Russian Films At The 69th Venice Film Festival

Posted on September 7th, 2012

Three Russian films will be screened at the Venice Film Festival: a psychological drama The Betrayal by Kirill Serebrennikov (the Main Competition program), I Also Want It by Alexei Balabanov (the Horizons program) and Anton’s Right Here by Lyubov Arkus (side-bar program).

The 69th edition of Venice International Film Festival held in August 29 – September 8, 2012 presents 60 films from 41 countries, including 18 titles in competition. They were selected by a new Festival’s Artistic Director Alberto Barbera, who claims he was focusing on “quality not quantity”.

The Main Competition Program

The following films will compete in the Main Program for the festival’s principal award, the Golden Lion:

The Betrayal by Kyrill Serebrennikov (Russia)
To The Wonder by Terrence Malick (US)
Pieta by Kim Ki-duk (South Korea)
Outrage Beyond by Takeshi Kitano (Japan)
Something In The Air (Apres Mai) by Olivier Assayas (France)
At Any Price by Ramin Bahrani (US-UK)
Dormant Beauty (Bella Addormentata) by Marco Bellocchio (Italy-France)
La Cinquieme Saison by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth (Belgium-Netherlands-France)
Fill The Void (Lemale Et Ha’Chalal) by Rama Burshtein (Israel)
E Stato il Figlio by Daniele Cipri (Italy-France)
Un Giorno Speciale by Francesca Comencini (Italy)
Passion by Brian De Palma (France-Germany)
Superstar by Xavier Giannoli (France-Belgium)
Spring Breakers by Harmony Korine (US)
Thy Womb (Sinapupunan) by Brillante Mendoza (Philippines)
Linhas de Wellington by Valeria Sarmiento (Portugal-France)
Paradise: Faith (Paradies: Glaube) by Ulrich Seidl (Austria-France-Germany)

The Betrayal by Kirill Serebrennikov

This psychological drama / thriller is a strong love-and-hate, passion-and-sin cocktail. A man meets a woman. Soon they find out that their spouses are lovers. They start a passionate tit-for-tat love-affair, the adultery mainly occurs at the hotel.

Producer Sabina Yeremeyeva: “Our film is about the most destructive power of passion, about our hidden emotions, our secret world, which we want and hate, …which eventually results into a loneliness.”

Director: Kirill Serebrennikov
Script: Natalia Nazarova, Kirill Serebrennikov
D.O.P.: Oleg Lukichev
Starring: Franziska Petri (Germany), Dejan Lilich (Macedonia), Albina Dzhanabaeva, Andrew Shchetinin, Arturs Skrastins (Latvia), Svetlana Mamresheva, Guna Zarina.

Producer: Sabina Yeremeyeva
Production: Elephant Film Studio (with financial support of the Russian Ministry of Culture), Sol’ Film Company (Russia).

The Horizons Program

The Horizons Program includes:

I Also Want It by Alexei Balabanov (Russia)
Wadjda by Haifaa Al Mansour (Saudi Arabia-Germany)
The Paternal House (Khaneh Pedari) by Kianoosh Ayari (Iran)
Gli Equilibristi by Ivano De Matteo (Italy-France)
L’intervallo by Leonardo Di Costanzo (Italy-Switzerland-Germany)
Winter of Discontent (El Sheita Elli Fat) by Ibrahim El Batout (Egypt)
Tango Libre by Frederic Fonteyne (Belgium-France-Luxembourg)
The Cutoff Man (Menatek Ha-Maim) by Idan Hubel (Israel)
Fly With The Crane (Gaosu tame, wo cheng baihe qu le) by Li Ruijun (China)
A Hijacking (Kapringen) by Tobias Lindholm (Denmark)
Leones by Jazmin Lopez (Argentina-France-Netherlands)
Bellas Mariposas by Salvatore Mereu (Italy)
Low Tide by Roberto Minervini (US-Italy-Belgium)
Boxing Day by Bernard Rose (UK-US)
Yema by Djamila Sahraoui (Algeria-France)
Araf – Somewhere In Between by Yesim Ustaoglu (Turkey-France-Germany)
The Millennial Rapture (Sennen no Yuraku) by Koji Wakamatsu (Japan)
Three Sisters (San Zi Mei) by Wang Bing (France-Hong Kong-China)

I Also Want It by Alexei Balabanov

Russian mystic drama I Also Want It by Aleksei Balabanov is screened in the Horizons festival program. The film resembles Andrey Tarkovsky’s Stalker. The four main characters are searching for an old desolate church, a miraculous temple in the distant territory close to a nuclear power plant. Some seldom visitors, the chosen-ones, enter the church and find eternal happiness there.

