Golden Raven Film Festival Business Programme Addresses Development of Arctic Creative Industries

            Participants in the business programme of the Golden Raven Arctic International Film Festival, which took place on 21–23 March in Murmansk, discussed the development of northern cinema. The discussions were held in the run-up to the Golden Raven Festival, which will be held in April in the city of Chukotka Autonomous District city of Anadyr.

“The slogan of our festival was developed during the roundtable […] – people, feelings, and a miracle. For the Golden Raven Festival, the main thing is people, their feelings, attitude, and faith in themselves. And thanks to them, a real cultural miracle can be born in such a harsh Arctic region as Chukotka!” Golden Raven Film Festival Artistic Director Philip Abryutin said.

The business programme of the Golden Raven Film Festival consisted of eight roundtables, which focused on the development of creative industries in the Arctic, national cinema, film education, film tourism, as well as regional film production and distribution. In addition, the discussion participants addressed the problem of preserving the culture of the peoples of the North in cinema. The experts considered ways to preserve endangered languages and linguistic identity and the use of national languages to convey the atmosphere and special aspects of the original culture and traditions of ethnic groups. The roundtable discussions took place in person and online.

More than 60 national and regional speakers took part in the business programme events, including representatives of the regional authorities, film producers and distributors, culture, art, film universities and film schools, media managers, and public figures. The business programme participants included: Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives General Director Roman Karmanov, Murmansk Region Deputy Governor Yelena Dyagileva, Golden Raven Film Festival Artistic Director Philip Abryutin, Public Council Member of the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East Leonid Agafonov, Northern Character International Film Festival President Svetlana Soldatova, Golden Raven Film Festival Producer Oksana Lakhno, and directors Vladimir Golovnev, Vladimir Krivov, Ivan Bolotnikov, and Ivan Sosnin. The roundtables were moderated by Yury Yerofeyev, a director and the curator of the business programme of the Golden Raven Film Festival.

The in-person events of the film festival’s business programme were held at the Murmansk Contemporary Art Centre. The events of the business programme were organized by the Golden Raven Centre for the Development and Support of Cultural Projects with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives and the Northern Character Production Centre.

The Golden Raven Arctic International Film Festival is held in the capital of the Chukotka Autonomous District and is a professional competition for the viewing of cinematographic works from all over the world. In 2023, the festival will be held for the seventh time and will last for two weeks, from 24 April to 7 May. The Golden Raven programme includes international competitions for full-length and short films, both fiction and non-fiction films, as well as the Kinovzlyot! regional competition. The festival is unique in that the winners of the main nomination are chosen not by an expert panel of judges, but by ordinary viewers who rate the films in a vote. In addition, the festival includes a creative film laboratory at which creative young people make films about their beloved region under the guidance of film industry professionals. The Golden Raven Festival is sponsored by the Youth Initiatives Producer Centre and the Golden Raven Centre for the Development and Support of Cultural Projects with the support of the Government of the Chukotka Autonomous District, the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives, the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of the Chukotka Autonomous District, the company Okrkinovideoprokat, and the Russian Union of Cinematographers. In 2021, the Golden Raven Film Festival was held as part of Russia’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council.