Vanessa McMahon

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ANDREI KONCHALOVSKY / DISTINGUISHED RUSSIAN DIRECTOR / WRAPS HIS 75TH BIRTHDAY YEAR WITH A BANG

The celebrations concluded in style as award-winning film and theatre director ANDREI KONCHALOVSKY wrapped his UK retrospective tour on November 21. A popular screening of his multi-award-winning Uncle Vanya at Warwick Arts Centre marked the final stop in a year-long series of international events and screenings which have taken place across Russia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, Montreal, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid and Cannes to celebrate his 75th birthday.

The UK retrospective also witnessed sell-out screenings at the Leeds Film Festival, Edinburgh Filmhouse, Oxford and Cambridge Universities and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, at which Konchalovsky introduced and led Q&As on several of his best-known and international award-winning works including Aysa’s Happiness, House of Fools and Gloss.

The UK visits were preceded by a brief stop-over at the 17th Forum of European Cinema “Cinergia” in Poland where Konchalovsky was honoured with the Zloty Glan Award for his outstanding contribution towards European and World Cinema. Past award winners have included European greats Istvan Szabo, Otar Josseliani, Marta Meszaros, Krzysztof Zanussi, Daniel Olbrychski, Jaco van Dormael, Jan Troell and John Malkovich. More than 900 people passed through the doors of the Lodz Film Forum to view 9 of Konchalovsky’s classics and 200-plus students and film professors attended his masterclass at the Lodz Film School.

Following his visit, Mariola Wiktor (Director of the Lodz Film Forum) stated “Andrei is an icon and legend of Russian and American cinema. Sharing his thoughts about cinema, art and life with students during masterclass was a unique and priceless experience." John Gore (Head of Warwick Arts Centre) Chris Fell (Director of the Leeds Film Festival) James Rice (Head of Programming at the Edinburgh Filmhouse) and Claire Ricklef (Cultural Affairs Manager at EBRD) also expressed their delight at having the distinguished filmmaker in attendance at their events.

Reflecting his huge appreciation of both the events’ organisers and audiences, Andrei Konchalovsky responded: “It is with great pleasure that I note the serious work which has been carried out in many European countries and Russia, where different events were dedicated to my anniversary. The Jubilee retrospective in Great Britain and the effective cooperation between the A. Konchalovsky Production Center and DDA has been a particular highlight. I was thrilled to see the European retrospective of my films build up such a remarkable atmosphere – stormy discussions and open-minded dialogues always accompanied the masterclasses and created a special mood during film screenings. A heartfelt thank you to everyone for such a memorable year!”

Internationally acclaimed for his work as a director for both stage and screen, Konchalovsky studied at the VGIK under Mosfilm’s veteran filmmaker Mikhail Romm. His 50-year-plus career has seen his work both suffering at the hands of Soviet censors and winning a plethora of major International awards.

In addition to those titles screened on his tour, Konchalovsky’s best-known film credits range from international successes such as Siberiade, (Grand Prix Special Jury Prize winner, Cannes International Film Festival, 1979) to popular English language titles such as Duet for One, (Best Actress Golden Globe® nominee Julie Andrews, 1987), Shy People (Best Actress Award winner Barbara Hershey at the Cannes International Film Festival, 1987) and the nail-biting thriller Runaway Train, starring Jon Voight, Eric Roberts and Rebecca De Mornay, which earned three Academy Award® nominations and was included in the Cannes Classics selection at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.

Andrei Konchalovsky has also earned acclaim for such landmark television productions as the Homeric epic The Odyssey, for which he won an Emmy® Award as best director, and The Lion in Winter, starring Glenn Close and Patrick Stewart, which received a Golden Globe® Award for costume design, as well as multiple Emmy® awards and nominations.

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read interview with Andrei Konchalovsky here: