News

Russian production and distribution powerhouse Central Partnership will launch two new animated features at this year’s European Film Market, along with a live-action film that will have its world premiere in competition at SXSW next month.

“The Swiss Adventure” (pictured) is the first big-screen animated film from Smf Animation Studio, the venerable Russian animation house formerly known as Soyuzmultfilm. It tells the story of a 16-year-old servant who falls in love with the daughter of a wealthy merchant, who’s determined to marry her off to a rival of high social standing and low moral values. After being forcibly separated from her, the boy is sent to join General Alexander Suvorov’s army on its legendary Swiss expedition, where he earns the respect and loyalty of his fellow soldiers while thwarting a treacherous enemy plot.

Proving that anyone can be a hero if they are driven by love, “The...

Netflix Makes Deal With ‘Shoplifters’ Director

Netflix has struck a deal with top Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda to develop two projects, a film and a series. Kore-eda, who won the Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters, said he would serve as a showrunner and will direct several episodes of the series in a video address during day two of Netflix’s Japanese content showcase. On day one, the streamer unveiled a host of content across anime and live-action. “Netflix and I are teaming up to create a drama series and a big-budget movie that is different from my previous works. You still need to wait for a bit before they’re finished and delivered to you. I incorporate different elements from those in theater movies and try to create exciting works. Please look forward to them,” commented Kore-eda in the video. “Probably, the scale of the new movie will be...

When the Soyuz Ms-19 spaceship blasts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome on Oct. 5, bound for the International Space Station, Vadim Vereschagin – CEO of production and distribution giant Central Partnership – believes his company’s prospects will likewise lift into the stratosphere.

Onboard the ship will be director Klim Shipenko and actor Yulia Peresild, who are setting out on a 12-day mission to film scenes from the upcoming drama “The Challenge” aboard the station. Produced by public broadcaster Channel One and leading studio Yellow, Black and White, in collaboration with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the first-of-its-kind feature will be distributed by Central Partnership.

Vereschagin says the cosmic shoot is a “dream” for him personally, as well as a fitting milestone for a company that’s celebrating its quarter-century anniversary this year. “This project, for us, is the pinnacle of all the 25 years that we’ve done so far,” he says.

If the world of film and TV has grown more global in recent years, driven in large part by the rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, the past year has only sped that process up. That’s opening more doors than ever for foreign talent.

“There’s a huge world out there. And there’s talent in every market,” said CAA agent Rob Kenneally. “The idea that it all starts and ends in Hollywood is such a forgotten memory.”

Kenneally appeared in conversation this week with Roskino head Evgenia Markova during the Key Buyers Event, which is taking place online June 8-10. The veteran agent spoke about how changes in the global film and TV biz have rewritten the playbook for discovering and developing foreign talent.

In years past, Kenneally explained, an agent might have bought the format rights of a successful foreign show in order to adapt it for U.

“The Pilot. A Battle for Survival” (Central Partnership)

Producers: Renat Davletyarov, Vlad Ryashin

Synopsis: December 1941, Northwestern Front. A German tank column is moving toward Moscow. During a mission to halt the enemy’s advance, Soviet pilot Nikolai Komlev’s plane is shot down behind enemy lines. Battling hunger and cold while evading packs of wolves and detachments of Nazi soldiers, the wounded pilot finally makes it back to safety. But there he faces another challenge, which will prove to be the most life-changing of all.

“The World Champion” (Central Partnership)

Producers: Alexey Sidorov, Nikita Mikhalkov, Rafael Minasbekyan, Leonid Vereshschagin

Synopsis: Some sporting triumphs are about more than just claiming a title. Some of them go down in history. A drama based on the legendary 1978 chess match between Soviet world champion Anatoly Karpov and the dissident Viktor Korchnoi. In this battle between two outstanding chess players (pictured), a duel of personalities under immense psychological pressure,...

Exclusive: The Matrix and Joker co-producer Village Roadshow Pictures is teaming with Matt Reeves’ 6th & Idaho (The Batman) and XYZ Films (Mandy) for the English-language remake of recently-released Russian sci-fi-thriller Sputnik.

Set in the Soviet Union in the 1980s during the Cold War, the film follows a young female doctor who is recruited by the military to assess a cosmonaut who survived a mysterious space accident and returned to Earth with a dangerous organism living inside him. The English-language remake is currently in development.

Producers for the remake include Matt Reeves, Adam Kassan and Rafi Crohn for 6th & Idaho, Mikhail Vrubel and Alexander Andryushenko for Vodorod Pictures, Fedor Bondarchuk for Art Pictures and Ilya Stewart for Hype Film.

