Another Russian fiction film festival "Kinotavr", already the 23rd in a row, was held from 3 to 10 June 2012 in the Russian city of Sochi. Compared to the last festival, this one turned out to be more large-scale.
The main competition program consisted of films "The Convoy" by Alexei Mezgirev, "To Live" by Vasily Sigarev, "Until the Night Separates" by Boris Khlebnikov, "Atonement" by Alexander Proshkin, "Kokoko" by Avdotya Smirnova, "Stories" by Mikhail Segal, "I Will Be Near" Pavel Ruminov, “This is what is happening to me” by Viktor Shamirov, “Empty House” by Nurbek Egen.
The rest of the films of the main competition program: "Daughter" by Natalia Nazarova and Alexander Kasatkin, "The White Moor or Three Stories about My Neighbors" by Dmitry Fix, "Teacher's Day" by Sergei Makritsky, "Two Marxes" by Svetlana Baskova, "I Don't Love You" by Alexander Rastorguev and Pavel Kostomarov.
In the competition “Kinotavr. Short Film "20 films were presented. Here are some of them: "The Author's Method" by Ivan Shakhnazarov, "Victory Day" by Igor Grinyakin, "The Legend of Eugene and Us" by Anton Bilzho, "Characters" by Rumi Shoazimov, "The Curse" by Zhora Kryzhovnikov, "The Connection of Things" by Maxim Zykov.
Within the framework of the festival, retrospective paintings by Karen Shakhnazarov were also shown. This year, by the way, he received a prize from Kinotavr "For his contribution to the Russian cinema and film industry."
The opening ceremony of the film festival was traditionally held near the Winter Theater. Russian and foreign stars and other guests of Kinotavr 2012 walked along the blue carpet, meeting fans. On this day, as part of the competition program, Boris Khlebnikov's film "Until the night does part" was shown. But the closing film was "Steel Butterfly" by Renata Davletyarov. The closing ceremony was held on June 10, all in the same place - in the Winter Theater.
Sitora Aliyeva, executive director of the film festival, said that more applications were submitted for the preliminary selection this year than last. For comparison - in 2012, 65 full-length films were watched, as well as 268 short films, while in 2011 there were 64 and 255 applications, respectively.
It is also worth noting that Vladimir Khotinenko, a Russian director, has become the chairman of the Kinotavr 2012 jury. In addition to him, the jury included actress and director Vera Glagoleva, directors Bakur Bakuradze, Anna Melikyan, Alexander Kott, Nikolai Khomeriki and Alexey Fedorchenko.
