The closing ceremony of the 24th Spirit of Fire International Film Festival took place at the Yugra-Classic Concert and Theater Center in Khanty-Mansiysk. The festival’s main prize, the Golden Taiga for Best Debut Film, was awarded to the Spanish film Sorda [Deaf], directed by Eva Libertad García López. In the Russian debut competition, the film Kosmos zasypaet by Anton Mamykin won, which also received the For Preserving Cultural Traditions prize, the Flowers of Taiga Hope audience award, and three more awards.
The Spirit of Fire film festival is the largest international platform in Russia for film debuts of emerging directors. This year, the festival’s competition programs featured 56 Russian and foreign films from countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The themed focus of this year’s festival was “Children in Cinema”: various aspects of childhood, growing up, and personality formation, as well as the depiction of a child’s perspective on the world in contemporary cinema.
Participants and jury members of the festival walked the red carpet, including Fyodor Bondarchuk, Leonid Yarmolnik, Evgeny Margulis, Andrey Proshkin, Sergey Chliyants, Sofya Lebedeva, Leonid Kanevsky, Vladimir Kanukhin, Danila Krasnov, Aram Vardevanyan, Sergey Tsigal, Stasya Tolstaya, Grigory Kalinin, Anna Savranskaya, Ekaterina Channova, Viktoria Maslova, Yulia Marchenko, Anton Pampushny, Darya Vereshchagina, and others.
The ceremony was styled as an ironic fairy tale with elements of theatrical revue, musical performances, and references to images from children’s cinema. The director of the ceremony was Aleksey Frandetti, a three-time winner of the national Golden Mask theater award.
The first winners to be announced were from the international competition program for children’s and youth films, Your Cinema. The jury for the competition included winning children of a special contest among active participants of the Movement of the First. Jury members Semyon Solovyov and Artem Grekhov announced that the film Bird Boy by Joel Soisson received a Special Jury Mention.
The main prize of the program, the Small Bronze Taiga, was awarded to the film Véletlenül írtam egy könyvet [I Accidentally Wrote a Book] by Nóra Lakos. The award was accepted by the program’s selector and curator, Ekaterina Bordacheva, who noted the importance of the Your Cinema competition and especially emphasized that Nóra Lakos’s film is very talented.
The award in the “Film-in-Progress” category, a competition program for projects in production, was presented by the jury chairman, director and producer Sergey Chliyants. He pointed out that the program was very strong this year. The winner was the When The Snow Falls project by Evgeniya Gromova.
Thanks to the “Home Towns” social investment program of Gazprom Neft, the winner in the Film-in-Progress category receives a prize of one million rubles.
The Debut – Short Film competition featured 18 short films. To present the awards, members of the competition jury Sofia Lebedeva, Andrey Apostolov, and Zaka Abdrakhmanova went on stage.
The Small Silver Taiga award went to the film Nash god. The film’s director, Nikolay Kovalenko, thanked the jury and the festival, noting that he and his team made the film with great pleasure.
The Small Golden Taiga prize was awarded to the film Varvara Svyataya directed by Polina Kapantina. The director herself came up on stage to receive the award and thanked her mentor, Sergei Solovyov.
Six films participated in the Russian Debuts Competition. The jury included director Andrey Proshkin; musician, composer, songwriter and performer Evgeny Margulis; cinematographer and international film festival award winner Maria Solovyova; theater and film actress Aleksandra Ursulyak; and theater, film, and television actor Leonid Yarmolnik. They came on stage to announce the winners.
The Pavel Lebeshev Cinematographers Guild Award for Best Cinematography was given to Vladimir Borisov for the film Kosmos zasypaet. The film’s director, Anton Mamykin, thanked the jury and the village of Shoina, where Vladimir Borisov filmed this picture.
The Silver Rose prize for best work with music was awarded to debut director Said Tolgurov for the film In the Mountains. He.
The Aleksandr Abdulov Award for Best Actor was given to Mark Eidelstein for his work in the film Kosmos zasypaet.
The Aleksandr Abdulov Award for Best Actress in a Russian debut film was presented to Alla Demidova for the film Greatness of Absence.
The Sergei Solovyov Golden Taiga prize for the best Russian debut film was awarded to the film Kosmos zasypaet. Director Anton Mamykin and Ivan Yakovenko thanked the team who worked on the project and the residents of Shoina, who welcomed them and allowed them to capture their lives.
The special prize For Preserving Cultural Traditions from Gazprom Neft, the general partner of the film festival, was presented by CEO of Gazpromneft-Khantos Dmitry Kolupayev.
