Download the Festival programme (pdf)
The 2nd Russian Film Festival has come to an end... It was an exciting, emotional and enriching 11 days. 10 of the best award-winning Russian films produced in 2007-2008 were premiered in London. They were accompanied by an inspiring and provocative series of discussions, special screenings and introductions by the filmmakers themselves. We would like to thank everyone who supported the festival and contributed to making it such a dynamic and memorable event. We are also grateful to our audience for their continual enthusiasm and support. Please go to our blog to post your comments about the Festival.
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Audience
We are delighted that the Festival evoked such great public interest. All of the screenings were fully booked almost every evening. We were pleased to see that our audience was mainly made up of people in their 20s and 30s, and that everyone participated enthusiastically in the Q&A sessions after the films. We were also pleased to see many members of the film industry and press at the screenings. While the majority of festival-goers consisted of Russian and English speakers, the audience included native speakers of 24 different languages, including French, German, Swedish and Bulgarian - the diverse demographic of the audience proves the level of international interest in Russian film.
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Best Film of the Festival
Our audience named Mikhail Kalatozishvili's ‘Wild Field' the best film of the Festival. Most of the Russian audience voted for Nikita Mikhalkov's ‘12', however, overall ‘Wild Field' won due to the greater quantity of votes from non-Russians. Of the 716 viewers who took part in the vote, 48.8% were native Russian speakers, and the majority of the remaining 51.2% were English speakers.
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Press
Some of the leading UK Film magazines, such as Sight and Sound, Vertigo, MovieScope and Empire have acknowledged the Festival, confirming its place as an important cinematic event in London.