RUSSIA: SOPHIA LOREN AND ROBERT DE NIRO PROVIDE SOME OF THE GLAMOUR FOR CLOSING CEREMONY OF 20TH MOSCOW INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Record ID: 387130

  • Title: RUSSIA: SOPHIA LOREN AND ROBERT DE NIRO PROVIDE SOME OF THE GLAMOUR FOR CLOSING CEREMONY OF 20TH MOSCOW INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
  • Date: 29th July 1997
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (JULY 29 ,1997 ) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) ROBERT DE NIRO RECEIVING THE "GOLDEN ST GEORGE AWARD" FOR "MARVIN'S ROOM"
  • Embargoed: 13th August 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVACM1F1FZCUT9XVWFYYO405TL92
  • Story Text: American film "Marvin's Room" has won the top prize, the Golden St George, at the 20th Moscow Film Festival.

    Its star, Robert De Niro, was in Moscow to receive the award and accept another for his contribution to cinema.

    Russian director Alexander Sokurov's "Mother and Son"was awarded a special jury prize.

    Other winners include Spain's Isabel Ardas, who won Best Actress for her performance in "Chevrolet"; German Til Schweiger, Best Actor, for his role in "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and Janos Szaz, Best Director for Hungarian film "The Witman Boys".

    The jury, headed by Russian actor Oleg Menshikov, picked "Marvin's Room" over a a crop of contesting films -- "Minister of State" from Finland; "The Witman Boys," from Hungary; "Living Like Kings," from France; "Blue Mountain," from Swiss director Thomas Tanner; "Hotel Shanghai," and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," from Germany; "Le Plus Beau Metier du Monde," from French director Gerard Lauzier; "Chevrolet," from Spain; "Marianna Ucria," from Italy; "The Trap," from Poland; "Sardari Begum," from India; "First Option," from Hong Kong director Gordon Chai; "Swallowtail Butterfly," from Japan; "Mother and Son" from Russian director Alexander Sokurov; and "Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis," from Great Britain.

    Several recent films also featured at the festival including "Train Spotting," "Cannes Man," "The Learning Circle," Woody Allen's "Everyone Says I Love You," Jack Nicholson's "Blood and Wine," and Irwin Kershner's newly restored version of "The Empire Strikes Back." The festival also was the venue for the Russian premiere of Joel Schumacher's "Batman and Robin," Baz Luhrmann's "William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliette" and Andrei Konchalovsky's "Odyssey." Organizers hoped this year's festival would mark a return to prestige for the Russian film industry.

    This year's Moscow Film Festival is also the first one to welcome large Hollywood film companies after soothing their concerns over rampant piracy in Russia which led to a six-year boycott of the festival.

    But the festival was dogged by problems. Shows, even premieres, were almost never sold out. Show times were constantly reshuffled.

    Participants and VIP's reported difficulties in obtaining visas.

    And movie-goers had virtually no access to schedules or information about films.

    Critics assessed the festival showings, guest list, and seminars as being long on nostalgia, but short on innovation and perhaps too distant from modern film-making.

    In a sense, the festival wonderfully captured the precarious state of the Russian film industry which hosted it.

    The Russian film industry, dominated by the state begemoth Mosfilm during communist years, endured a near fatal collapse with the break-up of the Soviet Union. It is still reeling. Film production in Russia has fallen off by at least four times, Mosfilm has fractured into small film and advertising studios unable or unwilling to back large projects, and pirating continues despite government promises to stop it.
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