News

“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,...

Rising Russian director Kirill Sokolov (“Why Don’t You Just Die!”) and “Vikings” star Danila Kozlovsky have boarded “Alone in the Ocean,” a big-budget survival drama based on the true story of a Soviet man who spent three days lost at sea.

Pic is produced by Artem Vasilyev of Metrafilms, Roman Borisevich of Plan 9 and Konstantin Buslov of Rb Production, and co-produced by André Logie of Belgium’s Panache Prods. It’s being prepped to go into production in 2022.

Set in the 1970s and based on the book of the same name, “Alone in the Ocean” tells the story of Slava Kurilov, an oceanographer aboard a Soviet vessel plying the Philippine Sea who decides to leap overboard, only to learn that after a grave miscalculation he’s more than a hundred miles offshore. Kurilov spends the next three days at sea fighting for survival, determined to live his passion for the ocean,...

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...

Non Stop Productions, producer of Cannes winner Leviathan, is among nine “industry leaders” selected by the Russian Cinema Fund (Fond Kino) to take a share of $55m (RUB1.9bn).

Alexander Rodnyansky’s Non Stop Productions, producer of Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Cannes winner Leviathan, is among nine production companies selected as ¨industry leaders¨ for 2014 by the Russian Cinema Fund (Fond Kino) for the allocation of $55m (RUB1.9bn) to be distributed among them as subsidies or repayable loans.

Leviathan will be the closing film at the weekend for this week’s ‘Kinotavr’ Open Russia Film Festival in Sochi, and Non Stop is also represented by Konstantin Buslov’s second feature Adventurers as part of the open-air programme

The line-up of ¨leaders¨ also includes Igor Tolstunov’s company ProFIT, which has two films in Kinotavr’s main competition - Alexander Kott’s Test and Nigina Saifullayeva’s Whatayacallme -; Sergei Selyanov’s Ctb - in Sochi with the animation...