The organizing committee of the XXII International Festival of Cinematic Debuts “Spirit of Fire” was chaired by the Governor of Ugra Natalya Komarova. Taking part were the president of the film festival, Serbian film director Emir Kusturica, vice-president of the film festival Maria Zvereva, chairman of the selection committee Pyotr Shepotinnik, and deputy director of the Roscongress Foundation Elena Marinina.
The head of the region said that currently 247 applications from 24 countries have been received for festival competitions, of which 42 are full-length films and more than 200 are short films.
“The application campaign for accepting works for the main nominations of the competition has ended,” recalled Natalya Komarova, “key directions for the formation of business, cultural programs of the film festival, and a communication map have been identified. The festival is a platform for the development of international humanitarian cooperation.”
Pyotr Shepotinnik informed us in more detail about the results of the festival’s application campaign: “We have a varied program, the films received were very different in genre and content. The emphasis is on supporting national cinematography, although there are a lot of requests from foreign authors.”
The draft communication map, including cultural, business and educational programs, a media plan, invitation and advertising campaign, was presented by Elena Marinina, Deputy Director of the Roscongress Foundation. “The festival will showcase cinematic educational programs of the BRICS countries,” the speaker noted. “The festival is included in the program of Russia’s chairmanship of BRICS in 2024, and this will become one of its main accents.”
Please note that a special microfilm competition starts on February 1. Its main theme is “Family Values” - in honor of the Year of the Family, declared by the President of the Russian Federation.
Let us remind you that from March 23 to March 26, 2024, the XXII International Film Debut Festival “Spirit of Fire” will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk, which will traditionally present the best new films by directors from Russia and other countries of the world.
The theme of this year's festival is “The Special Language of National Cinematography.” The cultural program “Spirit of Fire” was prepared with the assistance of the general partner - the Gazprom Neft company. The communication partner of the film festival is the Roscongress Foundation.
