Message to Man International Film Festival of documentaries, live-action shorts, and animated films
The 34th International Film Festival Message to Man takes place in St. Petersburg from October 17 to 25, 2025.
In 2025, the Festival celebrates its 35th anniversary.
Message to Man represents more than three decades in the history of the new Russia, a country painfully searching for its path after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
It is also the story of modern Russian documentary filmmaking, which has taken a winding journey from television journalism to the art of closely observing reality. Along the way, it has developed its own distinct style and form, helping to carve out a space in Russia’s still-evolving public sphere. Today, documentary cinema is conquering new virtual spaces, as it recruits authors not only from the filmmaking community, but also from among journalists, bloggers, and engaged citizens. It is helping to shape civil society in Russia. Documentary film has become our historical memory, our tool for self-knowing.
Thirty-five years of the Festival also mark a significant era in the history of global documentary cinema. Over this time, it has broken out of its niche and reached parity with live-action cinema: documentaries released in wide distribution and selected for competition at major international festivals—starting with Cannes—are no longer rare.
Nor are films rare that defy a clear division between fiction and documentary. These works are undeniably nourished by the raw material of real life, moving far away from the conventions of what François Truffaut—filmmaker and theorist of the “new wave“—once derided as “daddy’s cinema.” These are the very kinds of films featured in Message to Man’s Twin Peaks and Panorama.doc sections.
A “new new wave” is a fitting term for the revolution auteur cinema has undergone over the past three decades. At one point, it seemed this wave might be swept away by commercial cinema. But as it turns out, the connection to reality and the life lived has proven impossible to sever. And today, documentary films and fiction works inspired by documentary material and aesthetics are playing a leading role in preserving that connection.
These three decades are also the personal journeys of the filmmakers who have shaped the cinema celebrated at Message to Man. These were especially fruitful years for directors born in the 1960s, who entered the world of art at nearly the same moment the Festival’s first edition took place in 1989. Now at the height of their careers, they include Viktor Kossakovsky and Sergey Dvortsevoy, Lauren Greenfield and Thomas Balmès. The New Voices section is dedicated to the next generations of filmmakers, including some of the youngest.
FACTS, FIGURES, & NAMES
The Festival was established by Resolution No. 29 of the Soviet Union’s Council of Ministers, dated January 16, 1989:
«…to approve the proposal of the USSR State Committee for Cinematography and the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR, supported by the Leningrad City Executive Committee, to hold the First International Documentary Film Festival Message to Man in Leningrad, from January 25 to 31, 1989.»
The Festival was founded by Mikhail Litvyakov, who now serves as its Honorary President.
Since 2010, the President of the Festival has been filmmaker Alexey Uchitel, director of both documentaries and live-action films, and People’s Artist of Russia.
According to the regulations, the Festival programme includes:
- International Competition (documentary films up to 120 minutes; short live-action and animated films up to 40 minutes);
- National Documentary Film Competition (up to 120 minutes);
- International Experimental Film Competition In Silico (up to 15 minutes);
- Special programmes.
The selection committee receives at least 2,500 submissions annually. More than 200 films are featured across competition and non-competition programmes.
Over its 30-year history, the Festival’s juries, guests, and participants have included: Agnès Varda, Isabelle Huppert, Werner Herzog, Frederick Wiseman, Ulrich Seidl, Claude Lanzmann, Paolo Sorrentino, Fanny Ardant, Volker Schlöndorff, Eric Roberts, Udo Kier, Tonino Guerra, Godfrey Reggio, Bill Plympton, Mira Nair, Semih Kaplanoğlu, Leni Riefenstahl, Michael Glawogger, Zbigniew Rybczyński, Ulrich Gregor, Vadim Abdrashitov, Leo Gurwitch, Sergei Miroshnichenko, Sergei Ovcharov, Emir Kusturica, Gerrit van Dijk, Alexander Rogozhkin, Konstantin Bronzit, Sergei Dvortsevoy, Pavel Kostomarov, Erwin Leiser, Merab Mamardashvili, Sergei Loznitsa, Juris Podnieks, Vladimir Motyl, Savva Kulish, Fyodor Khitruk, Kira Muratova, Alexander Sokurov, Viktor Kossakovsky, Garri Bardin, Yuri Klepikov, Vladislav Vinogradov, Marina Goldovskaya, Alisher Khamidkhodjaev, Vladimir Pozner, Jem Cohen, Mark Cousins, and many other outstanding filmmakers.
Until 2022, the Festival had been accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF), France.
Throughout its history, the Festival has received organizational and financial support from Russia’s Ministry of Culture and its cinematic department, the Government of St. Petersburg, and its Committee on Culture, as well as more recently from the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives and the Festival’s general sponsor, Ilim Group. The Festival is organized by the Non-Profit Partnership for the Promotion of Cinema and Theatre Development “Message to Man.”
More information about the Festival’s history can be found here.
