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Russia - Golden Eagle-2022: young directors against recognized masters, arthouse against blockbuster and Netflix, technology against realism

Russia (bbabo.net), - On January 28, the 20th Golden Eagle Russian National Film Awards will take place. Film expert, founder and editor-in-chief of KinoReporter magazine Maria Lemesheva believes that the main film award is not only an intriguing and unpredictable competition, but also a magic mirror that reflects without distortion all the trends of the past year in the domestic film industry.

The historical adventure drama Silver Skates (dir. Mikhail Lokshin), presented in 12 categories, became the favorite of the Golden Eagle 2022. The large-scale disaster film by Alexei Nuzhny "Fire" has eight nominations, seven each - for the festival thriller "Captain Volkonogov Escaped" by Natalia Merkulova and Alexei Chupov and the adaptation of the story by Alexander Solzhenitsyn from the classic of Russian cinema Gleb Panfilov "Ivan Denisovich".

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Diversity of nominees and export trend

Five films are competing for the main statuette in the Best Film nomination: Ivan Denisovich, Captain Volkonogov Escaped, Fire, Silver Skates and a joint Russian-Belarusian -German historical drama "Farsi Lessons" directed by Vadim Perelman.

According to Maria Lemesheva, among the contenders for the Golden Eagle 2022 are films by both young and eminent directors belonging to various genres and sectors of the film industry: “Such a variety has not been observed for several years. Honored Master of Soviet and Russian Cinema Gleb Panfilov and the experienced Vadim Perelman, whose film "Farsi Lessons" became the highest-grossing domestic project in the global box office in 2021, compete with young directors Natalia Merkulova and Alexei Chupov, who took part in the main competition of the Venice Film Festival, as well as with the rising star of the director's workshop Alexei Nuzhny. His blockbuster "Fire" grossed 912.6 million rubles at the domestic box office and was sold to foreign streaming platforms.But, of course, the main "eagle hunter" this year will be the most watched Russian feature film on Netflix in 2021 "Silver Skates" The picture of the debutant Mikhail Lokshin soared to fifth place in the global rating of the service.

Maria Lemesheva added that one of the trends in Russian cinema last year - focusing not only on the domestic audience, but also on export - is reflected in the fight for the Golden Eagle-2022. All the main contenders have received recognition abroad - this applies to festivals, film distribution and digital distribution on streaming. The French company Memento International, which specializes in the promotion of festival films, has bought the rights to international distribution of "Captain Volkonogov". In addition, Merkulova and Chupov were appointed directors of the series "Anna K." based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy, the first original Netflix project filmed in our country. And at the prestigious international film festival in Locarno, Switzerland, the drama "Ivan Denisovich" was awarded the Boccalino d'Oro award by independent film critics. This award for the leading role was received by the actor Filipp Yankovsky, who also this year claims the Golden Eagle in the Best Actor in a Film category.

A new category for streaming and Russian film technologies

The expansion of the video streaming market is another trend in 2021. The rapid growth of this sector of the film industry began in 2019, and since then, the pace has only increased every year. That is why the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Russia this year for the first time introduced the nomination "Best Series of Online Platforms". In this category, Vampires of the Middle Band of the START streaming service and two projects of the KION online cinema: Vertinsky and My Mom's Penguins will compete for the statuette.

In the nomination "Best Visual Effects" three films are presented, the creators of which used unique Russian solutions. The fairy-tale comedy The Little Humpbacked Horse was filmed using ViewGA augmented reality technology. It allows the filmmakers to see the final frame with CGI and actors right on the set and immediately eliminate errors. This approach eliminates post-production costs and saves production time. The creators of the disaster film "Fire" went the other way: they minimized the use of computer graphics, recreated a forest of cut trees in a huge pavilion and really burned it.

But the third nominee, the drama "Silver Skates", was unlucky with the weather during filming. Due to the warm winter, the rivers and canals of St. Petersburg had to be reinforced with floorings with a colored substrate, which were filled with ice from above in order to remove backgrounds and "nature". Then the graphic specialists combined pavilion shooting with them. Thus, on the screen, mass scenes of skating are imperceptibly transferred to St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century.

Adaptation of Soviet traditions

According to Maria Lemesheva, "Golden Eagle 2022" clearly demonstrates the continuity of generations in Russian cinema: "Soviet traditions are reflected in modern film production. For example," Fire "is a large-scale drama in the spirit of "The Crew" by Alexander Mitta with a spectacular picture without graphics. And the basis of the "Silver Skates" is an adapted plot from the novel by the American writer Mary Mapes Dodge. We remember how they knew how to do it in Soviet cinema: "Mary Poppins, goodbye!", " The Snow Queen", "The Tale of the Star Boy", "Mio, My Mio" - all these films had a foreign literary basis.

The 20th award ceremony will take place in the first pavilion of the Mosfilm film concern. For the award, domestic films were considered for the first time publicly shown in Russia from December 1, 2020 to November 30, 2021, as well as television films and series, the first screening of which took place from December 1, 2020 to November 30, 2021, including films and series online platforms.

"Golden Eagle" is the national film award of Russia, which has been awarded since 2002. The award was established by the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Russia. The selection by nominations is carried out by members of the Expert Council. The prize is awarded based on the voting results of full members and corresponding members of the Academy.

Russia - Golden Eagle-2022: young directors against recognized masters, arthouse against blockbuster and Netflix, technology against realism