"This year, cinematographers from the Netherlands, Peru, Denmark and Sweden participate in the festival," Burlyaev said. "During the entire history of Zolotoi Vityaz, directors, actors, screenplay writers and critics from 55 countries participated in the festival. We have introduced a new competition for children's movies this year. A panel of judges composed of children will evaluate the results. Overall, our forum will consist of six competitions: feature movies, documentaries, cartoons, students' works, TV production and movies for children." The major difference of this year's festival is that it is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War which became the main part of World War II; therefore, dozens of old and new movies presented by the participants will touch upon the war theme one way or another.
As to the contest program, Russia will be represented by Valery Ogorodnikov's feature Red Sky, Black Snow filmed in Chelyabinsk, the Foreigner by Andrei Kravchuk, and the Forest Song by Temo Esadze and Alexander Basov. The program will also include the Winter Night's Dream by the Cannes Festival laureate Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic and Polish actor and director Jerzy Stuhr's comedy Tomorrow's Weather.
According to Nikolai Burlyaev, the fundamental difference between the Zolotoi Vityaz and other Russian movie festivals is "during its 14-year history the festival moved steadily on a specific course defined by its slogan "For Christian moral values. For elevation of the human soul."
"Our festival is a festival of positive cinematography and that is what makes it different," he said.
