Editor

At the 5th Beijing International Film Festival held Apr 16th–23rd, both acting prizes went to Russian thespians, Julya Peresild for The Sevastopol Battle and Artyom Tsypin for White, White Night.

Julya Peresild, actress: "A successful performance is such a rare treat it always makes you happy, but then, on top of that, it turns out other people agree with you! At a time like this, it's almost embarrassing to be happy, but I couldn't even dream of Luc Besson watching me act on screen!"

Artyom Tsypin, actor: “To hold this award in my hand is magic, unbelievable and completely unexpected. Movies are all about magic, and I'm so happy now – acutely happy – because happiness always comes with no warning. I want to thank my director for casting me."

The Sevastopol Battle by Sergey Mokritsky is a WWII period drama that portrays legendary sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko. A Russo-Ukrainian co-production, it was released in Russia on Apr 2nd and has since grossed a respectable $7 million. The director and the leading lady, a star of the Nation Theater Julya Peresild, both attended the Beijing premiere where The Battle was met with thunderous applause.

Ramil Salakhutdinov's White, White Night premiered in Beijing to a full house. The Chinese audiences were delighted to discover the Leningrad school of filmmaking. The movie tells the story of a young man who comes to Saint-Petersburg for a show and goes missing. To find him, a private detective is dispatched from Moscow. Svetlana Karmalita and Alexey German-Jr. provided artistic guidance.

Svetlana Karmalita, artistic counselor, SEVER Film Company: "Our company has supported Ramil Salakhutdinov for years, ever since he made his first short, "On the Eve." We soon realized that he, as a filmmaker, had a vision and knew full well how to put into practice. Our future collaborations were all informed by this realization. We did argue, but we also trusted him and it paid off every time. Behind the plotline of White, White Night, there lurks the main character's intensified inhabitance of the world around him. A work of great profundity, it seems to me to occupy one of the higher rungs in what we call "the art of cinema," and I'm not alone in this opinion."

The full list of the festival awards (The Tiantans):

Best Film: El Comienzo Del Tiempo / Beginning of Time (Mexico)

Best Director: Jean-Jacques Annaund (Wolf Totem)

Best Cinematography: Deti / Children (Slovakia / Czech Republic)

Best Special Effects: Wolf Totem (China / France)

Best Soundtrack: Gruber Geht (Austria)

The awards were given out by the Luc Besson-led jury including: director and producer Fedor Bondarchuk; directors Ki-duk Kim (South Korea) and Fernando Meirelles (Brazil); screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen (USA); producer and director Peter Chan (Thailand); and actress Zhou Xun (China).

The Beijing International Film Festival is co-sponsored by the People’s Republic of China State Department of Press, Publishing, Radio, Film and Television, and by the government of the Municipality of Beijing.

The annual film forum has been held in Beijing since 2011. Over the last three years, the BIFF has welcomed more than 10,000 distinguished guests and millions of visitors. The festival has been attended, among others, by James Cameron, John Woo, and Keanu Reeves.