Russian Film Week 2017 To Showcase Russian Films in London

After a successful inaugural event in 2016, Russian Film Week will be returning to the UK for a second year to host a series of film screening with Q&As, premieres, master-classes, exhibitions, networking and charity events, as well as their very own Golden Unicorn Awards ceremony. The festival will run from November 19th to November 26th. The 2017 Russian Film Week will also be expanding to several new venues across London and five additional cities. The 2016 Russian Film Week was also notable for the attendance of famed Russian singer Dima Bilan, who brought attention to the event from his fans spanning numerous countries.

Dima Bilan "The Heritage of Love" Press Conference | Russian Film Week 2016

More than 100 leading directors, actors and producers from Russia, Great Britain and other countries will take part in the Week and more than fifty of the best of the best Russian films produced in the last 18 months, including Attraction by Fyodor Bondarchuk, Spacewalker by Dmitry Kiselev, Mathilde by Alexey Uchitel and others, will be screened at 16 venues in London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester and Oxford.

The festival was created in 2016 by the company Perkon Productions (UK) and Synergy university (Russia), which became the partners and co-producers of the event.

The RFW board of trustees includes such well-known filmmakers as Ralph Fiennes, Brian Cox, Elliot Grove, Valery Todorovsky and Alexey Uchitel. Celebrities, dignitaries, famous people such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Tom Hooper, Olga Kurylenko, Sir Leonard Blavatnik, Prince Michael of Kent, Baroness Rebuck were invited to the festival as guests of honor.

"The festival’s aim is to draw attention of the general public to Russian cinema and Russian culture in general, – says Vadim Lobov, Synergy University Executive Director. – We want as many people as possible living not only in Russia, but also in other countries, to see films by Russian directors. Events like this contribute to the strengthening of mutual understanding and friendship among peoples, to overcoming barriers and prejudices."

In addition to film screenings, there will be a host of satellite events taking place within the framework of the Russian Film Week: talks and master-classes by filmmakers, round table discussions and networking events, exhibitions. It has become a good tradition to collect of funds for charitable foundations. Last year, the festival collected £ 85,000 for children with cancer, which are under the care of sister funds Gift of Life UK/Podari Zhizn (Russia). 2017 is declared the Year of Ecology in Russia, therefore RFW has teamed up with WWF UK to collect funds for the Amur tiger in Russia conservation project.

 Russian Film Week will culminate with the Golden Unicorn Awards Ceremony and Charity Gala. The nominations presented to the international jury include: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Emerging Talent, Best Foreign Film about Russia, and others. The gala will be held at the Langham Ballroom on November 25th, Russian rock-star and ballad singer Boris Grebenshchikov and Polina Goudieva will perform, a charity auction to collect funds for WWF will take place.

"Our mission is to help bring people, cultures, worldviews closer together, overthrow the barriers of misunderstanding and push wider the horizons of cooperation. Nothing better than film contributes to this in the modern world. – says Filip Perkon, RFW General Producer. – We want the funds raised during our UK film week to go to good causes in Russia, because charity is another beautiful form of building bridges of friendship."

An important integral part of the film week, also dedicated to the Year of Ecology, will be a Student Short Film Competition "The Responsibility of the Young for the Future of Our Planet", organised by the Synergy University. The winner will receive The Golden Unicorn – Synergy Award, as well as an educational trip to the most famous film studios in the UK.

In 2016, the festival was held at 9 venues in London and Cambridge. The event brought together more than 50 leading cinematographers from Russia and Europe, and the audience of the event exceeded 4,500 people. In 2017, the scale of the festival will be expanded, so these figures promise to become much more impressive (note: this year the films Mathilde and Arrhythmia were sold out in less than 36 hours after the tickets release).

For more information about Russian Film Week and Golden Unicorn awards please visit: http://www.russianfilmweek.org.