The 4th Open Film Festival of the author's cinema "Winter" summed up the results

On December 7, the 4th Open Russian Film Festival of author's cinema "Winter" ended at the capital's Khudozhestvenny Cinema. The screening traditionally ends the festival year, sums up the results of the outgoing film season, reveals new names and trends in auteur cinema, showcasing the most striking works and celebrating the achievements of directors, actors and the entire film crew.

The founders of the Winter Festival are the Alliance Film Company and the Russian Cultural Foundation. The film festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

Maxim Korolev, Natalia Mokritskaya, Olga Zhuravleva, Nadezhda Koroleva, Ekaterina Vilkova, Denis Vlasenko, Yuri Bykov, Daria Povennova, Anna Churina, Sabina Akhmetova, Alla Sigalova, Polina Lazareva, Stasia Tolstaya, Maria Matzel, Evgenia Leonova, Alexey Rozin, Svetlana Stepankovskaya, Stella Ilyinskaya, Olga Galaktionova, Alexandra Vlasova, Ilya Noskov, Karina Kagramanyan, Anna Yeshchenko, Ksenia Surkova, Nikita Bureev, Stepan Letkovsky, Maria Koshina, Daria Otroshko, Alexandra Morozova, Anna Legchilova, Maria Lisovaya, Valeria Shkirando, Galina Strizhevskaya, Victoria Shishkova, Angelika Strubailo, Tatiana Dolzhenko and others.

The closing ceremony was hosted by actress and director Stasia Tolstaya, actress Evgenia Leonova and actress and musician Maria Matzel. The musical part of the ceremony was decorated with performances by Maria Matzel and the GRATA project — Rodion Averyanov, Yaroslav Medvedev and Illarion Marov, who created the atmosphere of a festive finale of the screening.

In just 7 days, the festival was attended by more than 12,000 spectators. More than 840 participants were accredited — representatives of the film industry, the media and guests of the festival. The events were held at 3 venues. The program included 28 events: screenings of 8 competitive and 11 out-of-competition films, 6 sessions as part of the business program, as well as a film market for original films. Special attention was paid at the festival to the anniversary of Nikita Sergeevich Mikhalkov, whose film retrospective was held at the Illusion. This year also marked the 50th anniversary of the film "Slave of Love", one of the most significant Russian author's films about cinema.

The presenters noted that the fourth "Winter" was a festival about choice: choosing a seat in the hall, choosing a film in the program, choosing the program itself in the catalog, choosing the program director, producer, author — and, finally, choosing the jury.

The first award was given in a special nomination from the festival's partner, the social network VKontakte. The prize was presented by Maxim Korolev, the general producer of the festival, and Andrey Apostolov, the curator of the Auteur Cinema Market, who once again emphasized that distributors should not be afraid of auteur films — if they are stylish and talented, there will always be viewers. Especially if such a picture has serious support from a social network.

A special prize from VKontakte was awarded to a participant in the Film Market — the film "The Smartest Street in the World" directed by Ivan Vdovin.

"For me, this is a story about dreamers. I think that many people do not know about Akademgorodok and have not heard about it, both in Russia and abroad. When I got acquainted with this phenomenon, I realized how important and unique this phenomenon is, which I want to tell the whole world about. And this film, on the one hand, is a dialogue, on the other hand, it is a dramatic story of people who believe in their idea, believe in their dream, and eventually achieve their goals in one form or another. This is very important for us," he said.

Next, it's time to award the winners of the competition program. The prize for the "Best Female Role" was awarded by Denis Vlasenko, noting that the jury made this decision unanimously and without controversy. Masha Koshina became the winner for her role in the film "Cold Heart" by Vladimir Kott. She thanked the entire crew and said that she was very worried and generally shocked by the award.

Anton Gromov, the cinematographer of the film "Navar", became the winner in the "Best Visual Solution" nomination. This was announced by Julia Mishkinene, a member of the jury, stressing that this decision was also unanimous.

The following were awarded the prize for the "Best Screenplay". It is noteworthy that 7 out of 8 scripts were written by the directors of the competition program – personally or in collaboration. Ivan Kudryavtsev, a member of the jury, announced that Vladimir Golovnev and Evgeny Grigoriev received the prize for the film "Scurvy".

Jury member Yuri Bykov unusually presented the nomination "Best Director" by reading an excerpt from "Eugene Onegin" by A.S. Pushkin. The winner was Savely Osadchy with the film "Bird Boy". The director admitted that the award is a kind of advance for him, and hopes that his next work will only be better.

​​"These festival days have passed incredibly quickly. I would like to thank our partners and the team — without their support, this holiday would not have been possible. I am especially pleased that the competition screenings gathered full halls, and we had to open the second and third halls additionally, if there had been a fourth, we would have opened it as well. And four films have already found distributors on the film market — this is the real contribution of the festival to the industry. Today I am really happy," Maxim Korolev, the general producer of the festival, shared his impressions.

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.