Press Release


Films without boundaries at Film Festival
KINOGRAN – 2009.

The festival was organized by The students’ centre of Belarusian State University, The department of youth of Minsk City Executive Committee.

The festival included two contests:

  • International contest “The young professionals”
  • National contest of independent and amateur movie

More than 90 international and 38 Belarusian films was shown at Minsk cinemas “Central” and “Centre-video” during the KINOGRAN film festival. The organizers received 352 films from more than 30 countries, 60 film studios and universities. Moreover the organizers made definitely selection of the films on different international festivals.

This year the accent was put on the international program. The organizers gave Belarusian public a unique opportunity to see the whole set of international youth films. The majority of films participating in “The young professionals” contest are the participants of prestigious international festivals in Cannes, Berlin Locarno, Toronto, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Krakow, Leipzig etc.

The national program is the contest of independent and amateur films of Belarusian directors. Some of them are going to become professional and are already doing their first independent steps, while for others it is just a pleasant past time.

During the international competition the jury chose:

  • The Grand Prize
    AGAPE/АГАПЕ (Slobodan Maksimovich, Slovenia)
    • the best fiction film
      SHTIKA/ SILENCE/ ТИШИНА (Hadar Morag, Tel-Aviv University, Israel)
    • the best documentary film
      TAM GDZE SLONCE SIE NIE SPIESZY/ WHERE THE SUN DOESN'T RUSH/ КУДА НЕ ТОРОПИТСЯ СОЛНЦЕ (Matej Bobrik, The Polish National Film School, Poland)
    • the best animation film
      DRUGAYA/ THE ONE WHO WAS/ ДРУГАЯ (Anna Shepilova, VGIK, Russia)
    • the best experimental film
      KOPF/ HEAD/ ОРЁЛ (Martin Jehle, Germany)
    • the best musical video
      TRY JANHALY/ THE THREE ANGELS/ ТРЫ ЯНГАЛЫ (Yulija Ruditskaja, Belarus)
    The best in each nomination was chosen by famous Belarusian directors and film critics from Russia and Belarus.

    The audience’s voting was chosen the winner of the prize of public.

    • The audience award
      TOT OU TARD/ SOONER OR LATER/ РАНО ИЛИ ПОЗДНО (Jadwiga Kowalska, Hochschule Luzern – Animation, Switzerland)