Founded in 1990 by producer and entrepreneur Mark Rudinshtein (at left in lower right photograph) and presided over by festival director and popular Russian actor Oleg Yankovsky, Kinotavr is held in the resort town of Sochi on the Black Sea, and has been the unfortunate butt of jokes in the past for attracting a bevy of local industry personalities who appear to spend more time on the beaches than in the screening rooms.
Although its organizers have tried in the past to position the festival as the Russian version of Cannes, which is also held at the seaside, Kinotavr has thus far failed to attract international notice, despite that this year's festival includes three components: a competition program for Russian films, a category for debut films and a noncompetition program exclusively for the screening of international films.
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| Itar-Tass Action film star Dolph Lundgren walking in the beach with his bodyguard. |
Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi this week promised to make Kinotavr "a festival of national scale," adding that this year's festival would include master classes and the formation of "new creative groupings."
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| Itar-Tass Director Stanislav Govorukhin and actress Olga Budina |
The festival's competition program includes the following domestically-produced films: Alexei Balabanov's "Voina" (War), Nikolai Lebedev's "Zvezda" (The Star), Denis Yevstigneyev's "Zaimyomsya Lyubovyu" (Let's Make Love), Alexander Atanesyan's "Letny Dozhd" (Summer Rain), Sergei Ovcharov's "Skazki pro Fedota-Streltsa" (Tales of Fedot the Gunman), Igor Maslennikov's "Pisma Elzy" (Elza's Letters), Yury Grymov's "Kollektsioner" (The Collector), Valery Todorovsky's "Lyubovnik" (The Lover), Alexander Mitta's "Raskalyonnaya Subbota" (Scalding Saturday) and Alexander Rogozhkin's "Russky Kovcheg" (The Russian Ark).
(MT, Itar-Tass, Vedomosti)
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