< ARCTIC OPEN IFF Open For Submissions>

ARCTIC OPEN International Film Festival is heading into its eighth season. Hosted by Arkhangelsk Region and supported by the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, its screening and cultural venues form part of the year-long socio-cultural project KinoArchipelago – an event designed to promote cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary, and interregional cooperation in filmmaking, as well as initiatives dedicated to the Arctic.
“The art of filmmaking is like an archipelago. Consisting of multiple islands, it forms an underlying platform for a set of isolated venues, uniting them into a network of creative endeavors, experimental events, international and interregional collaborations of creative industries and enabling people with different interests and from different backgrounds to meet, communicate and cooperate,” says ARCTIC OPEN Tamara Statikova.
This year’s festival spans December 5-8 and 15 venues in 6 municipalities of the Arkhangelsk Region.
The four basic nominations are Best Feature Film, Best Documentary, Best Short film, and Best Children’s Film, the latter comprising a separate category. Submissions are welcome until October 1, 2024 by mail: https://arctic-open.com/ or via FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/ArcticOpen-1

The festival will announce its shortlist on November 10.
This new ARCTIC OPEN FilmArchipelago project promises to bring together the most prominent of ART-isles. The training part of its program includes five sub-projects, one being KinoOptics, designed for stage writers and currently receiving submissions. The eight selected applicants will take 12 online classes of the KinoOptics screenwriting workshop to produce 12 scripts for short live action films set in Arkhangelsk and its surroundings. The scripts will be presented at the ARCTIC OPEN Film Festival on December 7, 2024 and then released as a special collection. Applications are welcome until August 10 at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdgtfHrXnFHSBdVE-cJ3FUtrSyFtYtXoFTQhWwMT7b7F7BhwA/viewform
Film industry is still relatively new to neural networks. Animation makers and motion designers will be able to unveil its mysteries at our KinoArt Laboratory, curated by Viktor Tyapkov, leader of Arkhangelsk-based public workshop Plakat-Center.
Last year’s festival was marked by its first-ever IT Quest “Make Your Movie: The people of the North”. “The five filmmakers had presented their shorts about the North at the ARCTIC OPEN opening ceremony at the Drama Theater and received awards from sponsors and partners. This year we’re going to run the Quest again but on a different topic – “Make Your Movie: Northern Family”. Be sure to get your family onboard your film crew,” says IT Quest developer Ivan Ovsyankin.
ARCTIC OPEN IFF continues to cooperate with the legendary Soyuzmultfilm Studio. This year, it will have Soyuzmultfilm animators on the pitching jury for the films by Russian Arctic-based children’s amateur animation studios.
Filmmaking and multimedia technologies are closer than ever. Our audience will be able to see it for themselves in the immersive virtual reality of Tolstoy&Turgenev, a mini series by MovieStart and Bazelevs that follows the relationship between two Russian writers.
One more sub-project, KinoExpo, will introduce the audience to the history of Soviet film costume design at “100 Years of Mosfilm” exhibition, while another sub-project, KinoEthno, will delight its visitors with the music by Alex Rostotsky’s experimental ethnic multi-project Jazz Bass Theater.
Films with sign language and audio description will be screened during the festival days at the venue for viewers with special needs based in NArFU Scientific Library.
Such popular venues as Festival Film Might and Arctic Cinema have become a tradition and will open their doors this year, too. The audiences navigate through ARCTIC OPEN venues based on their interests, and we try to offer the immersion that best fits their needs.
Not only will the northerners be able to watch the latest releases of film industry, they will have the opportunity to meet their creators and figures of the Russian and international filmmaking, as well as join our other venues dedicated to training, outreach, culture, and business communication.
The 11-month-long 7th ARCTIC OPEN IFF attracted as participants and viewers 28,200+ people. Its venue dedicated to Film Pedagogy had as learners 52 employees of cultural and training institutions based in Arkhangelsk and Komi Republic, providing training in film direction and film club management. Participating as competitors in November-December 2023 were 123 filmmakers from Russia and 9 countries: Iran, China, Uzbekistan, Mexico, Georgia, Great Britain, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Indonesia.

In 2024, ARCTIC OPEN will open its doors in Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk, and Novodvinsk. Some of its films will be presented personally by their directors to the communities of Nyandoma, Kargopol, and Oktyabrsky in Ustyansky District as part of ARCTIC OPEN’s campaign “Big Cinema To Small Screens”.
Upon completion of the screenings and announcement of winners, ARCTIC OPEN IFF will continue into 2025 as ARCTIC OPEN Film Marathon, bringing the best of its highlights to the audiences in the municipalities of Arkhangelsk, Komi Republic, Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Sverdlovsk, Leningrad Region, Murmansk, Vologda, and more. Some of its films will be shown also at Lenfilm, KomiKino, and Moscow’s Central House of Filmmakers.
Next summer as the project enters into its final stage, the beginner filmmakers of the Sever Film School will be making their first short live action films under the guidance of their mentors in three municipalities of the Arkhangelsk Region. Based on the books by children’s authors of the north, their films will form part of the anthology “I Love You, North”. KinoArchipelago project is run by BEREGINYA Pomor Culture Foundation. The 8th International Film Festival ARCTIC OPEN is supported by the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, Arkhangelsk Governor Center, Arkhangelsk Ministry of Culture, Russian Filmmakers Association Office in Arkhangelsk, and co-organized by M.V. Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University.