Chinese film Crested Ibis wins top honours at Moscow International Film Festival

This year at the 39th Moscow International Film Festival, that closed on 29 June, more than 33,000 spectators visited the shows and screenings, as reported by the Russian news agency, TASS.

According to them, Nikita Mikhalkov, Russian film director and producer and the president of the festival informed the press that 406 full-length and short-length films from 64 countries across the world were screened at the festival.

Mikhalkov said, “The main thing was the atmosphere, of course. The very opportunity to watch movies is much more important than an opportunity to sort out conflicts.”

The same night, i,e, on 29 June the awards ceremony also took place. Chinese film Yuan shang (Crested Ibis) won the Golden St George, the top honours, at the festival this year, notes  The Hollywood Reporter.

The film is directed by Chinese director Qiao Liang and is set around a Beijing reporter who visits his hometown to report a crested ibis, an endangered species, and in turn learns about the environmental ramifications and issues associated to it at a macro-level.

Turkish director Fikret Reyhan picked the best director award, the Silver St George for his film Sari Sicak (Yellow Heat) which is a story about an immigrant family who are trying to make ends meet through traditional farming.

Verena Altenbergerlead won best actress for her performance in the German film Die Beste Aller Welter (The Best of All Worlds) and the best actor award was given to the South Korean actor Son Hyun-Joo for his role in Korean director, Kim Bong-han’s Botongsarsam.

The Special Jury Prize was awarded to Meshok bez dna (The Bottomless Bag) directed by Russian director Rustam Khamdamov. Italian actor Michele Placido was conferred with the Stanislavsky Special Prize for lifetime achievement.

This year, to commemorate 70 years of bilateral relations between India and Russia, the film festival also featured a section exclusively dedicated to Indian cinema and showcased some of the path breaking films from the Indian film industry this year with films like the Baahubali series, Badman, A Death in the Gunj, BeyYaar, U Turn and Kothanodi,  reports  Hindustan Times.