The Moscow International Film Festival presents A Tribute to Rob Nilsson, a Retrospective of films by San Francisco director/writer/actor Rob Nilsson to be held during 33rd annual festival June 23-July 2, 2011. The Retrospective will feature NORTHERN LIGHTS, co-directed by John Hanson (Camera d’Or at Cannes, 1979); HEAT AND SUNLIGHT, (Grand Prize at Sundance, 1988); NEED, from the 9 @ Night Film Series (San Francisco Film Critics Circle Marlon Riggs Award, 2008) and IMBUED, starring Stacy Keach (2009).

Nilsson’s work—which John Cassavetes has called “beautiful, exciting, imaginative, unfamiliar and outside of that, very good”—has featured cinematography by San Francisco DP Mickey Freeman, and roles from actors such as Ron Perlman, Bruce Dern, Pam Grier, Stephen Lange and Robert Viharo. His films have been produced by David and Carol Richards and San Francisco producers Michelle Allen, Marshall Spight, Beth LaDove and Steve and Hildy Burns, with music, sound cutting and mix by Al Nelson and the Noise Floor.

Four of the five Retrospective films are San Francisco productions and NORTHERN LIGHTS, shot in North Dakota, also features interiors shot on San Francisco locations. From 1992- 2005 Nilsson worked with his San Francisco Tenderloin Y Group, conducting acting classes and making feature films with the homeless, inner city residents, local actors and all comers. Nilsson Retrospectives and Lifetime Achievement awards include Mill Valley, Kansas City, St. Louis, Fargo, Syracuse, Yerevan in Armenia, and Silver Lake in Los Angeles. The Filmmaker’s Alliance of Los Angeles gave him their inaugural Nilsson Award in 2008 which Nilsson now curates annually.

“To be recognized in the land of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Chekov, Mayakovsky, Isaac Babel and my favorite director, Elem Klimov is humbling to say the least,” says Nilsson, whose latest film WHAT HAPPENED HERE?—which he describes as “a road movie/essay about Leon Trotsky, virtue and political certainty”—will be his 30th feature film.