“Spirit of Fire” Announces Participants and Jury for the Debut – Short Film Program

The XХIV International Debut Film Festival “Spirit of Fire”, which will take place in Khanty-Mansiysk from March 12 to 16, has announced the participants and jury members for the Debut – Short Film competition program.

This year, the short film program brings together 18 films. The selection spans various genres and tones—from mystical fairy tales, psychological dramas, and coming-of-age stories to dark comedies and auteur genre experiments. The competition features both debut works and films by directors who have already gained recognition at other festivals. The stories explore themes of growing up, family, memory, love, fear, guilt, and the search for self.

Participants in the Debut – Short Film Competition:

• UKKO — directed by Arina Mado

• St Barbara — directed by Polina Kapantina

• Once an Old Fairy Tale — directed by Nikita Lychev

• Chiakokonoba — directed by Anton Veretennikov

• Milky Girl — directed by Olga Dobromyslova

• Our Year — directed by Nikolai Kovalenko

• Nunya — directed by Anna Aoun

• Omnivore — directed by Daria Garonika

• A Song for the Young Voice — directed by Maya Giter

• The Last One — directed by Sofia Kosazhevskaia

• Birdy — directed by Anastasia Romanyuk

• Emptiness — directed by Elena Zavodnova

• Empty Places — directed by Aleksei Chamin

• S-G-D-P — directed by Vlad Shkurenko

• Nina’s Dreams — directed by Diana Belova

• Vulnerability — directed by Ekaterina Chopenko

• Happy End — directed by Tasya Lapshina

• Julia for Vitya — directed by Makar Khlebnikov

The jury for the program includes director and screenwriter Zaka Abdrakhmanova, film scholar, editor, and producer, and program director of the ‘Gorky Fest’ and ‘Window to Europe’ film festivals Andrei Apostolov, as well as theater and film actress Sofia Lebedeva.

The Spirit of Fire festival is a leading debut film festival in Russia and abroad, and one of the main platforms for young filmmakers. It was founded in 2002 by People’s Artist of the Russian Federation and film director Sergey Solovyov, who served as the festival’s president for nearly twenty years. Since 2023, the festival’s president has been the internationally renowned director Emir Kusturica.

The Spirit of Fire festival is held with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. 

Since its inception, the festival has also received consistent support from the Government of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra. 

Since 2007, the festival has been supported by Gazprom Neft, which acts as a co-organizer of the festival and its cultural and educational program, and presents the award for Best Russian Film in the category ‘For the Preservation of Cultural Traditions’.

The festival’s communications partner is the Roscongress Foundation.