Egor Abramenko, Murad Osmann, Pavel Burya, Alina Tyazhlova and Mila Rozanova are executive producers. XYZ Films also serves as executive producers. Jillian Apfelbaum (Late Night) will oversee for Village Roadshow Pictures.

The...

Central Partnership clinched several new deals on the project during the EFM.

Following last week’s EFM, leading Russian distributor Central Partnership has announced several new deals on its big budget action/disaster feature Chernobyl, directed by Danila Kozlovsky.

The film has gone to platform iQIYI for China in what Central Partnership CEO Vadim Vereshchagin described as “a big step towards promoting Russian cinema to international markets and [improving] our strategic partnership with China.”

Further deals clinched during the EFM include French-speaking Europe (Kinovista), Taiwan (Moviecloud), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Joj). These follow on from already announced sales to the US (MPI Media Group), South Korea,...

While the coronavirus pandemic briefly shut down local production last year and sent the exhibition industry into a tailspin, Artem Vasilyev, of Metrafilms, is among the many Russian producers who did not sit idly by in quarantine.

“We had a very, very fruitful autumn in the industry,” says Vasilyev, who shot four features between August and November, including “30 Days and 30 Nights,” the new film from Venice Silver Lion winner Alexey German, Jr. (“Paper Soldier”), and “Jetlag,” a feature film and episodic series from Michael Idov (“The Humorist”).

Despite the financial and logistical challenges, cameras continued to roll in Russia throughout most of 2020. Coupled with optimism over the rollout of a locally produced coronavirus vaccine, Vasilyev says industry players are hopeful that the growing Russian biz can come roaring back in 2021. “I really see things on the bright side at the moment,” he says.

Alexander Rodnyansky shares that optimism. The two-time...

The Moscow-based company is looking for partners at EFM.

Moscow’s Hype Film, whose credits include Mona Fastvold’s Venice Competition contender The World To Come and Kirill Serebrennikov’s buzzy Petrov’s Flu (sold by Charades), is lining up a project exploring the lives of contemporary Russians with disabilities.

The Carpenter is to be directed by Avdotya (Dunya) Smirnova, whose previous filmmaker credits include Two Days (2011) starring Fedor Bondarchuk, and Andrei Konchalovsky’s 2007 comedy drama Gloss, which she co-wrote.

Smirnova’s drama will look at the experiences of parents who make huge sacrifices to give their disabled child a comfortable life.

Moscow’s Hype Film, whose credits include Mona Fastvold’s Venice Competition contender The World To Come and Kirill Serebrennikov’s buzzy Petrov’s Flu (sold by Charades), is lining up a project exploring the lives of contemporary Russians with disabilities.

The Carpenter is to be directed by Avdotya (Dunya) Smirnova, whose previous filmmaker credits include Two Days (2011) starring Fedor Bondarchuk, and Andrei Konchalovsky’s 2007 comedy drama Gloss, which she co-wrote.

Smirnova’s drama will look at the experiences of parents who make huge sacrifices to give their disabled child a comfortable life.

Smirnova co-wrote the screenplay with novelist/screenwriter Marina Stepnova.

“The Chinese team has used Russian footage to tell a new story.”

Jin Cai, founder and CEO of Beijing-based Turbo Film Corporation, did not panic when she discovered how heavily pirated her sci-fi title, a Russian film called Coma, had been.

Instead, she read the comments and altered the film accordingly. Over 20,000 users had posted reviews on Douban, the Chinese equivalent to IMDb, and clips had been viewed more than 100 million times on TikTok.

Turbo’s planned theatrical release in the summer of 2020 had been postponed due to the pandemic but, given the levels of piracy, showing the film in...

Mts Media, the production arm of leading Russian telecom and internet service provider Mts, is partnering with Sreda Production to co-produce seven new series for the Mts TV streaming platform. Four of those projects will launch international sales during Mipcom Online+ this week.

In the psychological thriller “Crystal City,” a veteran investigator is forced to return to the city of his childhood to investigate a string of murders. But while Sergei Smirnov follows the trail of the serial killer, his own long-buried secrets threaten to come to the surface.

“Snail Running” is the story of a woman whose life splits into two parallel worlds after she suffers a tragedy at the age of 16. Over the course of the series those twin worlds start to intertwine, until the two storylines converge at the point where it all began.

In “Married Life Scenes,” a young couple on the brink of divorce suddenly...

