Mass Media Overview
Voices festival: "green light" for young moviemakers
21.07.2011 00:03
The Voice of Russia http://english.ruvr.ru
Karina Ivashko
Jul 13, 2011
The 2nd Voices international festival of European youth cinema, which took place in Vologda in northwestern Russia, has revealed a surprising unanimity of opinions of the jury and the audience.
Voices' Program Director Igor Guskov agreed that the festival's program turned out to be equally interesting for Vologda movie goers and for professionals:
"All entries of our competition program were worthy contenders, making it really hard to choose the winners, he told the Voice of Russia. The jury unanimously awarded the main prize to the British film "Tyrannosaur", the director's debut of actor Paddy Considine."
A parable-style Swedish film, "Pure", directed by Lisa Langseth, scooped the biggest number of awards, including the best director prize. The author reflects upon whether the world would change for the better if people read Dostoyevsky or listened to Mozart. The film stars Alicia Vikander, who received the best actress award. "Pure" also took home the audience prize.
The best scriptwriter award went to a French debutant, Brigitte Sy, for her autobiographical first film "Free Hands".
The festival brought together about 200 filmmakers from Russia and Europe, above all, from Italy, since 2011 is the Cross-Culture Year of Russia and Italy.
Italian director Paolo Taviani, when asked why he had made up his mind to come to Vologda, said that this was not just because he loved Russia and not because Vologda was a lovely city, but because the Voices festival was a springboard to a successful start for young film directors.
The Italian movie icon of the 60s and 70s and the festival's "muse" Claudia Cardinale agrees that young talents need help:
"Young talents need to be supported. I am engaged mostly in debut films now and travel all over the world – to Istanbul, New York, Tunisia. My next project will be in southern Italy with a British director. These people are not world celebrities, but it's only a matter of time."
Russian film director Alexander Sokurov instituted his own prize for young directors. Sokurov is currently working on "Faust", the fourth film of his tetralogy on the corrupting effects of power, due to be premiered in Venice shortly. Despite his tight working schedule, he came to Vologda and gave master-classes. Sokurov awarded his prize, a superbly-illustrated album about St. Petersburg, where he lives and works, to the film "Father" by Vlado Skafar of Slovenia.