Russian-British Sochi International Film Festival and Awards IRIDA

The VI Russian-British Sochi International Film Festival and Film Awards "IRIDA" will be held from 5 to 9 November 2021 in the Olympic Park and at other locations in Sochi. 

 It is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the administration of the City of Sochi, the Russian Embassy in Great Britain, Senator Arsen Kanokov, the Radisson Collection, Intis Telecom, КОММЕРСАНТЪ UK and the Antropov Foundation.

The programme director of the film festival Nina Kochelyaeva said:

- About 600 applications from Russian and foreign filmmakers were submitted to the festival. The selection committee chose 12 feature films, 9 short films and 7 documentaries for the competition.  They came from all over the world, from Russia, Great Britain, USA, Kazakhstan, India, Iraq, Israel, Abkhazia, South Korea, China, France, Australia, Turkey ...

The president of the film festival LubaBalagova said:

- The focus of the festival this year is, on the one hand, on the debut film. In the programme of the main competition, two-thirds of the films are debut films. The second focus is regional diversity.  

Films in the competitive and non-competitive programmes represent a variety of provincial areas in both Russia (Republic of Yakutia, Republic of Ingushetia, Krasnodar Territory, Yaroslavl, Voronezh and Leningrad regions ...), and in foreign countries (Kurdish Iraq, Assam province in India, Abkhazia …).

The Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria was put on the world cinematic map as a special location by Alexander Sokurov. It continues to delight the film festival with new achievements. The opening film will be a film by artist Ruslan Tsrym and director TamerlanVasiliev "Sounds of the Circassian (Adyghe) Language and Transformation of Malevich Square", on the inter-relation of the culture of the peoples of the North Caucasus in visual art and music.

The festival supports women directors, especially those making their film debut. It supports films from the North Caucasus Federal District.   It also supports the younger generation, for whom there are two special programmes: “SIFFA for Children”; and “VGIK Animation. A Workshop by Alexei Dyomin ", presenting graduate diploma work from the animation faculty of VGIK.

LubaBalagova said:

- I am pleased that our festival is getting younger. Students are showing interest in us. And we actively invite them, with special conditions and programmes. We are a film festival that brings together young people, opening up new horizons and new perspectives to young viewers.

The program of special screenings this year includes the film "Demons" by Vladimir Khotinenko,  to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of F.M. Dostoevsky.

A creative evening will be dedicated to the memory of Vladimir Menshov, with a screening of his first directorial work "On the Question of Dialectics of Art, or Lost Dreams."

There will be a special screening in memory of the late Kirill Razlogov, who was the art director of SIFFA, a film expert and a culturologist.  This will be the film "Kirill’s 75th 'Birthday Party", a light-hearted sketch, a declaration of love from colleagues to the master who was preparing to celebrate his 75th birthday.

The jury of the competition programmes brings together specialists from different countries: Russia (including representatives of the North Caucasus regions), Great Britain, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Canada.

The jury of the main competition will be headed by the actress, Honoured Artist of the RSFSR, Natalya Bondarchuk.  Famous British actress Frances Barber (UK) will be co-chair. Honorary member of the jury - director, producer, writer MohiKandour (Great Britain).

The jury also includes actress and singer Alena Khmelnitskaya (Russia), producers Alexander Litvinov (Russia) and Marat Akhmedzhanov (Great Britain - Kazakhstan).

The jury of the documentary film competition will be chaired by film expert and film critic, member of FIPRESCI Gulbara Tolomushova (Kyrgyzstan).  Documentary jury members are Russian directors, documentary filmmaker Elena Demidova, and creator of popular science films Vladimir Marin.

The jury of the short films competition programme will include director Beslan Terekbaev (Russia, Chechen Republic) and producer Dmitry Yakunin (Russia). The jury will be headed by Elena Razlogova (Canada - Russia), a film expert, professor at Concordia University in Montreal.

The extensive program of the film festival includes business platform events, master classes by prominent filmmakers from Russia and Great Britain, round tables, and creative meetings. For the first time, a project in production will be presented at the festival.  It is a documentary film "Us" by young directors Yekaterina Kostanyan and Viktor Kislov about one of the most famous musicologists in the country, Nami Mikoyan.

The festival will offer three master classes by Elliot Grove, the famous British educator and founder and president of Raindance, the largest independent film festival in Europe, (Film School, 99 minutes; How Film Festivals Work; and Micro Budget Filmmaking).

As last year, the programme will include both films and concerts.  The film festival is being held in close cooperation with the "Melodies of the Caucasian Riviera" music festival, including creative evenings with famous musicians, Master of Musical Performance and young talent.  There will be a number of films related to the history of music and outstanding figures in musical culture. The project was implemented using a Grant provided by the Russian Culture Foundation within the framework of the Creative People federal project of the Culture national project.

Participating in the festival will be: Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation, Rector of the State Music and Pedagogical Institute named after M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov, Russian violinist and teacher, Valery Vorona; soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre YuliaMazurova; and laureate of international prizes, violinist Alim Kandour (Great Britain-Russia).

There will be concerts and performances from the Sochi collectives of the Orchestra of Folk Instruments "Russian Souvenir" named after P. Necheporenko and the Sochi Symphony Orchestra; and the Folk Dance Ensemble "Shagdi" (Kabardino-Balkaria).