History of the Festival

Message to Man Film Festival was conceived in 1988 within the circle of the philosopher Georgy Schedrovitsky, a landmark Soviet public analyst. When the concept of the festival was discussed, ​​documentary filmmaker Mikhail Litvyakov came up with a winning idea. A unique festival was born, one of the first to maintain the artistic and social independence and value of documentary film. The festival was founded at the peak of perestroika when the whole world was looking at Eastern Europe with hope. From its very first year, the festival created a feeling that the country was establishing relations of friendship and trust with the world. For the foreign guests and the jury, the festival is a unique opportunity to get in touch with the true life in modern Russia.

The attention to the festival from foreign guests only confirms this. Over 33 years of its history, dozens of documentary filmmakers and feature film icons have visited it: from Godfrey Reggio to Claude Lanzmann, from Werner Herzog to Paolo Sorrentino. The influx of applications from filmmakers who are well aware of the international reputation of Message to Man remains intact. Today the Festival remains a blood vessel actively connecting Russia with the cinematic world.

2023

Sending the Message out across Russia: Message to Man 2023

For the first time in the festival’s history, films from the programme were also screened in the Russian regions. Ekho Poslaniya (“Echo of the Message”) ran successfully in Yekaterinburg, Novgorod Veliky and Chelyabinsk. Despite scepticism about the prospects in the current climate, the jury of the international competition ended up featuring directors with a rich track record, including true masters of cinema such as Chaitanya Tamhane, Isabella Eklöf and Huang Ji, prizewinners at the film festivals in Venice, Berlin and San Sebastian. A new permanent player appeared in the festival programme: Multiverse, a non-competitive programme of short fiction and non-fiction films.

2022

NEW FORMS IN THE COMPETITION

The Orphans documentary series by Alexei Sukhovey, which will ultimately receive the main prize, becomes the first in this genre to appear in the National Competition programme. Haulout by Maxim and Evgenia Arbugaev takes the special prize of this competition and five other awards of the Festival. Later, this film becomes an Oscar nominee in the Best Documentary Short Film category.

2021

WELCOME ONLINE

Due to COVID-19 restrictions in St. Petersburg, the festival was held in a hybrid format for the first time. Screenings with audience only happened on one day; the rest of the programme was available on the NonFiction platform.

2020

AHEAD OF THE OSCARS

The Russian premiere of Chloe Zhao’s film Nomadland took place at the opening of the festival. The movie would later win an Oscar for Best Picture. Petersburg hosted the premiere of Viktor Kossakovsky’s film Gunda about the life of animals on a farm. Hollywood actor Joaquin Phoenix served as the film’s executive producer.

2019

KIER IN ST. PETERSBURG

The film The Painted Bird was presented by the German actor Udo Kier, who received the Messages to Man Film Festival’s honorary award at the opening ceremony.

2018

LORO

Oscar winner, Italian director Paolo Sorrentino visited Russia for the Message to Man Film Festival. At the event, he presented his new film Loro, based on the image of Silvio Berlusconi. French actress and director Fanny Ardant arrived in St. Petersburg as a guest.

2017

LANZMANN IN ST. PETERSBURG

Spectators at Palace Square watched a restored copy of the film Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov. The jury of the festival’s international competition featured the famous French writer, literary critic, and director Frédéric Beigbeder. The competition included the directorial debut of model and actress Laetitia Casta; Eric Roberts was the guest star. The honorary prize of the festival for his contribution to the art of cinema, courage, and precision in depicting the history of the 20th century was awarded to the iconic French documentary filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, author of the film Shoah.

2016

PEOPLE AND DREAMS

Director Werner Herzog brings his film Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World to St. Petersburg. He performs at Palace Square as part of the opening ceremony. More than 25,000 people watched the opening ceremony at Palace Square which featured a speech by the German classic. There were no empty seats at Herzog’s master class at the St. Petersburg Film and Television Institute. More than 7,000 applications from 85 countries were submitted for selection. The guests of honor were the star of French cinema, actress Isabelle Huppert and documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman. As part of the film festival, writer Jonathan Littell presented his documentary titled Wrong Elements, and was featured on the jury.

