The closing ceremony of the XXI International Debut Film Festival «The Spirit of Fire» took place in the concert and theatre centre «Yugra-Classic» on March 6.
Amoung celebrities walking on the red carper were Pavel Lungin, Anna Mikhalkova, Alexey Mizgirev, Elena Panova, Anton Megirdichev, Svetlana Kamynina, Lyanka Gryu, Leonid Kanevsky, Elena Nikolaeva, Ksenia Surkova, Pavel Barshak, the singer Artyom Kid and participants of Russian and international competition programs, out of competition screenings and business program.
The closing ceremony was hosted by Anna Snatkina, a Russian theatre and film actress, winner of state awards and the Golden Knight award, and Viktor Vasiliev, a Russian actor and TV presenter.
«When Cinema Dances» was the crosscutting theme of the closing ceremony, with the stage space meeting the frame space through the interaction of different arts: choreography, film, music, visual arts and 3D technologies.
The ceremony started with guests and participants watching a video about the busy four days of the festival and what they included – a most interesting competition program of Russian and international debut films, out-of-competition screenings that played to full house, and a cultural program.
An ambitious business program was this year’s addition to the festival. It was organised by the festival’s communications partner, the Roscongress Foundation. It included 5 business sessions and 2 film dialogues, 45 speakers, more than 250 viewers, and 2.4 million views on the festival’s channel in the VKontakte social network.
Ethnocultural diversity and industries meeting points were topics of discussion with filmmakers from India, the official guest country of the XXI Spirit of Fire Festival. This year, the festival organizers set a goal to «build a bridge» between Russian and Indian filmmakers with a veiw of developing cooperation between the two countries and stimulating the emergence of new exciting joint projects.
The film consultant and intercultural cooperation expert Vikramjit Roy and Nitin Tej Ahuja, the Executive Director of the Producers Guild of India, highly praised the outcomes of the festival and the cooperation achieved.
After the award ceremony Natalia Komarova, the Governor of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District – Yugra, took the stage. Together with Maria Zvereva, they, as custom has it, operated a clapperboard and declared the XXI International Debut Film Festival «Spirit of Fire» closed.
The festival ended with the screening of «Black Cat, White Cat» by Emir Kusturica, the president of the «Spirit of Fire» International Debut Film Festival.
