The St Petersburg International Film Forum (Kino Forum) kicks off

Filmmakers from around the world will gather at the banks of the Neva River for the second St Petersburg International Film Festival to be held from 10 to 15 July under the sparkling white nights of St Petersburg. The Film Forum format involves open discussion and dialogue between filmmakers and audiences from different cultures and generations.

Unprecedented in its historical scope, the Film Forum not only has accumulated the best of established domestic and world cinema on ‘war’ topic, but also contributed to the emergence of new views and ideas for cinematic movement The Forum offers its screen to award-winning best films of recent years. There will be the “Best of the best” contest among 10 award-winning paintings. Another major contest of the program is “New Territories”, which will include a dozen of international and Russian film premieres.

As part of the event, a youth film town “Metropolis” will for the first time be opened in a historic suburb of St Petersburg. This is the first working discussion platform for young filmmakers and fans from all over Russia. During activities at Metropolis, festival on amateur fiction films will be held with a professional discussion of the works of all the participants, and winners will be awarded prizes. The project manager is Alexandr Sokurov, a world-famous Russian film director.

In addition to the busy festival program, audience expects a number of educational and discussion events, including exhibitions, workshops on film production, and roundtable discussions with leading domestic and foreign filmmakers on topical issues of contemporary cinema.

During the Film Forum, there will be a variety of unique cultural events, specially dedicated to the Film Forum such as the festival of symphonic orchestras at the Neva River, festival of historical reconstructions in Peterhof, film music and song concerts in the open areas of the historical center of St. Petersburg.