2019 Kazan Film Festival: almost six months earlier but without main star
This time the film festival will be in April
The Kazan International Muslim Film Festival will be in spring this time – from 24 to 30 April. Realnoe Vremya explains the cause of the rearrangement, where the festival's films will be shown and whom citizens of Kazan should expect to see.
KazanSummit is the case
At a press conference on 1 April, Director of Tatarfilm and simultaneously Executive Director of the Kazan Film Festival Milyausha Aytuganova gave a detailed explanation why the film festival traditionally held in Kazan in September would be in April in 2019.
''We will hold the 15 th jubilee film festival within KazanSummit, it's when it is hosted in Kazan. Why was such a decision made? The International Muslim Film Festival must reach an international level, we should do it actively, aggressively, I'd say. All the guests who come to the international economic forum might want to present films of their countries at the film festival, further cooperation with the film festival and co-produce with Tatarstan,'' Aytuganova explained.
According to her, many countries see Tatarstan as a partner in the creation of joint products. Our festival programme has traditionally had a lot of co-production in the last years – films created in partnership with Islamic and European countries. That's to say, the world tendency for cooperation is plain to see.
''The International Muslim Film Festival must reach an international level, we should do it actively, aggressively, I'd say.'' Photo: Maksim Platonov
Without star
The festival's opening ceremony will be in the G. Kamal Tatarstan State Academy Theatre, the closing ceremony will be at The Hermitage club. The main presentations will be in Riviera cinema halls and in Mir cinema. The same Moscow team will make the opening and closing ceremonies like last year, it won the tender.
Journalists asked a question: ''Will the slips in last year's ceremonies be taken into account?'' It should be reminded that last year the main complaints were about too long ceremonies. Aytuganova calmed them down – they will try to hold the opening and closing ceremonies within sensible periods of time.
As for the main invited star, there won't be any this year. Aytuganova gave to understand that a star was expensive. As for actors invited to the festival, the public will see Larisa Udovichenko, Svetlana Nemolyayeva, Oleg Taktarov, Boris Grachevsky and others. Yulia Rutberg has been invited to host the ceremony. Andrey Merzlikin is planned to close the festival.
Apart from the festival films, one will be able to see retrospectives of films at the festival. This year retrospectives of films made by Stanislav Govorukhin, Eldar Ryazanov and the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography – the main cinematographic institute celebrates a jubilee this year – will be shown.
The selection committee headed by Sergey Lavrentyev has completed the job having chosen 10 films for each nomination. The nomination National Cinema includes 15 works, 38 works of Tatarstan cinematographers were presented.
By the way, the Tatarstan film Baygal directed by Ildar Yagafarov will represent Tatarstan in Best Full-Length Film. Salavat Yuzeyev's film about Shigabutdin Mardzhani will represent the republic in Best Documentary. The Tatarstan film Overtime will compete in Short-Length Live Action Film.
Our specifics
This year all jury chairmen of all times will be invited to the film festival due to its jubilee. Karen Shakhnazarov, Vadim Abdrashitov, Nikolay Dostal, Rustam Ibragimbekov, Bolot Shamshiyev and others have already confirmed their consent to come.
One of the differences of the jubilee festival is that its programme includes a big business component. There will be a business site with a discussion of both business components and cinematographic education. These two big events will be in Kazan Expo and in Manezh hall in the Kremlin. Manezh will also host a big photo exhibition dedicated to the 15 th anniversary of the Kazan film festival – it's a kind of photo chronicle.
International pitching will be one of the key events at the current film festival held at the business summit. There is great interest in pitching, many countries have already applied for it. Young Tatarstan film directors will also present their projects among others. The pitching will be in Kazan Expo on 25 April.
Like previously, all films at the festival will be shown free for spectators. As for its date, the 2020 Kazan Film Festival will be in September as usual.