MOSCOW, August 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Release of Cannes best screenplay winner Leviathan by Andrey Zvyagintsev in Russia will pave path to Oscar nomination, said one of the film’s producers Alexander Rodnyansky.

“We have been proposed a model used by our U.S. distributor Sony Classics,” he told ITAR-TASS. “The film is bound to be released at the beginning of the year, when the so-called award season starts.”

The basic decision, he added, was that Leviathan would be screened during the week in one movie theatre in Moscow. The reason is that exactly in the autumn the Russian Oscar committee will propose a film for Oscar nomination, and according to the regulations, the film should have been screened by that time. The film will go on general release in early 2015.

Rights for Leviathan have already been bought in more than 50 countries. The film’s screening in Ukraine was yet an unresolved issue, the producer said.

“We are having a difficult time now, difficult relationship. Films are being banned, books are not being released,” he said. “Leviathan is an artist’s statement, and it should not become political.”

Leviathan is the filmmaker’s interpretation of the Bible story of Job based on modern Russian reality. The actors involved are Alexei Serebryakov, Yelena Lyadova, Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Roman Madyanov, Anna Ukolova and others.

After the premiere at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, Leviathan won the Grand Prix in Munich and main award in Palic, Serbia. The film’s complicated fate in Russia had a high profile internationally.