A Diploma In the Hand is Worth a Prize Behind the Scenes

The festival’s results were quite predictable. The prize of President of the Republic of Belarus “For Humanism and Spirituality in Cinema” was awarded to the Russian film director Stanislav Govorukhin. The award was presented to him by Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Drazhin at the closing ceremony of the film festival in the Palace of Republic. Govorukhin’s film “Not by bread alone” received the highest score from the viewers — 9.37 out of 10. We recall that Govorukhin had been earlier bestowed with an honorary lapel badge of the Ministry of Culture “For Contribution to the Development of Belarusian Culture”. Govorukhin was also called onstage to receive the prize to the cameraman of the film “Not by bread alone” Yuri Klimenko and the best actor in a supporting role Viktor Sukhorukov. The “silver” of Minsk festival was conferred to the film “Tuner” by Kira Muratova. And the “bronze” was given to the Serbian movie “Midwinter Night`s Dream” by Goran Paskalevich.

Besides the viewers’ jury, the festival films were judged by a professional moviemakers’ jury chaired by the film director Sergey Ursulyak and a cinema press’ jury. The moviemakers decided to share the prize “Best Directing” between two films — “Midwinter Night`s Dream” by Goran Paskalevich and “Sophie Scholl — The Final Days” by the German director Marc Rotemund. The leading lady in this film Julia Jentsch received the prize as the best actress in a leading role. Zbigniew Zapasiewicz was awarded the prize as the best actor in a leading role for his acting in the film “Persona Non Grata” by Krzysztof Zanussi. And Zanussi himself was given the main prize by the cinema press’ jury, but rather for the classic’s attention to “Listapad” than for his film.

Valentin Pepeliayev