"Our goal is to find films that have the potential to appeal to audiences": the jury of the Russian Premiere Competition about their selection criteria

The jury for the Russian Premiere Competition of the 48th Moscow International Film Festival – the actress Anna Banshchikova, and the directors, screenwriters and producers Anton Maslov and Vladimir Kott spoke about what they want to see in the festival’s program.

Vladimir Kott: "I feel that we have a wide variety of films nowadays, there are many films. For me, a film at a festival must, above all, be sincere. It can be either an auteur or a commercial film. Right now, a film about a broken heart is breaking box office records – this is a commercial film on one hand and an auteur one on the other. Sincerity is the trigger that works for me personally. It doesn’t matter if it was made with a big budget or if it has top actors; the main thing is that if you immerse yourself in the story and forget you’re watching a film, this is the measure of a good film. The Russian Premiere Competition features a diverse selection of films across genres, styles, and scale; we’ll choose something, but for me, sincerity is the most important thing".

Anton Maslov: "Our main goal is to fight for the audience. We need to make sure our audience starts loving Russian cinema again. Any festival is like a place where people compete in different sports: here we have swimmers, runners, and cross-stitchers. It’s always an incredibly difficult choice, a battle between top-notch screenplays. Our task is to find films that are potentially interesting for the audience".

Anna Banshchikova: "What matters is not the number of films, but their quality. For me, I miss those simple human stories that we used to love and still watch every New Year. The purpose of art is to touch people’s hearts so that they can discover something new".