< Film Director Alexey German to Chair the Jury of Arkhangelsk-Based Film Festival>
The 8th International Film Festival ARCTIC OPEN is proud to announce its jury members – film directors, actors, and producers from Russia, Iran, and Sweden. Traditionally, each category is assigned a dedicated panel of judges, and this year the categories are five: Feature Length Films, Documentary Films, Children’s Films, live action Short Films and, for the first time ever, Popular Science Films.
The jury of the feature films is chaired by Alexey German, Jr., an award-winning film director and screenwriter from Russia. His films hold prizes for outstanding achievement in cinematography from the Berlin Film Festival.
Born to famous film director Alexey German and screenwriter Svetlana Karmalita, Alexey is a grandson of writer Yuri German. He is known for his epic drama Air released early this year.
In his role as jury chair Alexey will be assisted by Alexandra Revenko, a film and TV actress who starred in Silver Skates, Moving Up, Summer, among other films, and Andrey Apostolov, editor-in-chief at Lenfilm Studio, programming director for Window to Europe and Gorky Festival film festivals, teacher at Shaninka School, Industriya Film School, and Moscow International University.
A total of 12 films are nominated for the best feature film award.
The Short Films jury will have as chair Vladimir Kott, a Russian stage and film director, screenwriter, producer and editor. A twin sibling of Alexander Kott, who contributed to Arctic Open 2023 as a member of its Children’s Films Jury, Vladimir’s recent release Man and Woman (16+) entered this year’s non-competition program.
Other members of the Short Films Jury include Konstantin Mankovsky, a prolific screenwriter, television director and General Producer at Black Box Production. During the festival days, Konstantin will be hosting the KinoOptika workshop where he will give a talk to students of Arkhangelsk College of Culture and Art about the current trends in TV writing and projects of the online cinemas.
This jury also includes Pedram Sadraei, a film director, screenwriter and producer from Iran. The Short Films category features 20 films.
The category with most films (22) is Documentary Films. It also has most films made abroad. The Documentary Films Jury consists of Newsroom Director at Rossiya.Kultura Channel Ekaterina Pronko (Chair); Swedish documentary filmmaker and journalist Gunilla Bresky, whose three films entered this year’s retrospective to be screen as part of the non-competition programme; and Regis Tremblay, a director from the USA who currently resides in Yalta with his family.
Traditionally, the films for children and youth comprise a separate category, and this year this category has ten films – feature length and shorts. Chaired by Tatiana Miroshnik, a producer, screenwriter, director and head of Kinoniva Children’s Film studio, the jury for this category includes Irina Volkova, a participant, and winner, of multiple international and domestic festivals, and Gulkair Tilenbayeva, a film producer and chair of the Kyrgyz Cinema Owners Association.
The fifth category – Popular Science Films – has five films. Its tow award is kindly granted by the Northern (Arctic) Federal University and is a travel to the Arctic onboard of the research ship Professor Molchanov.
The jury for this category has as chair Pavel Maryandyshev, D.Sc., (Eng.), Associate Professor, Acting Rector of Lomonosov NArFU. Two other members are Associate Professor Alexander Saburov, who is in charge of NArFU Institute for Strategic Development and leads the expeditions of the Arctic Floating University, and Anna Trofimova of NArFU Arctic Biomonitoring Laboratory Deputy, assistant leader of the Arctic Floating University for research.
The members of the 8th ARCTIC OPEN Jury will arrive in Arkhangelsk for festival days of December 5-8 and will be watching the films together with the audience. The festival will announce winners in each category on December 8 in Lomonosov Drama Theater in Arkhangelsk at its closing ceremony.
The 8th International Film Festival ARCTIC OPEN runs with grant funding and support from the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, Arkhangelsk Governor’s Center “Together We Stand”, Arkhangelsk Ministry of Culture, and is co-organized by M.V. Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University.
