The Moscow International Film Festival is one of the oldest forums for filmmakers, first held back in 1935. According to the established tradition, it lasts ten days at the end of June, and begins and ends with solemn ceremonies. This year, the opening of the next, 34th in a row, the festival took place in Moscow on June 21.
In 2012, the opening ceremony of the Moscow International Film Festival was held in a place other than the traditional venue for this event - the Oktyabr cinema. The organizers were unable to come to an agreement with the new tenant of the cinema, so another capital cinema, Pushkin, was chosen to open and close the festival. The area in front of him is not so big, but the celebrities of Russian and world scale who came to this event were still able to walk the red carpet, shining with outfits and smiles for the press. And at the end of the carpet path everyone was met by Nikita Mikhalkov, the permanent president of the forum for the last twelve years.
The solemn part of the ceremony began with the fact that the audience honored the memory of the Italian screenwriter Tonino Guerra, who left us three months ago. He worked, in particular, on the films of such masters of cinema as Antonioni and Fellini. The opening ceremony also included a speech by Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, who read out a greeting letter from the President of the country to the participants of the MIFF-2012. Then Nikita Mikhalkov invited Hector Babenko, a Brazilian director with Ukrainian roots, who plays the role of chairman of the jury this year, to the stage, and handed him the appropriate symbol - a chain. According to the president of the film festival, it is she who gives the chairman of the jury power over everything that happens at the forum. Then the two main people of the 34th Moscow Film Festival duet announced the MIFF open.
The first presentation of the festival awards took place immediately. The leading actors, Yulia Peresild and Konstantin Lavronenko, invited Tim Burton, an American director who was awarded a special prize "For his contribution to world cinema", to the stage. The award was presented by the American's Italian colleague, director Paolo Taviani.