Director and screenwriter: Alexei Balabanov
D.O.P.: Alexander Simonov
Starring: Yuri Matveyev, Alexander Mosin, Oleg Garkusha, Alice Shitikova
Producer: Sergey Selyanov
Production: STB Studio (Russia)

Out of competition

Anton’s Right Here by Lyubov Arkus (documentary)
L’Homme Qui Rit by Jean-Pierre Ameris
Love Is All You Need by Susanne Bier
Cherchez Hortense by Pascal Bonitzer
It Was Better Tomorrow dir: Hinde Boujemaa (documentary)
Sur Un Fil… by Simon Brook (documentary)
Enzo Avitable Music Life by Jonathan Demme (documentary)
Tai Chi 0 by Stephen Fung (documentary)
Carmel (2009) by Amos Gitai
Lullaby To My Father by Amos Gitai
El Imenetrable by Daniele Incalcaterra, Fausta Quattrini (documentary)
Penance by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Bad 25 by Spike Lee (documentary)
Witness: Libya by Michael Mann (documentary)
Medici Con L’Africa by Carlo Mazzacurati (documentary)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mira Nair
O Gebo E A Sombra by Manoel De Oliveira
The Company You Keep by Robert Redford
Shark (Bait 3D) by Kimble Rendall
Disconnect by Henry-Alex Rubin
La Nave Dolce by Daniele Vicari (documentary)
The Iceman by Ariel Vromen

Anton’s Right Here by Lyubov Arkus

Anton's Right Here by Lyubov Arkus Russian documentary “Anton’s Right Here” by Lyubov Arkus from St-Petersburg is screened in the out-of-competition slates as a Special Event program entry along with films by Spike Lee, Robert Redford, Liliana Cavani, Manoel de Oliveira and Suzanne Bier.

Plot: Anton Kharitonov is a sick autistic teenager, who lives in a shabby apartment in the outskirts of St.Petersburg and has to attend the asylum for examination now and then.

Director and screenwriter: Lyubov Arkus
Producer: Sergey Selyanov
Production: STB Studio (Russia)

Two Russian directors have won Golden Lions in the past. Andrei Zvyagintsev won two Golden Lions in 2004 for his film debut, The Return. 7 seven years later in 2011 a Golden Lion was granted to Alexander Sokurov for Faust.

Posted in Festivals & Markets, Films in the Western Festivals/Screenings | 1 Comment

Stream and Miramax announce agreement to provide iconic Miramax films in Russia

Posted on July 10th, 2012

Stream will stream Miramax classics to Russian audience through SVOD on Internet-connected devices in HD

MOSCOW and LONDON, July 10, 2012 – Stream LLC, (formerly Omlet.ru), a leading multimedia entertainment services company in Russia, and Miramax, one of the world’s leading independent film and television studios, today announced a multi-year subscription video on demand (SVOD) partnership, making Stream the first Russian multimedia entity to digitally distribute Miramax’s acclaimed movies to the Russian marketplace.

Under the distribution deal, a broad array of Miramax’s award-winning classics, such as Kill Bill, From Dusk Till Dawn, Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, The English Patient and many other masterpieces of modern cinema, will be available to Stream SVOD customers. Stream SVOD viewers will have the opportunity to watch their high quality HD movie selections directly through www.stream.ru, or to download them to internet-connected devices including tablets, smart phones, game consoles, Blu-ray players and connected TVs.

“Stream’s alliance with the acclaimed Miramax film studio is a milestone success for us,” said Inna Shalyto, CEO of Stream. “We are glad that thanks to partnership with Miramax we shall bring some of the world’s most original and favored titles to Russian audience. Besides, it is also means a breakthrough in Stream’s efforts to create a civilized film market in Russia with sophisticated and quality digital content public distribution through business relationships with international content owners.”

“We’re extremely excited to begin bringing Miramax’s award-winning movies to Russian audiences through Stream,” said Danny Goldman, Miramax Senior Vice President and Head of Sales, EMEA. “Stream has developed into a leader in the Russian media content market, and we are very pleased that they are our first partner in Russia as we continue to extend Miramax’s global relationships.”

About Stream

Stream.ru is a Russian multimedia content portal launched by Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS) in 2009. Sistema JSFC (“Sistema”) (LSE: SSA), the largest diversified publicly-traded investment company in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), joined forces with MTS in 2012 to develop and manage Stream.ru (formerly Omlet.ru). Stream’s content is available on Smart TV devices from Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Philips as well as smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, and PCs. Stream’s portfolio includes about 7,000 movies and TV series episodes from leading international and Russian studios (Universal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Walt Disney, Bazelevs, Central Partnership). Stream’s portal reaches more than 1.5 million unique visitors monthly.

For more information visit www.stream.ru

About Miramax

Miramax is a leading worldwide film and television studio with a library of more than 700 motion pictures. Miramax sells directly and licenses its titles globally through strategic partnerships including: Lionsgate, Netflix, Facebook, Hulu and StudioCanal. The Miramax library holds some of the world’s most original and acclaimed independent films including Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, The English Patient, Kill Bill Volumes I and II, Life is Beautiful, Reservoir Dogs, Sex, Lies and Videotape, Cinema Paradiso and My Left Foot – as well as scores of commercially successful films such as The Aviator, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bad Santa, Chicago, There Will Be Blood, and the Scream, Hellraiser, Scary Movie and Spy Kids franchises. In 2011, Miramax released three new films including the critically acclaimed film The Debt, starring Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain, directed by John Madden. Collectively, the Miramax library has received 284 Academy Award nominations and 68 Oscars, including four Best Picture awards.

