Films for everyone

What the 30th Minsk International Film Festival Listapad surprised and impressed with

On the wings of vivid impressions and emotions, the festival week just flew by. The recent film forum, which was held under the Cinema with a Quality Mark motto, has predictably grown in scale and surprised with new products: 130 films from 48 countries! Film directors from China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, and Mexico presented their film masterpieces. About 650 film screenings were held in Minsk and the regions, and more than 30,000 spectators attended the events within the film festival.

Minsk hosted the 30th International Film Festival Listapad                    belta
 

Starting opportunities

An opening ceremony matched the beautiful 30th anniversary of the festival: 2,700 spectators watched the original musical and choreographic show in the Great Hall of the Palace of the Republic. The same day marked the beginning of film screenings, which the organisers approached with special passion.
The Belarusian-Russian film Black Castle, based on the novel by Vladimir Korotkevich, opened the programme of the forum. Love and betrayal, treachery and thirst for money, the search for immortality mixed in an intriguing cocktail. The events of ancient times related to the Olshansky family, pages from the history of the Great Patriotic War and modernity are intertwined in the film.
The lively response of the audience was caused not only by the loud premiere, but also by the traditional award ceremony of cinema figures.  
Since its inception, the festival has been held under the patronage of the President; therefore, on behalf of the Head of State, a special prize For Preservation and Development of Spiritual Traditions in Cinema is awarded on the opening day. This year, the award was conferred on Dmitry Kharatyan, People’s Artiste of Russia.

Films won people’s hearts

The Belarusian film forum has given way to more than a dozen famous films that are popular with viewers even today. Olesya Rulkova, Executive Director of the Minsk International Film Festival Listapad, considers that the competent jury deserves credit for this. According to her, at different times, numerous Russian movie hits became the best, “You can hardly find anyone who does not know the films Brother or Voroshilov Sharpshooter. These films received the Grand Prix and became iconic. By the way, the first to receive this award was Nikita Mikhalkov for his documentary Anna: From 6 to 18. Since then, Listapad has been discovering more and more new films, acting as a kind of quality guarantor.” 
Film directors whose works had received awards from other prestigious competitions also presented their films there. Among the internationally recognised films, the audience saw the drama film by Indian director Payal Kapadia All We Imagine as Light, awarded the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The main feature film competition also included the work by Russian film master Bakur Bakuradze Snowflakes in My Yard, which won the prize in the Best Director category at the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival.
The competition of non-fiction films did not disappoint either. The documentaries raise both philosophical and purely mundane topics. Russian film director Oksana Semenova brought to the jury the work Life Little by Little, which narrates the difficult but happy fate of people with disabilities.

Best for children

The programme for the younger audience turned out to be no less intense, starting with a vibrant premiere from Belarusfilm. The animated film Song of Sirin — directed by Yelena Turova — narrates Slavic mythology.  
In total, the young viewers of Listapadzik — the Children and Youth Film competition — were able to see seven children’s films from six countries, the vast majority of them are laureates of reputable international film festivals.

Days with friends

The hallmark of the film forum is the Days of National Cinema. This year, the festival featured a programme of the best films from Russia, China, India, Iran, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Thus, filmmakers from the Celestial Empire participate in the Belarusian film festival annually. “Our countries are interested in strengthening friendship. This interaction has been developing especially actively in recent years. We plan to expand with new projects in the future,” noted Valery Gromada, Belarus’ First Deputy Minister of Culture.
In 2021, China — in liaison with Belarus, Russia and Germany — released the film Persian Lessons, shot in our country. The film took part in several international festivals, made more than $5m at the Chinese box office, which indicates the prospects for further co-operation.

Listapad 2024 gave away prizes

The 30th Minsk International Film Festival confirmed the obvious: the big style of classical European cinema has again lost out to the young energy of Asian and African cinematography this season. Hence, there was no intrigue — the Listapad Gold Grand Prix was awarded to a recently shot film Chang’an, Xi’an by Chinese film director Zhang Zhong. 

Another important award — the Best Actress prize in a feature film — attests to the high standard of Asian cinema at the current Listapad edition. The victory in this nomination was celebrated by Marissa Anita, who brilliantly played in the Indonesian drama titled Crocodile Tears. Notably, Anita is a well-known journalist and reporter in her homeland. Interestingly, after a month-long Crocodile Tears promo tour, she returned to work in the news department at the SEA Today TV channel. 
As for the decisions of the jury members, prizes were given away to absolutely everyone who was able to liven up and refresh the artistic concept of Listapad 2024. The judges of Listapadzik were the first to report on the work done at the festival — the Grand Prix was bestowed upon the Russian film Keep to the Sun by Leonid Kulibaba, the film director from St. Petersburg. It is noteworthy that the opinion of the professional jury this time coincided with the results of the children’s jury voting. 
The Russian film also got the Best Animated Film prize. The heart of the jury, headed by film director, animator Rim Sharafutdinov, was melted by The Brook That Ran Back to The Mountain directed by Aleksandr Khramtsov. 
In the documentary section, the Grand Prix was predictably won by the film The Land of the Rescued Giant by famous Belarusian documentarian Igor Byshnev. The Land of the Rescued Giant is a story about the long and painstaking work to revive the population of Belarusian bison, which were once practically exterminated by man. 
Another documentary by Russian film director Yulia Makarova received the Grand Prix of the National Film Schools competition. Her Bitter Honey about family ties, sense of duty and feelings of loss is a relevant and modern movie, yet the problems it raises are eternal. The film Gandhi and the Grandfather’s Tree directed by Padmavathi Malladi from India, which secured the Grand Prix of the Victor Turov Cinema of the Young Competition, is also about true values. 
The situation in personal nominations unfolded in an interesting way, as well. While the best actress was a representative of Indonesia, the victory in the Best Male Role in a Feature Film nomination belonged to Serbian actor Radivoje Bukvić — the star of the film Guardians of the Formula. 
The jury, led by Chinese filmmaker Lei Han, unanimously recognised Alisher Khamidkhodzhayev, who worked on the film Snowflakes in My Yard, as the best cameraman of Listapad 2024. The Best Director prize, in turn, went to Mikhail Lukachevsky, the author of the poignant Yakut drama Where the White Cranes Dance.

Beyond competition

The special prize of the President of Belarus For Humanism and Spirituality in Cinema was awarded to Russian film director Mikhail Lukachevsky.
Producer and cameraman of the film Where the White Cranes Dance Semyon Amanatov received the honorary award from the hands of Igor Petrishenko, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Minsk International Film Festival Listapad. The Yakut drama about a little boy experiencing the death of his mother was presented in the main feature film competition.

By Olga Nevmerzhitskaya, Yuliana Leonovich