Bringing you the 2017 Golden Unicorn Award nominee shortlist! 

As you might already know, the Golden Unicorn Awards were created in celebration of the best of Russian film and foreign films about Russia, and the cross-cultural nature of the Russian Film Week. The symbol of the unicorn being relevant to both British and Russian folklore. We are so proud to be working towards building a bridge between the British and Russian cultures, especially in such a turbulent political time.

To honour the cross-cultural nature of our festival and awards, the selections have been handpicked by a brilliant international jury, which includes: Hollywood actor Brian Cox, the London Film Academy co-founder Anna MacDonald, the BFI Head of Programming Stuart Brown, and the Guardian’s chief film critic Peter Bradshaw.

We also have a separate Russian jury for the Best foreign film set in Russia category, including the Viasat World CEO Irina Gofman and ex-President of the Republic of Kalmykia and FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

"This will be the second year running that we have our awards ant it is already well-respected and considered prestigious. I am glad that such good, meaningful and powerful films from various genres are featured in the nominations," - said Filip Perkon, the festival's General producer. "We show the crème de la crème of Russian cinema, and as for foreign films about Russia, there are so many of them this year, good and exciting, that we had to create two nominations: Best Feature and Best Documentary."

It is the second year of this esteemed cross-cultural award, which will be presented at the Golden Unicorn Awards Ceremony and Gala dinner on the 25th of November televised by several TV channels including Viasat World, the home to TV1000 Russian Kino, Russia’s most popular movie channel.
We absolutely cannot wait, and hope you are just as excited as we are to not only to watch all these spectacular films, but also to find out the winners!

And now for the shortlist…

Best Film
Guppy
Loveless
Closeness
Mathilde
Space walker
Arrythmia

Best Screenplay
Guppy
Loveless
All will end soon
Closeness
Arrythmia

Best Actor
Lars Eidinger (Mathilde)
Vladimir Mishukov (Dream-fish)
Evgeniy Mironov (Spacewalk)
Aleksandr Yatsenko (Arrythmia)
Mikhail Sivorin(All will end soon)

Best Actress
Irina Gorbacheva (Arrythmia)
Nelli Popova (Guppy)
Daria Zhovner (Closeness)
Maryana Spivak (Loveless)
Anna Chipovskaya (Blockbuster)

Best Emerging Talent
Daria Zhovner (Closeness)
Lera Surkova (Pagans)
Ksenia Zueva (Nearest and Dearest)

Best Short Film
Merry-go-round
Milk
The Passenger
The First
Huh
Percent
Akado
The Law of Excluded Third

Best Documentary
Lake Vostok
24 snow
Tigers and Humans
Harmony
The Last Waltz
Bonfires and Stars

Best Animation Film
Listening to Beеthoven
Urfin Djus
The Snow Queen 3
Peter and Fevronia

Best Film About Russia
Vermelho Russo (Russian Red)
Lady Macbeth
Chronicles of Melanie
Son of Sofia
Prejudices Against Shadows
Stalin’s Couch
Polina

Best Foreign Documentary Film
A Moon of Nickel and Ice
Oleg and the Rare Arts
We'll be alright
Placebo. Alt: Russia
Soviet Hippies
1917 - the Real October

Best Student Ecology Short 
At the Edge of the World
Searching for a superb deer. Conservation Secret Runs
Garich
Change Your World
The Trap
The Mushers
My North Pole
True Superhero
Countdown
Сlean Field

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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.

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Egor Kreed has released a new single that bodes promising for his new album - whenever he gets around to releasing it, that is. "Мало так мало" is a fun, Latin-infused pop track with the urban sprinklings that are typically found in a Egor Kreed release. Despite his start as a "rapper" it's only been as a pop artist that Egor Kreed has found his footing with a highly commercial sound that is highly accessible to international audiences, even when all of the lyrics are in Russian.

The music video spins a tale of Egor discovering Eris, the goddess of Chaos, and unleashing her on the world or perhaps it's simply Moscow that is falling prey to her antics. There's some quality imagery and colour schemes (consistent with the Eastern European pop industry), but some questionable ones too that needlessly exploit women (consistent with the Black Star label's tendencies).

Watch the "Мало так мало" music video in full here:

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