2015

MESSAGE IN THE CENTRE

For the first time, the opening ceremony of the film festival was held on Palace Square – the heart of St. Petersburg. The audience watched the film Human by Yann Arthus-Bertrand in the open air.

2014

KECHICHE IN TOWN

The French director Abdellatif Kechiche received the grand prize for his contribution to the development of cinematic language. He arrived to St. Petersburg and held a master class for local students.

2013

EXPERIMENTING AND SETTING RECORDS

In 2013, a record number of applications were submitted to the festival’s selection committee: 5,400 from nearly 100 countries of the world. The guest of honour, Austrian film director Ulrich Seidl, was awarded for his contribution to cinema. An unusual screening as part of the festival was held by the Soviet and Russian documentary filmmaker Marina Goldovskaya: she brought her film The Arkhangelsk Man to the Kresty Prison. In addition, the renowned documentary filmmakers held a workshop at the St. Petersburg State University of Cinematography and Television.

2012

OUT-OF-COMPETITION CHANGES

For the first time in the festival’s history, full-length feature films were included in out-of-competition screenings.

2011

A NEW COMPETITION

The first In Silico experimental film and short-form video competition was held.

2010

FESTIVAL’S NEW LIFE

Alexei Uchitel was officially announced as president of the Message to Man Film Festival, Mikhail Litvyakov became honorary president. The guest of honour was Agnès Varda. The French director presented her autobiographical film The Beaches of Agnès and received the prize for outstanding contribution to world cinema.

2005

A NEW PRIZE

A new award ‘For best cinematography’ from the Dan Revival Projects Association in memory of Danya Gurevich was established. Danya Gurevich (1974 ­– 2002) was cameraman in Sergei Bodrov Jr. 's crew, whose members died tragically in the Karmadon Gorge on the set of The Messenger.

2001

RIEFENSTAHL’S MESSAGE

Leni Riefenstahl’s films, along with pictures by Dziga Vertov, are shown as part of the special programme ‘Documentary Films in Totalitarian States’. Her visit generates intense controversy. The city authorities ban the screening of Riefenstahl’s film Triumph of the Will at the Aurora cinema, but the screening takes place at Dom Kino.

2000

GOODBYE, FILM?

Documentary filmmakers are ditching film due to cost savings and new opportunities that digital video provides. Filmmaker Godfrey Reggio, author of the Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqoyqatsi trilogy was named jury chairman of the 10th Message to Man Film Festival.

1998

APPLICATIONS FOR MESSAGE TO MAN SPIKE

A total of 308 films from about fifty countries: 170 films in the international competition and debut competition, 50 Russian documentaries in the national competition, 88 submissions for special programmes. The main prize for the film Bread Day was awarded to the Russian-Kazakh documentary filmmaker Sergei Dvortsevoy. Ten years later, Dvortsevoy was chairman of the jury at the 18th Film Festival.

1994

MESSAGE TO MAN HELD ANNUALLY

Short feature and animated films are included in the competition for the first time in Russia. The number of viewers at festival screenings spikes.

1991

LOSEV

The ‘Silver Centaur’ prize, as well as the prize for best debut at the 2nd Message to Man film festival were awarded to Losev directed by Viktor Kossakovsky.

1989

THE FIRST MESSAGE

Over 1,000 participants; an international film market is opened; nearly 300 accredited journalists. The star of the festival is prima ballerina Natalya Makarova, who was allowed to return to her homeland from the United States for the first time since her emigration in 1970, at the invitation of the festival. German director Erwin Leiser headed the jury; he remained in the position of the jury chairman for the 2nd and 3rd festivals. The jury featured filmmaker Alexander Sokurov, and the guests were British documentary filmmaker David Attenborough and Soviet philosopher Merab Mamardashvili.

1988

A NEW FESTIVAL IN THE USSR

Several concepts for future international film festival were discussed; the best idea came from Mikhail Litvyakov, a filmmaker from Leningrad. He was appointed general director of the new festival by Goskino. The mission set forward by the charter: “... to promote contacts and exchange of ideas between filmmakers from different countries who develop the themes of goodness, social justice and peace in their work.” The Little Centaur by the artist Nadya Rusheva became the symbol of the Message to Man International Film Festival. The film festival prize was created by the St. Petersburg artist Dmitry Pakhomov based on a drawing by the young artist.