MIFF 2015 Programme Announced
Still a young part of the MIFF, Moscow International Film Festival, the documentary programme of the upcoming 37th festival (June 19-26) has been announced. Good friend and documentary addicted promoter Georgy (”Gosha”) Molodtsov tells me that the “Free thought” programme is launched for the 10th time this year, the competition for the 5th. I was there for the jury the first year and enjoyed the hospitality of Sergey Miroshnichenko and Grigory Libergal and their team, including Mr. and Mrs, Molodtsov (Zhenya).
The competition programme includes American Matthew Heinaman’s “Cartel Land”, “The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson” by Julien Temple, UK, “Racing Extinction” (USA) by Louise Psihoyos, the only one I have seen: “The Visit”, again a fine essay by Danish Michael Madsen, “A Young Patriot” by Chinese Haibin Du, one more American “The Nightmare” by Rodney Ascher – and Russian “Larisa’s Crew” by Helena Lascari.
And in the “Free Thought” category that includes already awarded
films from other festivals the Moscow audience is well treated with 12 strong works like “Citizenfour”, “The Look of Silence”, “Of Men and War” and “Dreamcatcher”.
Back to Georgy Molodtsov, whose enthusiasm and love of statistics are present in this proud praise of “Free Thought”: Documentary program “Free Thought” was created in 2006 and represents the winners of the most prestigious awards and film festivals around the world, as well as a panorama of different genres, geographic spread and most crucial and urgent issues. During all this time there have been shown more than 150 films, among which 6 winners of the Academy Award, more than 60 winners of the Sundance Film Festival, more than 10 winners of one of the most prestigious festival of documentary films, IDFA in Amsterdam, as well as documentaries that were shown in Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Leipzig, Toronto and many other places. More than 70% of films had more than one prize or award. Analysis of the Audience Award, that was introduced in 2008, shows that more than 40% of the films have a rating of 4.5 out of 5, more than 90% – higher than 4. This shows the great success of the films and the constant interest of the audience that increases each year.”