MOSCOW, August 27. /TASS/. The Venice Production Bridge industry venue of the Venice International Film Festival will be held with a focus on Russia for the first time, participants will attend business events uniting leading Russian and Italian film industry professionals, the press service of Roskino, Russia’s state institution in charge of promoting Russian cinema worldwide, reported on Friday.
"Russia’s considerable presence at film festivals this year began with Cannes. And it is there that the Roskino team discussed the ‘Focus on Russia’ initiative with several industry venues. And as early as after a month and a half, at the Venice Festival, jointly with the ANICA National Cinematographic, Audiovisual and Multimedia Association, Roskino, with the support of Russia’s Culture Ministry and the Cinema Fund for the first time in the history of the Venice Film Festival presents the capabilities of Russia’s movie industry so extensively within the framework of the business program," Roskino’s General Director Evgeniya Markova said as quoted by the press service.
The Venice International Film Festival will be held on Lido Island from September 1-11, as is tradition, and the Venice Production Bridge cinema market will operate at the same time. The business program involves a number of meetings and presentations. One of the events is the Focus on Russia panel discussion where Russian film industry professionals and the representatives of Italian specialized organizations and institutions will discuss the strategies of joint production and investments between Russia and Italy as well as the prospects of the Russian movie market from the point of view of international cooperation.
"There has been a major breakthrough for the Russian industry - if at the events in the past years it was represented mostly by cinematic works then currently we see a substantial expansion precisely in terms of industry dialogue," the general director noted.
The main program of the festival will include the drama Captain Volkogonov Escaped by Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov and the motion picture Mama, I’m Home by Vladimir Bitokov which was included in the new Orizzonti Extra program. The special screenings will include Nastia Korkia’s documentary GES-2, while Ekaterina Selenkina’s Detours will be shown within the framework of the critics’ weekly program.