The festival brought a true celebration to the residents of Khanty-Mansiysk and Yugra, as well as to guests who came from different parts of Russia and from all over the world. You are the ones who create this celebration: representatives of creative teams, young authors taking their first steps in cinema, and recognized masters who share their experience with a new generation of directors, producers, and actors.
The Communication Partner Prize of the Roscongress Foundation Film Festival for Preserving Traditional Spiritual Values in the World “Soul of Russia. World Cinema” was presented by Yulia Golubeva, Deputy CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding. The award went to the film Shape of Momo directed by Tribeny Rai.
Next, the members of the international jury, which included Chinese screenwriter Wei Lu (jury chairman), whose work was nominated for an Oscar and received the Palme d’Or at Cannes; actress, director, and public figure Ndambo Damarise; festival organizer, film critic, and writer Jaime Cristian Noguera Martín; and Serbian screenwriter, director, and producer Goran Radovanović, announced the winners of the International Competition.
The Special Jury Mention diploma was awarded to the sound design team of the film Sorda [Deaf] by Eva Libertad García Lópezz for recreating the inaudible sound of the deaf and the beauty of music.
The Special Jury Mention diploma was also awarded to the film Songs of the Moon King by Natalia Lapshina for outstanding use of chiaroscuro to convey drama through light.
Another Special Jury Mention was awarded to the film Door Dar Mianeh Shargh [Far in the Middle of the East] by Arash Aneessee for preserving the elegance, precision, and sophistication of the Iranian cinematic tradition and forming a unique female acting team.
The Bronze Taiga international competition prize was awarded to the film The Coin by Emiliano Dante, a joint production of Italy and Serbia. The film’s creator dedicated this prize to his entire team.
The Silver Taiga prize was awarded to the debut work Shape of Momo directed by Tribeny Rai, produced in India and the Republic of Korea. Tribeny Rai expressed her gratitude for this award.
The main prize of the festival, the Golden Taiga for Best Debut Film, was awarded to the Spanish film Sorda [Deaf], directed by Eva Libertad García López (Spain). The prize was accepted by Aquilino Gamazo. He expressed his gratitude to the entire film team and the festival jury for their sensitivity to the team’s work.
Next, Emir Kusturica took the stage to present the festival president’s award with the citation “For sustaining the creative flame in Russian cinema.” It was received by actor, producer, and director Fyodor Bondarchuk.
After that, Emir Kusturica together with Ruslan Kukharuk clapped the film slate, officially declaring the 24th Spirit of Fire International Film Festival closed.
About 30 international guests from China, India, Spain, Cuba, Cameroon, Turkey, South Africa, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Bulgaria, Cuba, Colombia, India, and Switzerland attended Spirit of Fire this year. An important part of the festival was a large-scale business program, within which a series of business sessions were held, dedicated to current issues in the development of the film industry. Producers, directors, representatives of the film industry, and specialized organizations took part in them. Participants discussed issues of supporting debut films, finding funding and bringing films to audiences, the development of the animation industry, the specifics of creating children’s and family content, as well as current trends in family cinema. One of the key events was the plenary session “Children’s and Family Content as a National Priority. The Role of Cinema in Shaping Values and the Next Generation”, where experts discussed the importance of cinema and media in shaping the worldview of children and adolescents, the role of the state and industry in developing quality children’s content, as well as prospects for cooperation between the film industry, education, and cultural institutions.
“The Spirit of Fire festival is becoming a significant tool for cultural exchange, allowing Russian cinema to enter the largest markets of BRICS countries, which cover half of humanity and a significant share of the world economy. These countries represent promising platforms for the distribution of domestic films and animated works. The festival’s business program helps establish partnerships among filmmakers, stimulates joint projects, creative exchange of ideas and scripts, and unites audiences from different countries based on shared cultural values and spiritual affinity. The importance of cultural diplomacy is emphasized by the Roscongress Foundation’s Soul of Russia project. This large-scale humanitarian initiative already covers more than 18 regions of our country, dozens of foreign states, and brings together tens of thousands of participants. To encourage filmmakers actively working to preserve and popularize traditional spiritual values, a special prize ‘Soul of Russia. World Cinema’ was established at the festival”, noted Elena Marinina, Deputy CEO of the Roscongress Foundation.
Since 2007, the Spirit of Fire film festival has been held with the support of Gazprom Neft. The company acts as a co-organizer of the festival and its cultural and educational program, and awards the best Russian film in the “For Preserving Cultural Traditions” category.
Gazprom-Media Holding is the main media partner of the film festival.