Festival of Film Art - The Film Forum "Listapad" in Minsk
On November 11th, the International Film Festival "Listapad" ended in the capital Minsk. The world cinema forum took place for the 23rd time this year. The program included 159 films from 45 countries. Traditionally the competition attracts directors, actors and representatives of film art from all over the world.
The "Listapad" program is divided into four categories: the category Live-action Movie, a documentary film contest, a category for children's and youth films as well as the National Competition. The focal points of the festival is on films made in the post-Soviet countries plus on a number of Asian countries, the Baltic states and European productions. In the different categories, prizes are awarded as follows: the winner of the festival receives the "Grand Prix Golden Listapad" for the best film, the "Silver Listapad" gets the most valuable artistic film and the "Bronze Listapad" is the award for the best live-action movie selected by the audience. The films are shown at five different cinemas. The competition attracts more than a hundred foreign guests and tens of thousands of visitors.
As part of the opening of the festival, the film "Petersburg. Only because of love" (Russia) was screened. Here, there were seven stories about encounters in the cultural capital of Russia - St. Petersburg. This film was produced with seven different directors. At the end of the festival, the film "Remaining Pictures" by the Polish director Andrzej Wajda was presented.
The first "Listapad" festival took place in 1994. It was originally organized as an International Film Festival of the CIS and the Baltic States. The name changed in 2002. In 2013, the festival received a permanent accreditation (FIAPF) in high recognition of the high quality of the event organization.
Over the years, the greatest figures of world cinema have visited the festival. For example, the actress and director Fanny Ardant was invited to the 22nd edition as an honorary guest. On the forum in 2014, the folk artist Stanislaw Goworuchin (Станислав Говорухин) received the special award from the President of the Republic of Belarus. Moreover, the French actress Claire Denis also visited Minsk and the famous Serbian director Emir Kusturica was on the forum in 2010 as guest of honor.
