Minsk International Film Festival Listapad 2016
Famous directors and actors, interesting meetings, full houses in Minsk cinemas and the best new movies from Belarus and other countries… The 23rd edition of Minsk International Film Festival (MIFF) Listapad 2016 was held in Minsk on 4-11 November under the motto Towards Inspiration. Listapad 2016 will be remembered as an eventful and exciting cinema forum. It made a good addition to the program of the Year of Culture declared in Belarus in 2016.
In the course of one week the jury headed by Georgian director, Oscar 2015 nominee Zaza Urushadze, famous critics and 20,000 spectators watched almost round-the-clock the world’s best movies, discovered new names, met with actors and directors, discussed and evaluated the films presented at Listapad 2016.
MIFF Listapad has already become a major event of the European film festivals calendar. The Listapad 2016 program included 160 films from 52 countries: world premiers, documentaries, national retrospectives, non-competition screenings, and debut works of young filmmakers which were screened as part of the 5th edition of the national film competition.
Another highlight of the international film festival was the children and youth film competition Listapadzik 2016. This time it went beyond its traditional program of adventure movies and school stories, and showed movies about the problems of kids in the modern world. The Best Film award went to Microbe and Gasoline by French director Michel Gondry who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the drama Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in 2004.
Winners of the festival were honored during the official closing ceremony. Special guests and the international jury headed by Zaza Urushadze announced the winners of the Golden, Silver and Bronze Listapad awards.
The Grand Prix of the 23rd Minsk International Film Festival Listapad, Golden Listapad, went to Benedek (Bence) Fliegauf’s drama Lily Lane (Hungary, Germany and France). The Grand Prix for the Best Documentary was awarded to Anna Zamiecka, a student of Andrzej Wajda, for the movie Communion (Poland). Oliver Laxe’s Mimosas (Morocco, Spain, France, Qatar) received Silver Listapad in the Film as an Art Phenomenon category. Bronze Listapad went to Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s Glory (Bulgari, Greece).
