The St. Petersburg International Film Festival, now in its second year and run as part of the International Cinema Forum, is set to begin on Friday and run through Sept. 22. Screenings will be shown across four theatres including the Aurora, Dom Kino, Rodina and Angleterre cinemas, and will include films by world-class filmmakers alongside the debut films of lesser-known new directors. Prizes for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress will all be awarded by a jury that includes filmmakers Juris Poshkus and Christoph Schaub, the head of Tribeca Film Festival Geoffrey Gilmore and Director of the European Film Academy Marion Döring. The jury will be led this year by Sergei Bodrov, whose has had two of his films nominated for Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category by America’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A fifth category — the People’s Choice Award — will be awarded based on votes made throughout the festival by the public. In addition to the competition program, the festival consists of 16 non-competing films that cover a wide assortment of topics. Films about soccer are brought together in the 22 Frames program, while movies from Georgia will be screened as part of the New Old Friends program. Films from Asia, the Nordic countries and the Netherlands are all also grouped into different sections. The opening act of the film festival will be “Jobs,” American director Joshua Michael Stern’s biopic of Steve Jobs, starring Ashton Kutcher in the title role. The film tells the legendary and tumultuous tale of Jobs as he carved a path that changed technology — and the world — forever and will be shown at a private gala opening. The only Russian film to be presented as part of the competition is “Kicking Off,” a traumatic look at a group of soccer hooligans that is also based on real events. The films in competition will be vying for a statuette of a golden angel on a pedestal, the symbol of the festival. One of the featured guests at this year’s festival is American director Oliver Stone, who will present a program of his films. Known for his controversial versions of recent American history, some of them at deep odds with conventional myth, the festival will screen his latest film “Savages” alongside his documentary “Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States,” “JFK,” and “Alexander: The Ultimate Cut.” One of the most anticipated special programs, “Pikirovka,” will also involve audience involvement. Russian TV presenters will join the audience in an open discussion following seven of the films shown at the festival. The second year of the film festival shows how much change has taken place since the first year. There are more films with a larger geographic range, movies for children, and free concert of film music to be held at Manezh Square. The St. Petersburg International Film Festival runs from Sept. 13 to 22 at different locations around St Petersburg. More information can be found at – festival-spb.ru.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 06:16:43 +0000
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