This year, the Antropov Foundation was privileged to participate in SIFFA, or Sochi International Film Festival & Awards, held between 3-7 November, 2020. As part of the Antropov Foundation’s mission to promote culture and humanities in the UK, Russia and beyond, it supported, both the film and the eponymous music festival on a par with the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Russian Cultural Foundation, the Ministry of Culture of the Krasnodar Region, the Sochi City Administration, Russian Culture House| Rossotrudnichestvo UK and the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the UK.
For the Antropov Foundation, this was the first major-scale international Russian-British film festival, although the Foundation previously held film screenings in Paris and London. Judging by the feedback from the organizers, the experience was positive for both parties. “We would not have coped in this challenging COVID-ridden year, had we not been blessed with good new friends and partners, such as Alexey Antropov of the Antropov Foundation, who stepped in at these difficult times”, as was written in the Sochi Film Festival Instagram blog. In the same manner, the Antropov Foundation looks forward to the long-term collaboration with SIFFA Film and Music Festival and new joint projects.
SIFFA is a prestigious Russian-British film festival and award that takes place alternatively in Sochi and London twice per annum. The festival was established in 2016 on the initiative of Founer and Presient Lyubov Balagova-Kandour. SIFFA’s main goal is to promote Russian cinema and its creators on an international film scene (and especially, at the prestigious international film festivals). In 2020, the festival was held for the fifth time, but due to the global pandemic, the film screenings and the music events had to be streamed online, due to health and safety measures. This year, the event took place in partnership with Ramsgate Film Festival and was streaming live on the platform www.ramsgatedigitalcinema.co.uk.
The jury, presided by the SIFFA co-founder, television producer and director Mohy Kandour, had to select the best films out of 50 projects submitted. Among the juries of the festival were actress Di Anderson, People's Artist of the Russian Federation Vladimir Khotinenko, Honoured Artists of the Russian Federation Valery Vorona and Vladimir Shevelkov, film critic and cinema studies professor Tatiana Yakovleva, producer Natalya Ivanova, the UK actress Debbie Arnold, film producer and winner of Oscar Stephen Mao, People's Artist of South Ossetia Oksana Stashenko, the UK actor and producer Peter Ferris, American actress Rosita Royce, American director and producer Karl Bardosh.
The events programme of the film festival listed numerous film screenings, a meeting with the famous Russian actress Larisa Luzhina, a round table panel discussion on the "Heritage of the world nations as a tool for culture development", a discussion with Lyubov Balagova-Kandour, and finally, a master class “Education during the pandemic: music, directing, acting and the audience" given by Peter Ferris.
This year, the festival’s programme has been expanded to include the full-length feature films, full-length documentaries, short (documentary, fiction, animation) films and films shot on mobile devices. According to the film critric and professor at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, the Chairman of the jury Tatyana Yakovleva, “the programme was exceptional, and it was difficult to choose a winner, but our choice was absolutely unanimousl”. As a result, the prize for the best documentary film “Tears and Dreams” went to the film director Leah Beltrami Giovanazzi.
The Prize of the President of the VIII Russian-British Sochi International Film Festival and Film Awards Lyubov Balagova-Kandour was awarded to the film "The Blockade Diary" for “the best embodiment of the strength of the human spirit and the feat of the Soviet people in overcoming the most terrible tragedy of mankind in the 20th century”. The Golden SIFFA Statuette was awarded to the actress Larisa Luzhina for her outstanding contribution to cinema.
The SIFFA Festival also honoured the world-famous violinist Maxim Vengerov with a gold statuette "for an outstanding contribution to musical culture across the world and for supporting the festival during the pandemic."
The musical programme of the festival was also intense, headlined by the Sochi Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of conductor Oleg Soldatov and featuring Russian star musicians Valery Vorona, Mikhail Utkin and Sergey Radchenko. Some select films were also screened to live music performed by musicians on the site. The programme also included numerous master classes, musical evenings, performances of the Russian folk instruments orchestra “Souvenir” and singer Katya Semyonova.
The closing festival ceremony was hosted by Anna Andrusenko and Maxim Kolosov. Among the guests were present such celebrities as Natalia Bondarchuk, Stephen Mao, Alena Khmelnitskaya, Vadim Dubrovitsky, Vladimir Khotinenko, Anna Kurkova, Grigory Adamenko, John Hellings, Jack Loy, Alexander Savelov-Deryabin, Katya Semenova, Anastasia Razlogova, and many others.
We are proud to have been part of it!
