Two hours before the opening ceremony the jury gathered to elect its President, a part of the festival tradition. After a few minutes the prominent film director Stanislav Rostotsky was unanimously elected. The jury members were:
Stanislav Rostotsky Director
Vladilen Arsenyev Director of NTV's features/programmes studios
Yuri Bogomolov Film critic
Elena Drapeko Actress
Vladislav Lyen Professor of art
Vladimir Zheleznyakov Scriptwriter
Alexei Kozlov Musician
Anatoly Nikitin Film director
Peter Velyaminov Actor
Savva Koulish Film director, President of the festival and chairman of the Russian European Cinema Association.
Savva Koulish had to enter the jury, as he said, 'to take the place of two filmmakers who had to cancel the festival's invitation at the last minute, because both of them started film production.'