"Sputnik" is the new science fiction horror feature, directed by Egor Abramenko, starring Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk and Pyotr Fyodorov:

"...at the height of the 'Cold War', a 'Soviet' spacecraft crash lands after a mission gone awry, leaving the commander as its only survivor. 

"After a renowned Russian psychologist is brought in to evaluate the commander's mental state, it becomes clear that something dangerous may have come back to Earth with him..."

Click the images to enlarge...

We don’t get enough material set in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The era is so fraught with mystery and intrigue, it benefits more than just spy thrillers. This weekend’s new release Sputnik, for example, manages to use the period for a science fiction / horror outing. The already potential laden field of space horror mixes with a creature feature to form something pretty unique and often a lot of fun. Things fall apart a bit at the end, but this is a great little under the radar title. You’d do well to give it a look, especially if you’re keen on genre offerings. The movie is sci-fi horror picture, set in the former Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. Cosmonauts Konstantin Veshnyakov (Pyotr Fyodorov) and Kirill Averchenko (Aleksey Demidov) are returning home from space when something interacts with their capsule. Veshnyakov...

You may have heard his name uttered by Kanye West or Migos in songs but Martin Margiela isn’t necessarily a household name when it comes to fashion — but it should be. One of the most elusive designers in the fashion industry, there are barely any photos of him on the internet, but his work speaks for itself. In the Oscilloscope documentary, Martin Margiela: In His Own Words, filmmaker Reiner Holzemer takes us behind the scenes of the career of the titular avant-garde.

With the docu, Margiela breaks his no-interview policy and aversion to being in the public eye as Holzemer puts the spotlight on the “Banksy of fashion”. He worked as Jean Paul Gaultier’s assistant and was the creative director at Hermès before he started his own fashion house. For the first time, Margiela reveals his drawings, notes, and personal items in this intimate profile of his vision...

The intense, often nerve-wracking, yet thoroughly enjoyable genre film Sputnik is also the debut for Russian director Egor Abramenko. This is a film that sports echoes of other classics of the horror/science fiction ilk like Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), or even John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing (1982). Abramenko, however, displays a singular style with an impressive first feature that portends potentially greater things yet to come.

The film first introduces young doctor Tatiana Yurievna (Oksana Akinshina) who has been summoned before a medical review board for her less-than-orthodox treatment techniques (despite their success) and may have her license revoked. Her maverick spirit, however, intrigues the Russian military who asks her to consult on a case involving recently returned from space cosmonaut Konstantin Sergeyevich (Pyotr Fyodorov) who seems to have developed a particularly nasty symbiotic condition that manifests itself in the shrouded darkness of the night. Of course, the...

Doctor Tatiana Yurievna (Oksana Akinshina) is under review for unconventional practices. She is approached by Semiradov (Fedor Bondarchuk) from the Russian military. They have a special case that needs her kind of thinking. Sensing that her medical career is on the brink she goes with Semiradov to a remote research base to see Cosmonaut Konstantin Sergeyevich (Pyotr Fyodorov). Sergeyevich was on a mission returning to Earth when ground control lost contact with the capsule on its last day. No sooner has Tatiana begun her investigation when she learns the horrible truth. Something came back with the cosmonauts in that capsule and it lives inside Konstantin. Can Tatiana save Konstantin before it's too late?     Don't worry. We have not given away anything in that first...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Though the Russian film “Sputnik” is a sci-fi movie that begins in the vastness of space, the goal for Arman Yahin and his VFX team at Main Road Post was a narrow one: to build out the alien hitchhiker that one of the cosmonauts unwittingly brings home.

The film centers on Konstantin Sergeyevich, the lone survivor of a mysterious space accident, who returns with a creature inside him that emerges at night and can reenter his body. First set to run in the Tribeca Film Festival, the movie, a record-breaking VOD hit in Russia, debuts via IFC Midnight in select theaters and on demand Aug. 14.

Konstantin is being held at a military medical facility when Tatiana Yurievna is brought in to assess him and the creature. He’s an “interesting case,” the colonel in charge tells her. The military intends to use the alien as a weapon — but will they control it,...

As the cinema of celestial brutes and space-set horrors goes, Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic “Alien” still retains a gold-standard status among its kind, continuing to lend its DNA to various sci-fi quests beyond the atmosphere. The latest film to ingest a piece of its eerie spirit — albeit, with varying degrees of success — is “Sputnik,” a tense genre exploit by debuting Russian director Egor Abramenko.

