The International Federation of Film Producers' Associations FIAPF is the organization that maintains an official register of film festivals that meet the highest requirements of the festival movement. This elite list now includes 14 fiction film contests, including the only forum of this kind representing Russia - the Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF).
In the list of festivals of the highest category, the Moscow International Film Festival is one of the oldest. Only the Venice Film Forum was held 3 years earlier - in 1932. The very first Moscow competition was organized with the personal support of Stalin, and the very first film in his history was "Chapaev". However, this was a one-time event, which became regular only 14 years later - since 1959, the MIFF has been held every two years. Since 1999, the festival has been organized annually, and since the same moment in the history of the forum it has been directed by the President of the Film Festival Nikita Makhalkov, perhaps the most famous director in the world living in Russia.
The main program of the film festival in recent years includes at least 12 films, which are evaluated by the "Grand Jury" of invited Russian and world celebrities in the field of cinema. They determine the winners in five main nominations, which are awarded the main prizes of the Moscow International Film Festival - statuettes "St. George". Sergei Bondarchuk became the owner of the main award of the Moscow Film Festival with serial number 1 (1959) - this is how his painting "The Fate of a Man" was noted. And the winner of the last of the completed (33rd) competition is the Spanish filmmaker Alberto Morias - his film Las Olas won the main program.
This summer, the next, 34th Moscow Film Festival is being held, which was opened on June 21 with the screening of the feature film "Duhless", shot by Roman Prygunov based on the story of Sergei Minaev "Duxless. A Story of a Fake Man. " The closing picture of the festival will be the film Les bien-aimes by French director Christophe Honore. In total, the main program includes 17 feature films, and besides it there is also a separate competition "Perspectives", composed of 13 films, a program of short films (9 participants) and documentaries (7 films) films. Screening of non-competitive films, divided into 22 categories, is also planned. This year's MIFF is due to end on June 30th.
