Behind the scenes: the director of the film "The Master and Margarita" became the cinematographer of the year

On April 28, Moscow honored those who remain behind the scenes of filmmaking, but play an important role in the process — the best in the field of cinematography according to the annual White Square Award. The XXI ceremony took place at the Na Plushykha Theater Center. The cinematographers of the films "One Hundred years ahead", "The Master and Margarita", "Love of the Soviet Union", "Gold of Umalta", "110" and the TV series "Prometheus", "Dashing", "Children of Change" and "Highway" claimed the victory. Read more about the ceremony and its laureates in the Izvestia report.

"I found the right angle to make the artist his best version"

Every year, the White Square gathers movie stars at a ceremony, but not so much those whom the viewer sees on the screen as people who usually remain behind the scenes, but whose skill and special vision largely determine the success of a particular project. For the first time, this professional award in the field of cinematography was held back in 2004. Over the years, Maxim Osadchy has won the award for his work in the films "9th Company" (2005) and "The Duelist" (2016), Vladimir Bashta for "Kandahar" (2010) and "The Time of the First" (2017), Mikhail Krichman for "Elena" (2011) and others. The winner of the main prize at the last ceremony was Robert Sarukhanyan, the director of photography for "Centaur" starring Yuri Borisov. This year, five films participated in the competition.: "The Master and Margarita", "The Love of the Soviet Union", "The Gold of Umalta", "110" and "One hundred years ahead".

— Since this award is purely an operator's award, it is industry professionals who participate in the voting. Of course, when they celebrate you, when your colleagues and cameramen recognize you, it's nice, because you can't always evaluate your work yourself," Mikhail Milashin, the cameraman of the film One Hundred Years Ahead, told Izvestia before the ceremony. — There wasn't much freedom, because this picture uses a lot of computer graphics, so many shots were clearly thought out. Paintings with so many graphics always have some limitations. But I think, considering our genre, we managed to find the right visual solution. Probably, the nomination for the "White Square" speaks about this.

Alexander Petrov, who played one of the roles in One Hundred Years Ahead, was one of the first to appear in the walls of the Theater Center On Plyushykha. The actor was to lead the ceremony.

— The operator creates the very world that is written in the script, makes it real, and a lot really depends on it. The audience doesn't think about it — it often takes a lot of effort from the camera crew to shoot a particular shot. Sometimes I'm amazed myself when it's all in difficult circumstances, when everything is collapsing, it's raining, it's cold, and a person spends 12 hours with a camera. It's very hard. And it was he who came up with this plan, found this right angle to make the artist his best version," Alexander Petrov shared with Izvestia.

In addition to films, TV series were presented in one of the contest's nominations. This year, the operators of the Prometheus, Dashing, Children of Change and Highway projects claimed the victory.

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The winners of the XXI White Square Award

Among the many domestic awards in the field of cinema, the White Square highlights a short program — there are four nominations in total. The ceremony was not limited to awarding the winners, which would have taken 10 minutes. The award is devoid of the usual solemnity and officiousness, it looks more like a skit — with jokes for its own, long speeches and musical numbers with rewritten lyrics of hits like "A glass of vodka on the table" by Leps and "Island" by Agutin, only on the subject of the filming process. The start of all this fun extravaganza was given by the call of Alexander Petrov, who seemed to spontaneously jump out of the hall onto the stage. It was as if he had challenged the invisible announcer leading the ceremony.

— Let's turn it off! Natasha, director, I can't do this! Aren't you bored yourself? The voiceover announces… How many times have I wanted to snap at every award and say, "Guys, that's good!"

After this performance and a welcoming speech by Ilya Demin, President of the Guild of Cinematographers of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia, the first award "For contribution to Cinematography" was presented on stage. It was awarded to Yuri Shaygardanov, whose camera captured iconic paintings, including "The Heart of a Dog" and "The Land of the Deaf."

Ilya Averbakh became the winner of the White Square in the nomination "Best Cinematographer of the series" for his work on Prometheus with Philip Yankovsky and Lyubov Aksenova. The plot tells about an ex-employee of the special services and a journalist who are investigating the case of the disappearance of a passenger plane.

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The award had no surprises and almost no politics.

— Thanks to my parents, my grandmother, who was very involved in my formation, and the entire camera crew. Many thanks to my wife, she is here. Thanks to my brother, he always supports me. I wouldn't have been able to do anything if I hadn't had director Maxim Sveshnikov with me, who fit in for me in front of everyone — in front of the producers.… Who else can you fit in there? — the laureate joked from the stage.

The main prize in the nomination "Best Cinematographer of the Year" for his work in a feature film was awarded to Maxim Zhukov with the painting "The Master and Margarita". By the way, he's finishing work on Pinocchio right now. Everything is perfect with the frame there, too: the master is the same.