Realist Web Fest Opens (Pictures)

The third international festival of web series Realist Web Fest has opened in Nizhny Novgorod. The opening ceremony was held at the Volgo-Vyatka branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (NCCA "Arsenal").

The guests of the ceremony were scriptwriters and playwrights Oleg and Vladimir Presnyakovs, directors Yuri Bykov, Maxim Pezhemsky, actresses Olga Sutulova, Margarita Abroskina, Ekaterina Shumakova, Agniya Kuznetsova, "dubbing actors" Anisa Murtayeva, Daria Blokhina, Albert Ibragimov and others.


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The ceremony was hosted by Russian actress and singer Nino Ninidze. She drew attention to the fact that REALIST WEB FEST is being held this year in an offline format, which is very important for the industry, because "the festival is a professional reason to meet."

Then she invited the founder of the festival, Anton Kalinkin , to the stage, who told why there are two numbers 3 and 4 on this year's logo.

"Why do we have numbers 3 and 4 on our logo? Because we have the third and fourth festival at once. Firstly, because we are striving very much for the first anniversary, the fifth festival, and also because the festival was not held last year, and the program was selected immediately in two years," he said.

In total, about 3,000 applications from 70 countries of the world were submitted to the festival, while a record number of works were received from Russia, 43 projects were selected for the competition, 17 of them were Russian web series, including series of the KinoPoiskHD platforms, Okko, a production company "Wednesday" for the online cinema KION, the social network "Odnoklassniki," etc.


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"This year's program, the Russian part of it, confirms that over the past 3 years, web series have become an integral part of the media space and our film industry," continues Anton Kalinkin.

The international jury of the Main Competition included screenwriters, writers and directors Vladimir and Oleg Presnyakov , director Maxim Pezhemsky , theater and film actress Olga Sutulova , director of web series, founder and director of one of the most prestigious web festivals Rio Web Fest Leandro Silva , actress, director, producer, founder and director of the Bilbao Seriesland web festival in Bilbao, Spain, Rose of Dolls; and French television screenwriter, founder of the Web Series World Championship, Joel Bassajet.

Foreign members of the jury are present at the festival online this year, at the opening ceremony, they wished the participants good luck, and the guests - have a great time watching the web series. Due to the difficult travel situation, many international participants could not come - they also took part in the ceremony live - more than 50 people from 27 countries were mentally in Nizhny Novgorod and greeted the guests of the ceremony.


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In addition to the main competition, the festival also features the Pilot Competition, in which 9 projects from Russia, Germany and China are participating. The Pilots jury consisted of representatives of key streaming platforms: Viktor Chekanov (MEGOGO), Mikhail Klochkov (START), Svetlana Sonina (Okko), Vladimir Malyzhenkov ( more.tv ), Alexandra Nelyubina (AMEDIATEKA), Anna Gudkova (Premier), Alexander Feldman ( Megafon TV), Maria Smirnova (KION, MTS-Media), Anna Kreichman (IVI). They will choose the winner in the Best Pilot category.

The Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Olga Lyubimova made a video message to the guests and participants of the festival.

"Dear friends, I welcome you to the opening of the international festival Realist Web Fest. For the third time, the film forum has attracted the creators of topical domestic and foreign web series to a broad and professional dialogue. This year, 700 applications were submitted from participants from Russia, and 17 of them were included in the competition program. This is evidence of the high-quality work of the team of organizers who managed to make Realist Web Fest a popular platform for the popularization and achievements of domestic audiovisual products. It is also noteworthy that the festival has become one of the large-scale cultural events of the program to celebrate the 800th anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod. Thanks to the excellent creative atmosphere for many young directors and other participants, this event will become an important stage in their professional development. With all my heart I wish you further success and good mood," noted Olga Lyubimova.

Olga Shchetinina, Deputy Chairperson of the Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, who was present at the ceremony, said that Nizhny Novgorod residents were very upset about the cancellation of the festival last year, but they are very glad that this time it was held offline, and foreign representatives also have the opportunity to participate in the festival and protrude. "It is very pleasant that the festival is growing every year and the industry is growing along with it. We see this by the number of Russian participants and the interest in the show. I am glad that the Nizhny Novgorod region is developing together with the web series industry. I wish you all good work, interesting discussions, and, of course, victory," she said.


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In honor of the 800th anniversary, the general producer of the festival, Anton Kalinkin, presented the Nizhny Novgorod region with a special version of the main prize of the festival - a symbolic cinematic plate, which, according to tradition, is usually broken on the first day of shooting.

Music columnist Boris Barabanov is responsible for the musical part of the festival this year, who prepared 5 track lists for all occasions of the festival life. You can listen to them on all major platforms Apple Music, Spotify, Yandex. Music.

Also, within the framework of the opening ceremony, a Special Prize was awarded to the Institute of Internet Development - "For supporting the web industry." "Traditionally, we present a special prize at the opening of the festival. This year we want to give a special prize for support. We want to present the prize to the company, thanks to the idea of ​​creating which a huge amount of web content has appeared recently. We are presenting a special prize to the Director General of the Institute for Internet Development, Anton Klyuchkin," announced Anton Kalinkin.

"In fact, it is very pleasant to receive such an award, especially considering that we entered the market relatively recently. For us, perhaps the most important thing is that the money we distribute found young debutants, that they continue to participate in our competition. We see a large number of young talented teams and original ideas. We very much hope that this year we will be able to support, among other things, pilot projects," said the General Director of IRI Anton Klyuchkin while receiving the prize.

Concluding the ceremony, Anton Kalinkin traditionally broke a plate with the jury's autographs to mark the opening of the festival.

The festival is supported by the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region.

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