What will be remembered XXXII Minsk International Film Festival "Listapad"

The XXXII Minsk International Film Festival Listapad is officially over, but the aftertaste of the eventful film week will remain for a long time. Solemn, colorful, surprising to the depths of the soul: for everyone this creative forum is their own. The current MIFF pleased viewers and filmmakers with good cinema, rich creative meetings and bright artistic discoveries.

A loud victory of the Grand Prix "Gold Listapad" for the best feature film received the film "Father Minai. Partisan legend". This is one of the main events of the forum. She was also awarded a special prize of the CIS Executive Committee “Cinema without Borders” for her contribution to the development of cultural cooperation, strengthening friendship between peoples and preserving historical memory.

For the production of the picture, the National Film Studio Belarusfilm and the Russian Voenfilm combined their efforts. A film about the history of the Hero of the Soviet Union Belarusian partisan Minai Shmyrev. The director of the picture is the People’s Artist of Russia Igor Ugolnikov, who participated in the creation of the bestsellers “In August of the 44th ...” and “Brest Fortress”. Father Minai in the new film was played by people’s artist of Russia Alexei Kravchenko, many years ago, played the main role in the military drama “Go and see”.

Igor Ugolnikov shared his emotions from the award: It is always nice when your work is highly appreciated. The film will be released in the 20s of February 2027. We will make an official premiere in Belarus. I was pleasantly impressed by the reaction of the audience at the opening ceremony of Listapad. With the final credits was followed by a storm of applause. I was told they lasted 20 minutes. The winner of the main competition of non-fiction films is the Mountain of Languages directed by Rodion Ismailov (Russia, Azerbaijan). The best animated film of the main competition was recognized as “Three Sisters” by director Konstantin Bronzit (Israel, Cyprus). In the film competition “Cinema of the Young” won the German film “Supernova Gropiusstadt” directed by Ben Voight. The triumphant short film competition is the Iranian film “The Japanese” by Panah Alwani. In the competition of national film schools, the leader was the Russian film Code directed by Anton Nemov. In the national competition, the best non-fiction film was recognized as the work of Belarusian director Igor Byshnev “Polessky Reserve”. Life after Chernobyl”.

The Prize of the President of Belarus “For Humanism and Spirituality in Cinema” at the XXXII Minsk International Film Festival “Listapad” was awarded to Aung Myat from Myanmar, the director of the film “That Child”. The award was presented to the director by Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Film Festival Natalia Petkevich. Aung Myat shared his emotions:

- Very happy to appreciate my creativity. To make a film, I've had the courage for many years, but I've managed to create a story that touches hearts. I am grateful to the President of Belarus, the organizers of the film festival and all my team who took part in the filming. Today is a special day for me and will definitely be remembered for a lifetime.

- For 32 years, the film festival “Listapad” has experienced a variety of periods. When it was created, everything was very powerful, traditional, beautiful. This year it broke records for the number of participating countries, but we must remember that we are not chasing the quantity, but the quality of the film. I think it is necessary to strengthen the film industry, to educate personnel for professional, powerful and wise Belarusian cinema. The General Director of Belarusfilm Dmitry Semenov thanked for the work of the program directors and jury members of the festival:

- The program was very rich and diverse. Everywhere there were full rooms, which makes us very happy as organizers. This suggests that there is interest in the festival from both participants and spectators.

Chairman of the festival, Chairman of the jury of the main competition of feature films People's Artist of Belarus Alexander Efremov saw the commonality of all the works presented in his competition program:

- My colleagues and I on the jury worked with pleasure. My main impression is that all the paintings spoke of our cultural, spiritual and family values. We saw that we live in a common worldview field. These directors are doing what we are doing in Belarus today: preserving our own identity and ideas about what should be and remain in the modern world. That's the most valuable thing.

Representatives of distribution organizations note that this year the audience came to the films of all competition programs. In total, about 10 thousand spectators attended the festival sessions and 82 shows were organized. Some of the films that were presented at the festival will later be released widely.

pepel@sb.by