A claustrophobic character study with gripping set pieces, serviceable spatters of gross-out B-movie gore and plenty of red-lit corridors, “Sputnik” doesn’t quite deliver upon the juicy potential of its paranoia-induced Cold War-era backdrop. Still, Abramenko maintains the film’s finite appeal throughout, mostly thanks to a familiar aura and a charismatic lead performance by Oksana Akinshina, a fine surrogate for the tough-as-nails heroine Ellen Ripley.

Despite its limitations — among them is an inelegantly designed extraterrestrial antagonist and simplistic special effects created on a small budget...

A quick question: How much do you like Alien? Let’s rephrase this slightly: Do you dig Ridley Scott’s masterpiece so much that you’d be perfectly fine watching something that owes a massive debt to it, just to kill time between your 999th and 1000th viewing of the original 1979 groundbreaker? The differences would be subtle — say, an alien slithering out of a host’s throat rather than bursting through his chest, and instead of resembling a walking, hissing penis-head with retractable chrome jaws, it would look more like...

“Alien” casts a big shadow on “Sputnik,” a slick Cold War alien invasion thriller from first-time director Egor Abramenko, so much that it threatens to swallow the movie whole. Fortunately, Abramenko sneaks in a fresh angle before the chest-bursting extraterrestrial mayhem takes charge. Launching with a slick and eerie first act, “Sputnik” initially feels like the kind of slow-burn laboratory thriller that rarely gets made these days, yet feels timelier than ever. Russian machinations? Medical phenomena that confound modern science? You don’t say!

Sadly, the analogy doesn’t go much further than that. But made all the more intriguing by the period backdrop that carries connotations of its own. It’s 1983, and after a trio of cosmonauts slam back to earth under dubious circumstances in the dark of night, one winds up dead, another in a coma, and a third can’t remember what happened. That’s Konstantin Veshnyakov...

Sputnik Directed by:Egor AbramenkoWritten by:Oleg Malovichko and Andrei ZolotarevStarring:Oksana Akinshina, Pyotr Fyodorov, Fedor Bondarchuk, and Anton Vasilev Due to her controversial methods, young doctor Tatiana Yurievna is on the precipice of losing her medical license. Her career may not be over, though. After she’s recruited by the military, Tatiana is brought …

The post Sputnik – Chilling Sci-Fi Thriller Directed by Egor Abramenko | Opens 8/14 Courtesy of IFC Midnight! appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.

"Sputnik" is the new science fiction horror feature, directed by Egor Abramenko, starring Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk and Pyotr Fyodorov:

"...at the height of the 'Cold War', a 'Soviet' spacecraft crash lands after a mission gone awry, leaving the commander as its only survivor. 

"After a renowned Russian psychologist is brought in to evaluate the commander's mental state, it becomes clear that something dangerous may have come back to Earth with him..."

Click the images to enlarge...

With all blockbusters pushed back indefinitely due to the pandemic, that means those looking for sci-fi spectacles and space epics, which often carry a hefty price tag, will have to sit tight. However, looking at the inventive world of indie filmmaking, some directors have delivered impressive scope on a tighter budget. One such example is Egor Abramenko, whose debut feature Sputnik will be arriving next month.

Starring Oksana Akinshina, Pyotr Fyodorov, Fedor Bondarchuk, and Anton Vasilev, the creature feature follows a doctor who is overseeing a cosmonaut who survived a mysterious space accident and has returned to Earth, albeit with something living inside him. Judging from this first trailer from IFC Midnight, it looks like a suspenseful Alien-esque thriller that has the makings of a late-summer sleeper hit.

See the trailer and poster below for the Tribeca and Sitges selection.

Due to her controversial methods, young doctor Tatiana Yurievna is...

IFC Films has released the brand new trailer for Sputnik. Opening in theaters and VOD August 14, take a look below.

Russia, 1983 – Cold War tensions at their peak. A terrifying scene is discovered at the landing site of spacecraft Orbit-4. The commander is dead, the flight engineer in coma. The third crew member, Valery Basov, has survived, but he has lost his memory from the horrific experience and cannot shed light on the cause of the accident. In a secluded government facility, under the vigilant watch of armed guards, psychologist Tatiana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina) must cure the astronaut’s amnesia and unravel the mystery. In the process, she learns that Orbit-4 may have carried back an alien parasite that threatens to consume them all.

Director Egor Abramenko is an established award-winning director of commercials and music videos from Russia. Upon graduation from The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in 2009, he worked extensively...

