The 2nd Open Russian Festival of Animated Films was held in 1997 at a boarding house called "Birch Grove" near the town of Tarusa, Russia. Animated works from the past three years in the Russian Federation were accepted.
The prizes were handed out according to profession, and any member or guest of the festival was able to vote for their favourite film.
Despite the growing economic crisis in the country, it marked an artistic high point in the Russian animation field in the 1990s, and the high quality of the films attracted the attention of the national mainstream media.Malyukova, Larisa. Сверхкино. 2013, p.301. (Viewable version of the book available here or here): "In 1997 at the second Open Russian Festival for Animated Film in Tarusa, it was unexpectedly discovered that animation not only had not disappeared from the face of the Russian land (there had even been the idea to stage its national funeral), but, on the contrary, had found the remarkable strength for the strongest creative leap. The festival turned into an unforgettable fireworks display of movie events, new names, genres and styles and visions that would determine the future vectors of development of the art. Against the background of a clearly bewildered and pale [Russian] live-action cinema, sunken in the grip of economic and political turmoil, the animators attracted unprecedented attention. The contemporary animated films were talked about not only on the pages of specialist publications, but on TV as well. Newspapers and magazines of the widest circulation started talking about animation, such as "Kommersant", "Izvestia", "Matador", which had not previously been noted connoisseurs of this soulful art."
Jury English Profession(s) Fyodor Khitruk director, animator Nikolai Izvolov cinematologist, film historian Eduard Nazarov director, artist, animator Yuriy Norshteyn director, artist, animator, teacher Aleksandr Florenskiy artist
Prizes of the Jury Award Recipient(s) Film(s) Links Best Direction (shared) Mikhail AldashinМихаил Алдашин The NativityРождество (Rozhdestvo) Best Direction (shared) Yuriy CherenkovЮрий Черенков The Great MigrationБольшая миграция (Bolshaya migratsiya) Best Scenario Nadezhda KuzhushanayaНадежда Кожушаная GrandmotherБабушка (Babushka)The Pink DollРозовая кукла (Rozovaya kukla) , Best Art Direction Zoya TrofimovaЗоя Трофимова The NativityРождество (Rozhdestvo) Best Animator of a Drawn Film Aleksandr PetrovАлександр Петров The MermaidРусалка (Rusalka) Best Animator of a Puppet Film Olga PanokinaОльга Панокина AbrahamАвраам (Avraam)JosephИосиф (Iosif) , Best Camera Operator Aleksandr VikhanskiyАлександр Виханский AbrahamАвраам (Avraam) Best Character Igor OleynikovИгорь Олейниковfor the character "Iona" IonaИона Best Debut Andrey ZolotukhinАндрей Золотухин GrandmotherБабушка (Babushka) "Breakthrough" Prize Valentin Olshvang The Pink DollРозовая кукла (Rozovaya kukla) Best Commercial Andrey Karpenko The DragonflyСтрекоза (Strekoza)The Sausage is LateКолбаса опаздывает (Kolbasa opazdyvayet) ,
Rating (by audience vote) Position Film Director Points 1 The NativityРождество (Rozhdestvo) Mikhail Aldashin 433 2 The Great MigrationБольшая миграция (Bolshaya migratsiya) Yuriy Cherenkov 323 3 The MermaidРусалка (Rusalka) Aleksandr Petrov 228 4 The Pink DollРозовая кукла (Rozovaya kukla) Valentin Olshvang 218 5 GrandmotherБабушка (Babushka) Andrey Zolotukhin 128 6 JosephИосиф (Iosif) Aida Zyablikova 121 7 The Song About Unrequited Love to the MotherlandПесня о безответной любви к родине (Pesnya o bezotvetnoy lyubvi k rodine) ? 50 8 Kings and Cabbage Короли и капуста (Koroli i kapusta) Mariya Muat 46 9 The Pilot Brothers Cook Macaroni Братья Пилоты готовят макарончики (Bratya Piloty gotovyat makaronchiki) Aleksandr Tatarskiy 44 10 The Life of a Grey Bear Жизнь серого медведя (Zhizn serovo medvedya) Eduard Belyayev 31
References
External links Full list of submissions (some can be watched online) Official website with the results