After flirting with an April date in 2018, when the festival’s traditional June date clashed with last year’s World Cup Football event in Moscow, the festival decided April was a match and this year MIFF takes place 18-25 April with Nikita Mikhalkov as festival president and Kirill Razlogov as programme director.
The festival will open with the Rudolf Nureyev biopic The White Crow directed by Ralph Fiennes and starring young Russian dancer Oleg Ivenko as Nureyev. In addition to shooting in St Petersburg and Paris, the ambitious project was shot in the Croatian town of Rijeka, where the interiors of the Mariinsky and Palais Garnier theatres were recreated, and it also spent five weeks shooting at Belgrade’s PFI Studios. The production was able to access tax incentives in both Croatia and Serbia.
Korean director Kim Ki-duk helms the main jury and there will also be competitions for best short film and best doc as well as many side bars screening hundreds of films.
Main Competition Programme:
The Mover / Tevs Nakts (Latvia)
Directed by Dāvis Sīmanis
Produced by Mistrus Media
Supported by the Latvian National Film Centre
My Polish Honeymoon / Lune de miel (France)
Directed by Elise Otzenberger
My Second Year in College / Sale – E Dovvome-E Danehkadeh-ye Man (Iran)
Directed by Rasoul Sadrameli
Saturday Afternoon / Shonibar Bikel (Bangladesh, Germany)
Directed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
Trap / Kapan (Turkey)
Directed by Seyid Çolak
Void / Tyhlo (Finland)
Directed by Aleksi Salmenperä
The Secret of a Leader (Kazakhstan)
Directed by Farkhat Sharipov
The Sun Above Me Never Sets / Min Urduber Kyun Khahan Da Kirbet (Russia)
Directed by Lybov Borisova
Ride Laughing (Italy)
Directed by Valerio Mastandrea
In Search of Echo / Haiyang Dongwu (China)
Directed by Zhang Chi
Jam (Japan)
Directed by Sabu
Sunday / Vorkreseniye (Russia)
Directed by Svetlana Proskurina
The Outbreak / Vongozero (Russia)
Directed by Pavel Kostomarov
