The largest forum of short films in Russia, the OPEN CINEMA Film Festival kicks off its annual event from July 27th through August 3rd.Held on a beautiful beach on the Neva river at the Peter and Paul fortress, its the only open-air film festival in Russia. This year's festival program includes 83 films from around the world, 22 of which are by Russian directors. This is both exciting and hopeful, as the Russian film industry is trying hard to expand.

OPEN CINEMA also functions as an art-house festival who brings together music, theatre, street performances, fashion shows, art exhibitions, video installations, etc. The festival believes that the union of all these forms of art will act as inspiration for filmmakers to create high quality and more innovative films.

On Sunday, July 29th, the festival will be hosting a special screening for ÉCU - The European Independent Film Festival. Five of our award-winning films from our recent 2012 festival will be shown: Berlinoises by Rocco Labbé (France), A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation by Martin Wallner and Stefan Leuchtenberg (Germany), Mariaby Elmar Freels (Germany) , The Return by Blerta Zeqiri (Kosoro), and Zoltan: The Hungarian Gangster of Love by Justin Reardon (USA).

 

Helene Isham