"It appears there was an incident in space." IFC Films has unveiled a new official US trailer for Sputnik, a freaky alien horror thriller about a mysterious extraterrestrial lifeform that arrives inside a Russian space capsule. We featured other official trailers for this movie a few months back. After returning to Earth, the capsule's only survivor has brought something else with him. They try to keep him in quarantine, but as we know from the original Alien (and also real life) that won't hold him for long. Starring Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk, and Pyotr Fyodorov. After premiering in Russia earlier this year, the film has been getting mostly warm reviews from genre critics. The new poster (seen below) is also very cool. Worth a look. Here's the official US trailer (+ new poster) for Egor Abramenko's Sputnik, direct from IFC's YouTube: You can also watch the previous official trailers for Abramenko's Sputnik here,...

Korean hit #Alive kicked up another $2.2M this weekend, holding well throughout the mid-weeks, but with an overall 63% Friday-Saturday-Sunday dip from the comparable weekend days last session. The timely thriller that’s set against the backdrop of a city in lockdown due to a virus has now grossed $11M. It’s a continued indication that moviegoers want something new, and in cases of a strong local industry, they’re also enjoying homegrown fare. Still, not much is going to rock the international box office until Hollywood starts releasing fresh titles.

A question has been raised as to whether the studios could release big new movies overseas without the biggest domestic cities given the situation in the U.S. is still dire. While international makes up the lion’s share of receipts (73% in 2019), a finance source explains that an event picture generally goes out on more than 30,000 screens worldwide — those screens are hardly available at present.

While international audiences have gotten used to Russian auteurs on red carpets from the Croisette to the Dolby Theatre, where directors such as Andrey Zvyagintsev and Kantemir Balagov (“Beanpole”) have scooped up prestigious awards and Oscar nods, more and more Russian filmmakers are focused on making a splash in the global market.

Buoyed by high-octane actioners and genre titles with slick special effects, international sales for Russian films have been rising roughly 20% per year, according to film promotion body Roskino. During the Cannes virtual market, many foreign buyers may be tempted to give the country’s commercial fare a second look. “It’s the perception that needs to change,” says Central Partnership CEO Vadim Vereshchagin. “Our productions are at the same level as the European productions right now.”

Central Partnership has a strong Cannes slate that includes “Chernobyl,” a big-budget actioner about the aftermath of the nuclear power plant meltdown,...

In the weeks following the inaugural edition of the Key Buyers Event, a showcase for new Russian productions held in Moscow last fall, Roskino CEO Evgenia Markova reached out to scores of international guests who had made the trip to the Russian capital. After what was largely perceived as a successful event, in which dozens of Russian titles sold to foreign buyers, Markova wanted to understand what else the film promotion body could do to support the continued growth of the Russian industry.

One piece of advice stood out. “Not many Russian names are known abroad,” says Markova. The consensus among many of the buyers in attendance was that “this is definitely what [Roskino] should work on: you should promote your actors, your producers, your directors. You should show the world you exist.”

For the Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition, an online platform to showcase and promote Russian content that takes...

Following the international success of Attraction in late 2018, Fedor Bondarchuk’s follow up film Attraction 2: Invasion will arrive on digital platforms and on blu-ray/DVD on July 21st. Two years have passed since an alien spaceship crash-landed in Chertanovo. After her direct contact with extra terrestrial technologies, Julia, a previously ordinary girl, has become an …

The post Dark Sky Films Brings Attraction 2: Invasion on July 21st appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.

This week the Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition, organized by Russian film promotion body Roskino, launched its virtual showcase of new Russian productions with some 400 international participants slated to take part, including buyers, commissioners and producers from 55 countries.

Exports of Russian films have been growing at a healthy 25% clip annually in recent years, according to Roskino, but a key question for many foreign buyers is how to market and sell those films in other territories. It was the subject of a panel discussion on Monday featuring Angel Lopez Armendariz, head of foreign production selection at Mediaset Spain; Juliana da Cunha Jacobsen, head of acquisitions and operations at Bf Distribution; and Jordan Fields, VP of acquisitions at Shout! Factory. The session was moderated by Katerina Pshenitsyna, VP of international distribution at Central Partnership.

In many markets, commercial Russian films are a relatively new phenomenon. “What we noticed about five years ago...

Following the international success of Attraction in late 2018, Fedor Bondarchuk’s follow up film Attraction 2: Invasion will arrive on digital platforms and Blu-ray/DVD July 21st. Check out the trailer and read more about the movie below. Synopsis:Two years have passed since an alien spaceship crash-landed in Chertanovo. After her direct contact with extraterrestrial technologies, Julia, a previously ordinary girl, […] More...

