The open Russian film festival of the author's cinema "Winter" announced the composition of the jury

The fourth Open Russian Film Festival of author's cinema "Winter", which will be held in Moscow from December 1-7, 2025, represents the jury of this year. The jury included leading representatives of the film industry, including directors, actors, film critics and producers, which will allow combining a variety of professional points of view when evaluating competitive works.

This year's jury will be chaired by director Alexander Veledinsky, and the jury also includes director Yuri Bykov, actress Ekaterina Vilkova, actor Denis Vlasenko, producer Julia Mishkinene, and journalist Ivan Kudryavtsev.

As Maxim Korolev, the general producer of the festival, notes, it is important that this year there are two directors on the jury at once, and this may be an interesting decision. "We usually form a jury with one representative of each profession, but now we decided to act a little differently. We will have two opinions and two types of strong directorial approaches at once — it will be interesting to assess how this will affect the jury's decisions."

"I'm really interested in seeing how modern auteur cinema lives," says Alexander Veledinsky, chairman of the jury. — To see what topics directors are concerned about today, what visual solutions they choose, and how the language of cinema is changing. Auteur cinema is always moving forward, paving the way for the entire film process, and evaluating this time slice is a special opportunity," says director Alexander Veledinsky.

The Winter Open Russian Auteur Film Festival is held with the aim of increasing the prestige of Russian cinema, promoting auteur films, summarizing the results of the film season and promoting the development of the film distribution system in Russia. Natalia Mokritskaya is the program Director of the festival. Maxim Korolev is the general producer of the festival.

The objectives of the festival include restoring the audience's interest in auteur cinema, supporting the creative search for a new film language, developing young talents and strengthening the authority of Russian cinema.

According to the management of the festival, in 2024, "Winter" was attended by more than 11 thousand spectators for all days. The main award last year was given to the film "Operation Cold". The film's director Danil Ivanov was named the best director, and Anton Kuznetsov was named the best actor.