Miramax is headquartered in Santa Monica, California with a sales office in London. For more information, please visit www.miramax.com, “like” the company on www.facebook.com/miramax and follow Miramax on Twitter @Miramax.

Posted in Film Industry Reports & Interviews | Tagged as: distribution, Miramax, Stream LLC | 1 Comment

Over 300 Warner Bros. Movies To Upload In Russia

Posted on July 5th, 2012

Warner Brothers MOSCOW. July 5, 2012. Warner Bros. Digital Distribution (WBDD), a market leader in video-on-demand and electronic sell-through, has partnered with Russian Stream LLC (former Omlet.ru) to provide over 300 movies for millions of Russian viewers through www.stream.ru.

In a world of instant information, streaming videos are replacing DVDs. Stream LLC announced, it will offer WBDD’s classic films and blockbusters like The Dark Knight for nearly $3 and films like Sherlock Holmes, or Harry Potter, or Matrix for about $1,7 or a bit more.

“Russian viewers will download the WBDD’s quality HD content to watch it in full screen with their PCs, or iPhones, iPads and other portable devices”, comments Inna Shalyto, Director General of Stream LLC.

“The films are stored now in the so-called Sky-Cloud Directory, our next generation service,” – says Inna Shalyto. “In the near future we’ll offer an expanded WBDD’s catalog of films for Samsung Smart TV and other devices.

Posted in Russian/Western Co-Productions | Tagged as: distribution, Sky-Cloud Directory, Stream LLC, Warner Bros. | Leave a comment

34th Moscow Int’l Film Festival Award Winners

Posted on June 30th, 2012

Moscow. June 30, 2012. Over 60,000 film-goers crowded the screenings of 382 films within the last 10 days of June during Moscow Film Festival. Notably both Russian and British films were among the most attended titles, however, the British movies were among the top winners.

Eddie Marshan

Junkhearts by British debut director Tinge Krishnan collected the grand-prix of the Moscow International Film Festival – the Golden St. George and the best actor (Eddie Marshan for the principal role).

Another British movie The Wreckers by Dictinna Hood snatched the main prize of the Perspectives competition.

The Wreckers by Dictinna Hood

UK-Swedish co-production Searching for Sugarman by Malik Bendjelloul won the best documentary prize.

Historic drama Orda (The Horde) by Andrey Proshkin (Russia) was awarded with the best director’s Silver St George and the best actress award was granted to one of the lead actresses Roza Khairullina.

Roza Khairullina

Fecha de Caucidad (Expiration Date) by Mexican director Kenya Marquez won the Special Jury Prize, the Silver St-George.

The Centrifuge Brain Project by Till Nowak (Germany) collected the best short film prize.

US director Tim Burton was awarded with the Special Prize for An Outstanding Contribution To The World Cinema, and French diva Catherine Deneuve collected the Stanislavsky Special Prize for The Outstanding Achievement In The Career Of Acting.

Posted in Festivals & Markets | 1 Comment

The 69th Edition Of Venice Film Festival Restructured

Posted on June 28th, 2012

VENICE. June 28, 2012. This year the world’s oldest and one of the most prestigious film festivals, the Venice Festival (August 29 – September 8) will present a big change from its previous edition.

New director. At the turn of this year artistic director Marco Mueller was replaced by Alberto Barbera following a decision by the festival board. Barbera officially returned to the film festival’s helm where he served as Venice artistic director between 1998 and 2002.

New strategy. Barbera starts a new strategy to win a tough competition against a fast-rising new rival – Film Festival in Rome. He plans to build a cost-effective structure of Venice Film Festival competitive to Cannes Film Festival/Market. One of the lost-to-be-found opportunities is a film market built anew which has been visualized as one of Venice’s failings in the last decade or so.

Over the past eight years Mueller has markedly increased the annual number of films (180 titles in 2011). Now Alberto Barbera plans a major reduction, nearly three times, for the benefit of quality of films.

Now the main competition will accept only 20 entries and 11 titles in non-competition program.

Barbera still keeps dark the existing lineup of titles of competition program. However, speculations are that Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master”, Brian De Palma’s “Passion”, Terrence Malick’s “The Burial” and a number of films from Colombia, Indonesia, Burma, Costa Rica, Argentina and Thailand have been accepted.

The Jury. Michael Mann, a US film director, screenwriter and producer will chair the International Jury for the Competition at the 69th Venice International Film Festival.

Film Market is held between August 30 and September 3. Barbera has an ambitious plan to build a major film market in Venice to recoup a huge loss for domestic film industry when MIFED in Milan was destroyed by LA’s AFM. If so, Venice will outsmart the rival Film Festival in Rome which already has a small market.

The Director of the Market is Pascal Diot from France, who has experience in co-production, distribution and international sales, and in the organization of film markets.