Region Alexei Silanov. Igor Lifanov expressed his regret recalling Vlad Galkin’s untimely death.

Award winners

Nine “Golden Swords” and a special prize of the Union of Veterans of Russia were awarded at the closing ceremony.

The Grand Prix in the documentary programme “Fight for Life” was awarded to the film Separatists by Maxim Fadeyev from his film cycle Donbass in the Line of Fire. In his acceptance speech, the filmmaker asked the audience to remember that war was the worst of all evils and pointed out that Donbass was still at war and people were dying there.

The Best Supporting Actor award was given to Chinese actor Ruixin Tong for his role in Goddesses in the Fire, while Chinese ballerina Shuci Cao who starred in the Russian-Chinese coproduction by Yachum Dong and Nikita Mikhalkov Ballet in the Fire of War received the Best Debut award.

Young and talented actor Yuri Borisov, Schepkin Theatre School alumnus, received his first Best Actor award, while the special Evgeny Rodionov award “For Truthful Depiction of Patriotism” was given to young film director Kira Angelina for her film 72 Hours which has not yet been released in theatres.

Award winners on stage

This prize was conceived by the organizing committee at the first festival held in 2003 when it was given to Nikolay Lebedev for his screen adaptation of novella Star by Emmanuil Kazakevich. Since then, Evgeny Rodionov’s mother, Lyubov Rodionova, has been presenting this award every year. This time, she was accompanied onstage by rugged-looking local bikers from among Special Forces operatives.

Igor Ugolnikov’s The Battalion swept up all the other awards. Maria Aronova and Maria Kozhevnikova received Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress prizes, respectively. Ilya Avramenko took the Best Screenplay prize home, and the Grand Prix in the feature film programme “The Fighting Ten” was also given to The Battalion.

It was a true triumph for The Battalion at the 13th Yury Ozerov International Festival of War Films in the Kaliningrad Region. And it was probably for a good reason, since at this festival, films are selected and evaluated based on the screenplays and visuals of Yuri Ozerov’s films.

It should be noted that two documentaries commissioned by the Russkiy Mir Foundation—the Slovak film We Remember written and directed by Eleonora Tuichina and the Russian film High Risk Diplomacy directed by Svetlana Bablevskaya and Alexander Krupenin—received special certificates at the festival.

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