Following the international success of Attraction in late 2018, Fedor Bondarchuk's follow up film Attraction 2: Invasion will arrive on digital platforms and on blu-ray/DVD on July 21st from Dark Sky Films.

Details below!

Synopsis:

Two years have passed since an alien spaceship crash-landed in Chertanovo. After her direct contact with extra terrestrial technologies, Julia, a previously ordinary girl, has become an object of study at the Ministry of Defense's secret labs.

While undergoing their analysis, she discovers she is developing seemingly impossible superhuman powe...

Russian film promotion body Roskino has organized a virtual content market showcasing the latest Russian productions to international buyers. Unspooling from June 8-15, the Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition features a program of live presentations, pitches, panel discussions, and matchmaking sessions, along with a dedicated co-development and co-production section and a screening room with more than 150 hours of Russian film, TV, digital and animated content. Here are some of the key projects from up-and-coming Russian producers to look out for:

“Psycho”

Producers: Alexey Kiselev, Sergei Bondarchuk, Anastasia Koretskaya, Vyacheslav Murugov, Maxim Rybakov (Rent A Video Studio)

Director: Fedor Bondarchuk

Genre: TV series/psychological drama

The series revolves around the lonely and confused inhabitants of a major city, who live to feed the ambitions of their egos. They have been led away from happiness, peace of mind, and even themselves by values that have been dreamed up and imposed on them.

Russian multi-hyphenate Fedor Bondarchuk was riding high after a series of blockbuster hits when Hollywood came calling in 2014. Fresh off the domestic success of his alien invasion movie “Attraction,” and the World War II epic “Stalingrad,” Warner Bros. tapped him to direct a big-budget movie based on Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey.”

But then a devastating economic crisis hit Russia, and the deal unraveled, with Bondarchuk deciding he couldn’t decamp to Hollywood at a time when his own country was reeling. It was a prescient move. Six years later, the domestic market in Russia is booming, international sales are growing by leaps and bounds, and Bondarchuk’s Art Pictures Studio has become one of the country’s more formidable production houses.

Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, 2020 was shaping up to be a banner year for Bondarchuk, who recently signed with CAA. The sci-fi thriller “Sputnik,” which Art Pictures produced with Vodorod Pictures,...

The Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition, a market showcase for the Russian film and TV industry, launched Monday with a welcome video from actress Anya Chipovskaya, the event’s ambassador, sent to its 400 international participants, including buyers, commissioners and producers from 55 countries.

In the video Chipovskaya appears as an A.I. guide, explaining how to use the platform, arrange meetings, find information, and avoid any difficulties that may arise while attending the online event. The video was created by film, music and commercials director Dilia Alshina, and producer Alexey Kiselev of Kisa Communications.

The Key Buyers Event, organized by Roskino with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Moscow government, runs until June 15.

During the event, participants will have access to material about 300 Russian projects, including premieres of films, drama series, animation and non-scripted formats.

The event will also host 14 panel discussions with global executives,...

Exclusive: Sputnik, the sci-fi thriller that would have been a Tribeca premiere were it not for the fest’s cancellation, has launched online in its native Russia ahead of its U.S. bow and is recording stellar viewership.

More than one million people have streamed the title since its release on April 23 across its three Svod homes, according to its producers. The film is playing on More.tv, Wink and Ivi, which are a mixture of subscription services and Tvod and are three of Russia’s biggest platforms. That makes it the top-performing title across those services for the past two years, surpassing all Hollywood and local releases.

The project is directed by first time helmer Egor Abramenko and is produced by Fedor Bondarchuk’s Moscow-based Art Pictures Studio. IFC Midnight secured North American rights to the pic back in April and will release stateside August 14.

Bondarchuk stars in the movie alongside Oksana Akinshina,...

The Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition is hosted by Russian film body Roskino.

Two projects from Russian director Fedor Bondarchuk are part of the inaugural Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition, the virtual content market hosted by Russian film body Roskino.

Supported by the Russian Ministry of Culture and Moscow Government, the event will go live on June 8. It will include presentations from Russian sellers, with buyers and producers from over 40 countries registered.

Bondarchuk’s first TV series Psycho, centring on a successful psychiatrist who is mentally unwell, will premiere at the event. It is co-produced by Art Pictures Studio and Nmg Studio.

