2016 Kazan Film Festival: benefactors, show in Innopolis and over 700 applications
In several days the capital of Tatarstan will become the site where the International Muslim Film Festival, which is traditionally held at the beginning of September, will take place. Participants, jury members and honourable guests we should be waiting for this year were mentioned at a press conference in the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Sixty participants
The Kazan Festival likes constancy – one can visit it traditionally from 5 to 11 September. Films that were chosen for the programme have already been announced. They total 60, cinematographers from 33 countries of the world represented them. 60 films out of 703 applications were chosen. As usual, the selection commission headed by film expert Sergey Lavrentyev did this job. By the way, this year there have been received more applications. Last year they numbered only 629. So the Kazan Fest is cementing its positions in the film world.
There is a novelty in nominations. Apart from feature-length feature and documentary films, short film, a new nomination has appeared – Young Russia. Young cinematographers, who can become the nucleus of the Russian cinematography in the next years, will compete in the nomination whose name was borrowed from a film series.
An important question was asked at the press conference: who will be among the jury members? This year the juries will be headed by a famous director, winner of the State Award of Russia Aleksander Proshkin. Besides, representatives from Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were included in the list. There will also be a representative from Tatarstan – cameraman Valery Sevastyanov who shot Stanislav Govorukhin's films and participated in making 'Krai', which was a Russian candidate for an Oscar.
A representative of our republic is on the jury in Young Russia nomination. It is a film director and scriptwriter Aleksey Barykin. The second jury will be chaired by scriptwriter Yury Bykov. This nomination will have its own awards – ten statuettes for winners and special prizes.
'An opportunity to exchange opinions, dialogues of cinematographers, an opportunity to present the people of Tatarstan new films and development of the Tatarstan cinematography are the goals of the Kazan Festival,' the deputy Minister of Culture of Tatarstan Guzel Sharipova commented the future festival. She also told that Tatarstan cinematographers will present 6 films. Unfortunately, our cinematographers did not present feature films, which is very sad. They will compete in documentary and animation films.
Benefactors set the pace
A traditional 'red carpet' of the festival will be laid on 5 September in front of Piramida Culture and Leisure Complex. Apart from the participants of the fest, honourable guests will touch it. This year many of them have been invited with the help of sponsors. This is why the composition of 'stars' is various. One can see the names of 'stars' of the past like Lyudmila Khityaeva, Lyudmila Chursina, Anna Kamenkova and many others near the surname of great director Aleksey Uchitel, a representative of art-house film former Kazan citizen Konstantin Lopushansky, Aleksey Petrenko and Nonna Grishaeva. Obviously, this choice was made by benefactors.
However, the benefactors have helped the Kazan Film Festival for the first time in 12 years of its existence. This help totals about 1m rubles. The heads of Mosty RT PJSC, Prosto Moloko, Regional Blood Centre, Generating Company PJSC are among the benefactors of the festival. They expended their own money to the fund of the festival. The directorate of the festival told about 30 private persons and organisation support the festival.
As for the state support, the festival in Kazan is supported by Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov. The Ministry of Culture of Tatarstan, City Administration of Kazan and Council of Muftis of Russia are among its founders.
This year the number of sites where one can get acquainted with the programme of the festival has increased. Apart from traditional cinema halls in Rodina, Korston and Mir, people can watch films in the Kazan Kremlin and even in Innopolis. A part of the screening will be held in the open air.
The International Kazan Muslim Film Festival will end on 11 September, it is when all winners will get their statuettes. The ceremony will take place in the Tatar State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Musa Jalil for the first time.