MOSCOW JURY DECIDES NOT TO AWARD TOP PRIZE

US actor Richard Gere, in Moscow as president of the festival's international jury, surprised both local attendants and international guests of the 19th edition of the International Moscow Film Festival with the announcement on Friday that none of the 22 films selected for competition was good enough for the US$50,000 Grand Prize.
Oscar-winning French director Régis Wargnier's Une femme Française (A French Woman) came closest, wining both the Best Actor (Gabriel Barylli) and Best Actress (Emmanuelle Béart), as well as a shared Best Director honour (together with Czech director Milan Steindler for I Thank You for Each New Morning).
The jury's decision not to award the top prize, made the press focus even more on Gere's official and less official activities during the festival.
The actor was reportedly arrested "for illegally taking caviar from the river" during a festival visit to Nizhny Novgorod. Afterwards, he said that he was not allowed to talk about the incident.
A part of the local press also heavily criticized the jury president for walking out of at least one film. "It's very hard to watch six hours of film a day," he replied afterwards. "And just because a film is from a country at war doesn't make it better."
In addition, journalists wrote at length about the American actor disappearing at least twice with his private entourage, of which the identity of Masha Valentinova - the mystery woman he kissed on the lips at the opening night ceremony - was also cause for some extra newspaper gossip.

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