Russia’s Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition, a virtual follow-up to last year’s inaugural initiative hosted by national promotional body Roskino, has unveiled a program featuring new Russian works and a host of local and international speakers.

Running June 8-15, the event will showcase more than 300 Russian projects to international buyers, including films, drama series, animation and non-scripted formats, encompassing many of the countries top companies and talent. Involved are new works from Russian major Art Pictures, which as Deadline revealed will be shopping a doc about celebrated filmmaker Sergei Bondarchuk, Central Partnership’s drama Chernobyl: Abyss, which will show footage, and Timur Bekmambetov’s V2. Escape from Hell, which Deadline broke the news on earlier this year.

The market says it will feature buyers and producers from more than 40 countries and has signed up Rtl, AMC Networks, Mars Cgv, Wild Bunch, Beta Film, Koch Media, and Iqiyi to date.

Russian film promotion body Roskino has unveiled the program for its digital Key Buyers Event, a virtual content market that will present over 300 projects from more than 120 leading Russian companies to international buyers.

Presented with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the Moscow city government, the digital market will run from June 8-15. The program features a host of live presentations, panel discussions, and cultural events, along with pitching sessions for dozens of film, TV and animation projects looking for international co-production partners.

Buyers and producers from more than 40 countries are slated to take part, including Rtl Group, AMC Networks, Cgv Mars, Wild Bunch, Beta Film, and Chinese streaming service iQIYI.

“Such a national virtual market is unprecedented, and it is exciting to be the pioneers,” says Roskino CEO Evgenia Markova. “During these challenging times, we are adapting to champion our filmmakers to give them every opportunity to...

When the bottom fell out of the Russian economy during the crisis of 2014, sending the ruble into a tailspin, the shockwaves reverberating across the country had a seismic impact on the film industry. For many accustomed to the old ways of doing business, a dramatic rethink was at hand.

“Until 2014…Russian producers were never really thinking about international distribution, because it wasn’t worthwhile,” says Vadim Vereshchagin, CEO of production, distribution and sales company Central Partnership. The domestic market in the nation of 145 million had until then been robust. With the collapse of the ruble, however, that market was virtually halved overnight. “All of a sudden, a lot of people started thinking, ‘What do we do to sell these films outside of Russia?’”

Change was already underway, with the Ministry of Culture and the Russian Cinema Fund beginning to offer support for the promotion of Russian films abroad. The years...

"It appears there was an incident in space." Russia has been churning out some damn good sci-fi in the last few years. Sputnik is one of their latest offerings - a freaky alien horror thriller about a mysterious lifeform that arrives inside a Russian space capsule. After returning to Earth, the capsule's only survivor has brought something else with him. They try to keep him in quarantine, but as we know from the original Alien (and also real life) that won't hold him for long. Starring Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk, and Pyotr Fyodorov. This just opened in Russia last month, and it will debut in the Us in August later this summer. The alien creature is revealed in this trailer, but apparently there's more secrets than just that. Check it out. Here's the first two official trailers (+ two posters) for Egor Abramenko's Sputnik, direct from YouTube: The lone...

Exclusive: Celebrated Russian filmmaker Sergei Bondarchuk, whose classic 1966 adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s War And Peace was an Oscar and Golden Globe winner, will be the subject of a documentary telling the story of his life. He also helmed the 1970 epic Waterloo, produced by Dino De Laurentiis.

The feature comes from Art Pictures Studio, the production, sales and distribution company run by his son, the actor and filmmaker Fedor Bondarchuk. The doc is shooting in Russia, France, the UK, Italy, and Los Angeles and counts figures including Jean-Luc Godard, Martha De Laurentiis, and Katharina Kubrick as interviewees. Anton Zhelnov and Denis Kataev are directing.

The project is just one of a number being introduced by Art Pictures to buyers at the upcoming Russian Virtual Content Market, which will showcase the country’s latest productions to international distributors in an online event kicking off June 8. The event, run by national body Roskino,...

Roskino, the Russian film promotion body, is set to host its first digital market on June 8 to showcase Russian content for international buyers, producers and distributors.

The initiative, called The Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition, will highlight a wide range of Russian content, both completed and in post-production, and will aim at helping filmmakers and industry executives do business and share experiences.

The org held the inaugural Key Buyers Event last October in Moscow. The physical event screened over 120 Russian films, TV series and animated projects and lured buyers and commissioners across 60 territories.

