Red Square Screenings Launched For The Western Market

MOSCOW. OCTOBER 11, 2012.  Moscow will host over a 100 international buyers and distributors who attend Red Square Screenings (RSS) on October 15-18.

Fifty Russian films released in 2011-2012 will be screened at the GUM Movie Hall and about a hundred of other Russian titles, as well as some new Ukrainian and Kazakh films produced in the last few years will be viewed in the RSS video library during the event or available online within the next 12 months.

The main 50-titles program offers a variety of Russian films, such as Karen Shakhnazarov’s White Tiger selected for the forthcoming Academy Award from Russia. or a number of winners/participants of the major global film festivals, such as Kirill Serebrennikov’s Betrayal, Lyubov Arkus’s Anton’s Right Here, Sergei Loznitsa’s In the Fog, Alexey Mizgirev’s The Convoy, Vasiliy Sigarev’s Living, Vitaly Mansky’s Motherland or Death, Pavel Ruminov’s I’ll Be Around, Mikhail Segal’s Short Stories, Avdotia Smirnova’s Kokoko and Igor Voloshin’s Bedouin.

RSS also presents a program of commercial films including Roman Prygunov’s Dukhless, Andrei Proshkin’s The Horde, Egor Baranov’s The Suicides, and Rezo Gigineishwili’s Love with Accent.

On October 18 the gala screening of Boris Khlebnikov’s Till The Night Separates Us will crown the RSS closing ceremony.

RSS in partnership with the CentEast Film Market / Warsaw Film Festival will also run a pitching for such Russian films in production or pre-production as Oleg Stepchenko’s Viy 3D, Alexander Voytinsky’s The Jungle, Alexander Veledinsky’s The Geographer Sold His Globe For a Drink as well as Maxim Sveshnikov and Vlad Barbe’s The Snow Queen etc.

RSS is organized by the RAC! (Russians Are Coming!) Creative Bureau with the Russia’s Cinema Fund and it is run in partnership with Ukrainian State Agency Of Cinematography, headed by Director Ekaterina Kopylova, and Kazakh Film Studio, presided by Ermek Amanshayev.

INTERNATIONAL GUESTS OF RSS

Among the VIPs of the international film community attending RRS are Jerome Paillard, Executive director of Marché du Film, a delegation of China Film (the exclusive Chinese film import company), Tom Luddy, the founder of Telluride FilmFest, Nadia Dresti, the Head of Locarno’s Industry Office etc.

RSS will also host CEOs of the leading distribution companies and buyers with prior experience of acquisition of Russian films, such as:

• Marie-Pierre Valle, Creative director of Wild Bunch Distribution
• Philippe Bober, Head of Coproduction Office
• Laurent Danielou, Executive director of Rezo Films International
• Ellis Driessen from Dutch Fortissimo
• Eva Diederix, International Sales Director of Elle Driver
• Per Löwendahl from Swedish TriArt
• Richard Mortiboys, Film British Artificial Eye Film Company Ltd.                                 

Correspondents from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Screen International, Filmbulletin and other world-known film media will cover the event.

Elena Romanova, Head of the International Department of the Russian Cinema Fund:

“Red Square Screenings became a logical follow-up on our work on promoting Russian films in the international film markets. As we were developing the concept of Red Square Screenings, we considered the experience of UniFrance in organizing the annual runs of French motion pictures, and also that of the Latin-American cinema market, Ventana Sur. It was crucial for us to create a comfortable and up-to-date platform where our colleagues from different countries could familiarize themselves in detail with Russian cinema in all its variety. And this should be done not in-between the festival runs, but thoroughly and carefully, as it is worthy of.”

Yevgeny Gindilis, Executive director of Red Square Screenings

“Three years ago, in the fall of 2009, we held the first small film forum, Project for Tomorrow/ CentEast in Moscow, in the Pioneer movie theater. The main goal of that forum was the most broad-based integration of Russian and Eastern European film industry into international distribution. We proceeded from very basic ideas: independent producers and large film companies alike are very interested in making our films available to the widest possible audiences, not only in our country, but also abroad.

Red Square Screenings have become a sequel to Project for Tomorrow – a new platform for promoting Russian cinema. We have also opened our doors to our colleagues from Ukraine and Kazakhstan. I truly hope that RSS will become an important date in the calendar of international film markets for our colleagues all over the world, for many years to come.”