Spirit of Fire

About

According to the Federal Law «On the state support of cinematograph of the Russian Federation», the International Debut Film Festival «The Spirit of Fire» has the following tasks and purposes:

• Fundamental development of regional culture of Khanti-Mansiisk autonomous okrug of the Russian Federation in the 21st century; participation in the process of integration of world cultures;
• Attraction of mass public to the movie houses of new technical generation, activization of processes of cinema and theater screenings as well as helping to overcome crisis of national Russian cinematograph;
• Contribution to the appearance of the new generation of Russian film-makers;
• Contribution to the appearance and development in the region of film education and film industry;
• Contribution to the integration of young Russian cinema into the world cinematographic process.

Awards

The Jury of the International competition shall award the following prizes:

• The Festival’s main prize “Golden taiga” – for the best debut film – 600 000 (three hundred thousand) rubles;
• Prize “Silver taiga” – for the debut film – 300 000 (two hundred thousand) rubles;
• Prize “Bronze taiga” – for the debut film 100 000 (one hundred thousand) rubles;
• In addition, the Jury can award separate professional debuts (to a script writer, cameraman, composer) by conferring the Jury’s special prize with a special formulation.

Competition “Russian debuts”. The following prizes shall be awarded as a result of spectators’ voting:

• Audience Choice Award — "Golden Taiga";
• Prize of the President of the Film Festival "Flowers of Hope of Taiga."

Actors Film Festival jury awards the following prizes for the best acting in a Russian debut film:

• Prize named after Alexander Abdulov "Best Actor in Russian debut film";
• Prize named after Alexander Abdulov "Best Actress in Russian debut film."

Prize named after a cameraman Pavel Lebeshev "For the best camera work" in the competitive or non-competitive Russian film.

Debutant director prize for the best music in the film of International or Russian competition program. 

The competition "Debut — short film"

• The jury of the Presidential Council awards:
• The prize "Golden Taiga — short film";
• According to voting results of the press accredited at the Film Festival the press prize for the best short film debut shall be awarded.

Award of the Film Festival general partner, PJSC "Gazprom Neft,"  "For the preservation of cultural traditions."

Two special Film Festival prize - to winners of the open competition of microfilms - "For Humanity" and "For ethnography", and five encouragement prizes.

Two  "Golden Taiga" prizes - "For personal contribution to cinema and the creation of own school."

Commemorative Presidential Prize "Golden Taiga" - "For personal contribution to the development of the International Festival of Cinematographic Debuts" Spirit of Fire ".

Rules

The competition programs involves films, which were completed on or after 1 of November, 2023.

No more than 8 feature films, including not more than 1 national films,  will participate in the International (main) competition of the Film Festival,  if they meet the following requirements:

• Film should be the first or second full-length work of a director in the field of fiction films;
• Films participating in the international competition must not have been previously publicly demonstrated on the territory of the Russian Federation;
• DCP is preferred format for the film in the original language with English subtitles, if the original language is not English;
• Film participation in the international competition provides for the mandatory presence of the director and / or starring actor in case the director and / or starring actor can not come to the festival, the management of the festival reserves the right to leave the film in the competition, if the film is presented by a member of the crew of the leading creative profession;

No more than 12 full-length films will participate in the competition "Russian Debuts". These films should be the first work of a director in the field of feature films and have a release print on a professional media. DPC is a preferred format.

No more than 30 short feature films up to 30 minutes length will participate in the competition "The Debut — short film."

Up to 20 films with a length up to 3 minutes will participate in an open microfilms competition with two themes: Documentary microfilm about national and cultural features of the peoples of the world "Ethnography" and microfilms on the general theme of "Humanity."

 

Additional Information

The Festival assumes all carrier’s expenses (bringing to the country, taking out from the country), transportation expenses, storage and insurance of the selected prints.

Premiere Requirements

No premiere requirement

Jury and Organizers

President of the Festival – director Sergei A.Solovyov, people’s artist of Russia, winner of International festivals, president of the Moscow International Film Festival from 1995—1997, repeated jury member of the International festivals including Venice and Moscow.
Vice-president of the Festival, program director, play writer, Maria.I.Zvereva, honored worker of arts of the Khanti-Mansiisk Autonomous Okrug – Yugra, vice-chairman of the Confederation of the Union of Film-Makers from 1988—2001, winner of TV “TEFI” award and award for the best script conferred by the European Film Academy, member of the film festivals in Cannes, Karlovy Vary and Delhi.
Chairman of the Selection Board – film critic, Andrei S.Plakhov, cinema columnist of the “Kommersant” newspaper.