Moscow International Film Festival

The closing ceremony of the 39th Moscow International Film Festival has taken place at the Rossiya theatre. The main prize was awarded to the film «Crested Ibis».

 

 

On June 29, 2017, the closing ceremony of the 39th Moscow International Film Festival took place at the Rossiya theatre. 

 

Among those walking the red carpet towards the theatre, were such actresses as Oksana Akinshina, Anastasiya Zadorozhnaya, Alla Dovlatova, Paulina Andreeva, Yulia Peresild, Olga Kabo, directors Alla Surikova, Anna Melikyan, Fyodor Bondarchuk, Nikolay Burlyayev, and others. Traditionally, the showcase’s guests were greeted by the president of the Moscow International Film Festival, Nikita Mikhalkov. 

 

The first part of the ceremony was hosted by actor Vyacheslav Manucharov and actress Ekaterina Klimova. They noted that last year, it was announced that a special ПMoscow Mayor Prize «For Creating the Image of Moscow in cinema» would be established. This year, nine films were competing for the prize, and the prize fund constituted 100 million rubles.  

 

«There were hot heads, who offered to give the prize to 'I Step Through Moscow' [a 1964 film, in which Mikhalkov stars as the lead character] at our last meeting. I said it looked like giving the award of the Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously, though. Calm down, it’s not me, it was a different person. It’s wonderful there is an award dedicated to the films made in Moscow, where Moscow is represented as a character, as a substance of breathtaking strength of spirit and beauty. I think that the situation in Moscow is complicated these days. Sergey Semyonovich Sobyanin [the current Moscow mayor] was supposed to be here, but he couldn’t reach us because of the traffic, yes, he called me. In fact, he is running a temperature too, 38,5. Let’s wish him to get well soon. We know how frustrated we all are when we are stuck in traffic. We curse the mayor, the city administration, this anger is understandable, but it’s only justified there and then. Because, and I’m sure of that: it will be an amazing city. And I’m totally convinced that we will thank our mayor Sergey Semyonovich Sobyanin for his tenacity and the beauty of our city,» the festival's president Nikita Mikhalkov said. 

 

The prize winners: 

First Prize (50 million rubles) – «About Love», directed and produced by Anna Melikyan 

Second Prize (30 million rubles) - «14+», directed by Andrey Zaytsev, produced by Andrey Zaytsev and Olga Granina

Third Prize (20 million rubles) – «Soulless» and «Soulless 2», directed by Roman Prygunov, produced by Pyotr Anurov, Fyodor Bondarchuk, Dmitry Rudovsky 

 

The prize was awarded by the deputy Moscow Mayor on social development, Leonid Pechatnikov. 

 

«I came to Moscow when I was 17, fell in love with this city instantly, and made all my movies here. But the city didn't welcome me straightaway. I'm very excited. It feels like the city is finally in love with me too, and it's mutual,» Anna Melikyan said, accepting the award. 

 

The first festival prizes to be announced were Best Short Film and Best Documentary Film. The jury members were Swiss documentary filmmaker Christian Frei (chairman), Russian director Alexey Khanyutin, and Korean director Yun Jero. 

 

«All decisions, both on the short film program and the documentary film program, have been made in perfect union, unanimously. The short film program was outstanding, with various interesting films. However, we all agreed that there was one movie that stood out, that contained a hot topic for Europe, had a crystal clear message, a wonderful actors’ ensemble, great dramaturgy which fit in exactly in the short film format, and last but not least, very intelligent and professional directing,» Alexey Khanyutin noted. , 

 

«Silver Saint George» for Best Short Film – «Ambulance», Norway, director Sebastian Torngren Wartin. 

 

«Hope I'll come back here in a couple of years with a feature, and hope that Sweden will make it into the World Championship finals, and we'll see each other again,» Sebastian Torngren Wartin said, accepting the award. 

 

«Silver Saint George» for Best Documentary – «Opera», France-Switzerland, director Jean-Stephane Bron. 

 

«Documentary films play a key role in the life of the society, because thanks to well-made documentaries, you can learn more about the life of others, find out about their dreams, aspirations, conflicts with the society. And these people’s universe can be far away from your own views, that’s why documentaries are the best antidote to stereotypes,» Christian Frei said. 

 

The cultural attache of the French Embassy in Russia, Elizabeth Brown, accepted the prize. 

