The festival took place from 19 to 26 June 2015 and presented 307 films from all over the world. The President of MIFF Nikita Mikhalkov presided over the closing ceremony at the Rossiya Theatre.
The 60 year old Hristov is a well known actor in Bulgaria with more than 120 theatre and film roles as an actor to his credit as well as directing hit Bulgarian stage productions. Losers is a story of four high school students, Elena, Koko, Patso and Gosho, in a small town in Bulgaria who are inseparable friends that share the belief that they are ''losers''.
Despite the festival being cut by two days due to lack of funds, admissions still topped 55,000 which was an overall increase of 10% over last year. Perhaps the most controversial programme of the festival was a section titled Screen Image of Tragedy: Armenian Genocide which drew criticism from the Turkish embassy. At the same time the festival balanced its programme with a section screening Turkish films titled Turkish Cinema Yesterday and Today.
The 7th edition Moscow Business Square also took place during two days within the framework of the festival with focuses on Finland and Austria as well as a session of the Baltic Bridge East by West (B’EST) producer's workshop organized in cooperation with EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs) and with the support from Creative Europe MEDIA Programme. B’EST is a workshop platform for European audiovisual professionals to start a long term working relationship with producers from Russia and the other post-Soviet countries. Feature and documentary projects from Russia, Iceland, Slovakia, Estonia and Greece were presented.
Full list of Winners:
Main Competition:
Main Prize Golden George for the best film:
Losers (Bulgaria)
Directed by Ivaylo Hristov
Produced by: Profilm
Supported by Bulgarian National Film Centre
Special Jury Prize Silver George:
Arventur (Russia)
Directed by Irina Evteeva
Silver George for the Best Director:
Frederikke Aspock for Rosita (Denmark)
Silver George for the Best Actor:
Yerkebulan Daiyrov for Tool Bar (Kazakhstan)
Directed by Zhassulan Poshanov
Silver George for the Best Actress:
Elena Lyadova for Orleans (Russia)
Directed by Andrey Proshkin
Silver George for the Best Documentary:
Cartel Land (USA, Mexico)
Directed by Matthew Heineman
Prize for the Best Short Film:
Sniper’s Observation Method (South Korea)
Directed by Yunha Kim
FIPRESCI Prize:
The Road (Lebanon)
Directed by Rana Salem
Special Prize for the Outstanding Contribution to the World Cinema:
Jean-Jacques Annaud (France)
Special Prize for the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Career and Devotion to Principles of K. Stanislavsky School:
Jacqueline Bisset
