Brad Pitt is to present his new film at the Grand Opening of the 35th Moscow International Film Festival

Moscow, June 19, 2013. The 35th Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), one of Europe’s oldest film festivals, is to open on June 20, 2013. The competition program includes 16 movies from Russia, Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Switzerland, Japan, Georgia, France, Serbia, Germany, Hungary, South Korea, Brazil and UK. The Russian premiere of World War Z, starringBrad Pitt, will commence as a part of the 35th MIFF’s Grand Opening. The American actor will visit Russia for the first time ever, in frames of World War Z global tour. On June 20 in Moscow Brad Pitt and film crew will enter MIFF’s red carpet, which is considered to be the most important in Russia. From 20th to 29th of June the anniversary Moscow International Film Festival will host hundreds of international guests, the actors Christian Slater and Gerard Depardieu, the directors Costa Gavras and Gabriele Salvatores, just to name a few.

 

The World War Z, directed by Marc Forster, is based on the novel of American writer Max Brooks: it is the story of an epic scale. Brad Pitt‘s hero has to fight with an unknown virus that turns people into non-human beings. The World War Z will be premiered in Russia following the official Opening Ceremony of the 35th Moscow International Film Festival on June 20, 2013. The MIFF Opening Ceremony will be lively broadcasted by Channel One, biggest TV channel in Russia.

This year the festival schedule includes more than 350 movies in more than 15 programs as MIFF Main Competition, documentaryFree Thought, Costa Gavras Retrospective, Minor Dutch Artists, Meet Ursula Meier, Almost All of Bertolucci and many others.

Jubilee 35th Moscow International Film Festival will commence in Moscow from 20th to 29th of June 2013. MIFF’s Grand Prix –Golden St. George – comes to the best film of Main Competition. MIFF also awards «Best Director», «Best Actor», «Best Actress», «Special Jury Prize» and others. 16 films from different countries enter the competition this year. The Jury of MIFF Main Competition includes: Iranian fimmaker, producer, human rights activist Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Swiss director Ursula Meier, Russian actor Sergei Garmash, Georgian actor Zurab Kipshidze, founder of Busan Film Festival Kim Dong-Ho.

 

Moscow International Film Festival’s general sponsor is VTB Bank. MIFF partners are Gazbank, Mercedes-Benz, Ahmad Tea, Carrera Y Carrera, Kommersant, InStyle, radio NRJ, Hello!, Afisha@Mail.ru, The Hollywood Reporter Russia, 24Doc, RIA Novosti, Svoy Magazine.

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The Moscow International Film Festival is one of the oldest film festivals of class A, member of FIAPF. The first edition of the festival was held in 1935, and the chairman of the jury was Sergei Eisenstein. But actual chronology of the Moscow film festival runs from 1959, when it became a regular event.

During its existence the works of legendary directors and actors were presented in the MIFF such as Andrzej Wajda, Luchino Visconti, Francis Ford Coppola, Akira Kurosawa, Sophia Loren, Anna Magnani, Gloria Swanson, Vittorio De Sica, Elizabeth Taylor, Federico Fellini, Fred Zinnemann, Sergei Eisenstein and Miklos Jancso. Atom Egoyan, Guillermo Del Toro andKaneto Shindo start their brilliant careers with the MIFF. In recent years the MIFF has honored such famous guests as Takeshi Kitano, Michael Mann, Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Claude Lelouch, Quentin Tarantino, Sean Penn, Geraldine Chaplin, Michael Bay, Amos Gitai, Joseph Fiennes and Adrien Brody.

Since 1999, the President of the Moscow International Film Festival is a prominent Russian film director and actor, the chairman of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia Nikita Mikhalkov.