 

«It's a great honor for us that a French film received this award, for the first time at a festival of such scale, and hopefully, not the last. An hour ago, we got a message from director Bron. He wrote: «It's a huge honor to receive this prize, especially at the Moscow Film Festival. I sincerely thank the festival for the opportunity to present my film, which discovered opera for me. I found a young Russian baritone Mikhail Timoshenko, who for me represents the art of opera, and today, I’m thinking about all artists who direct their efforts to this wonderful art,» Mrs. Brown quoted the director. 

 

The second part of the ceremony was hosted by actor Vassily Raksha and actress Viktoriya Solovyova.

The main competition jury: Iranian director and producer Reza Mirkarimi, Italian actress Ornella Muti, Finnish director and producer Jorn Johan Donner, Catalonian director and scriptwriter Albert Serra, Russian scriptwriter, director, actor Alexander Adabashyan, and the advisor for film funding at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, a major funding institution in the capital region of Berlin, Brigitta Manthey. 

 

Silver Saint George for Best Actor – Son Hyun-Ju, «Ordinary Person», the Republic of Korea 

 

The prize was awarded by actress Ornella Muti. The film's director Kim Bong-han received the prize. 

 

«I've worked on this film for 10 years. It hasn't been easy to have been working all this time. From the director's point of view, we've had a hard, but interesting time. The main issue was to choose the cast who could achieve this. And I would like to thank them for their job,» the director noted. 

 

Silver Saint George for Best Actress – Verena Altenberger, «The Best of All Worlds», Austria 

 

The prize was awarded by Jorn Johan Donner, and the cultural attache of the Austrian Embassy in Russia, Simon Mraz, received the award. 

 

Silver Saint George for Best Directing – Fikret Reyhan, «Yellow Heat», Turkey

 

The prize was awarded by Alexander Adabashyan. 

 

«I'm very happy and surprised. Being in Moscow is a great happiness to me. It's an honor to receive this award, and I'm very grateful to the jury members,» Fikret Reyhan noted, receiving the award. 

 

Special jury prize, Silver Saint George – «The Bottomless Bag», Russia, director Rustam Khamdamov 

 

«I'm happy. I can say that for Rustam, too, because unfortunately, he isn't here. But I'm happy and immensely grateful to the jury, who are at the festival tonight, and can say for myself: it is a blessing for me to have worked with this person. I can't call him just a director, he's a renaissance man, he has a special gift to see art, frame, to work with actors,» actress Svetlana Nemolyayeva, who played the lead role in the movie, said.  

 

«Golden Saint George» for Best Film – «Crested Ibis», China, director Liang Qiao 

 

«The Golden Saint George» for cinematic value and humanism of the film, goes to the film «Crested Ibis», the jury's chairman Reza Mirkarimi said, giving the award. 

 

«Our film is certainly dedicated to the problems of ecology. We hope that the issues of ecology and cleanness in China will be solved. This film is made in a very simple way. Huge thanks to the cast and crew, who participated in the shooting, thanks to my university I graduated from. It's already June 30, Beijing time, and it's my mum's birthday, so I would like to make this a gift to her,» director LIang Qiao said, accepting the main award of the 39th Moscow International Film Festival. 

 

Together with him, Weiping Wan, one of the film's producers, received the award. He also thanked the cast and crew and also his family. The producer also expressed hope that the film «Crested Ibis» will «attract the world community's attention to the environment issues, and will make them live in such a way that we could keep the air clean». 

 

The special prize of the festival's organizers, for getting to the top of acting skills, and loyalty to the principles of the Stanislavsky's school «I believe. Konstantin Stanislavky» was awarded to the Italian actor and director Michele Placido. 

 

«Remember how our entire country froze in front of the TV. You know, when they showed the film «The Octopus», the muggings and car thefts decreased by five times, because everyone was watching Corrado Cattani. I would like to present a wonderful person, actor and director, Michele Placido,» Nikita Mikhalkov said. , 

 

The famous Italian actor and director went on stage to receive the award, holding a photo of Konstantin Stanislavky in his hands. 

 

«He was really my teacher. Stanislavky was the teacher of all actors worlwide, in Russia, the US, France, Italy. Everyone! There isn't a talented actor in the world, who didn't study the Stanislavky system. For me, getting an award named after Stanislavsky is more important than an Oscar. I've never understood why we – the Italians – should pay our attention to the US, when there is Russia, which gave to the world Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pasternak. I've become what I am now only thanks to the Russian culture,» Placido underlined.