The program of Roskino’s virtual market will include live presentations and pitches, a screening room with over 150 hours of films, series and animated features, as well as live meetings, international panel discussions, and a dedicated co-production and co-development section. Roskino will also host a showcase of concerts and performances celebrating Russian culture as part of the digital event.

The Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition to launch on June 8.

Russian film promotion body Roskino is hosting a digital market in early June to showcase Russian films, projects, talents and locations to the international market.

The Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition will run from June 8 for four days and will showcase Russian film, television series and animation both completed and in post-production.

The virtual market is being designed to include live presentations and pitches; a screening room with more than 150 hours of content; real-time meetings; international panel discussions; and a dedicated co-production and co-development section. It will also showcase concerts...

A Russian virtual content market will be held in June to showcase the country’s latest productions to international buyers.

Roskino, the national film body dedicated to promoting Russian film globally, is organizing the event, which will include live presentations and pitches, a screening room with 150+ hours of films, series and animations both finished and in production, real-time meetings, international panel discussions, a dedicated co-production and co-development section and concerts and performances celebrating Russian culture.

The event will start on June 8 and run for 3-4 days, with plans still being ironed. It is being modelled on the inaugural ‘Key Buyers Event’, which was held in Moscow in October and hosted buyers and commissioners from more than 60 territories.

The move follows the postponement and cancellation of key physical markets such as Miptv and Cannes due to the pandemic, leaving gaping holes in the international biz calendar. A virtual Cannes market is...

IFC Midnight has secured the North American rights to Egor Abramenko’s directorial debut feature Sputnik, a sci-thriller set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, which has been postponed due to the current global health crisis. Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk, Pyotr Fyodorov, and Anton Vasilev star in the film, which IFC will release on August 14.

Inspired by Abramenko’s short film The Passenger, the plot takes place at the height of the Cold War when a Soviet spacecraft crash lands after a mission gone awry, leaving the commander as its only survivor. After a renowned Russian psychologist is brought in to evaluate the commander’s mental state, it becomes clear that something dangerous may have come back to Earth with him.

More from DeadlineIFC Picks Up North American Rights To Contained Arctic Chiller 'Centigrade' Based On True StoryIFC Midnight Takes North American Rights To Fantasia Horror 'The Wretched'ifc Midnight...

As evidenced in Stephen King's short story "I Am the Doorway," sometimes it's not what you encounter in space that's scary, but what you bring back with you. Such is the case in Egor Abramenko’s feature-length debut Sputnik, which has been acquired for North American distribution by IFC Midnight, with a release planned for August 14th:

Press Release: New York, NY – IFC Midnight announced today that it is acquiring North American rights to Egor Abramenko’s directorial debut Sputnik from Xyz Films. Abramenko’s sci-fi thriller short film The Passenger played in the 2017 Fantastic Film Festival in Austin, and was the inspiration for his feature debut. The film stars Oksana Akinshina who debuted in Lukas Moodysson’s award-winning film Lilya 4-ever, alongside Fedor Bondarchuk, Pyotr Fyodorov, and Anton Vasilev. The script was written by Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev. Producing is Vodorod Pictures, Art Pictures Studio, Hype Film,...

Art Pictures Distribution handles international sales.

IFC Midnight has acquired North American rights from Xyz Films to Russian sci-fi thriller Sputnik, which was set to receive its world premiere in Tribeca Film Festival’s Midnight section later this month.

Oksana Akinshina from Lilya-4-Ever stars alongside Fedor Bondarchuk in Egor Abramenko’s directorial debut based on his acclaimed 2017 Fantastic Film Festival short The Passenger. Art Pictures Distribution handles international sales.

The story takes place at the height of the Cold War as a Russian psychologist is assigned to treat a cosmonaut whose Soviet spaceship has crashed-landed on Earth. As the...

If you consider running-time alone, Russian content fills a considerable chunk of space in the official sections of the 2020 Berlinale.

This is primarily because of Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s mind-boggling large-scale simulation of the totalitarian Soviet system, the “Dau” project, which comprises 14 features — two are unspooling at Berlin, accounting for more than eight hours of screen time. “Dau. Natasha,” clocking in at two hours and 19 minutes, premieres in competition.

Described by the Dau website as “a tale of violence that is as radical as it is provocative,” it follows two waitresses in a top-secret Soviet scientific institute who strike up a cautious friendship when one is seduced by a foreign visitor, until the ministry of state security intervenes.

Meanwhile, the Berlinale Special title “Dau. Degeneratsia” has a running time of just over six hours. The story unfolds at the same institute shown in “Natasha,” where scientific and occult experiments aimed at...