Miracle Screenings. MIPTV 2006 Issue. April 2006. No.10

Historical keystones of Lenfilm Studios, the oldest Film Studio in Russia

May 4 th 1896, the first public film screening in Russia took place on the site of the famous Aquarium Theatre in St. Petersburg, and 22 years later, April 30th 1918, on the same location, was founded the first film studio in Russia.

It was based on the sites of the former Aquarium Theatre and it had its first name "Leningradkino". This film factory received the name Lenfilm in 1934.

The studio is known among viewers, for its reputable and enchanting movies. More than 1500 features, documentaries, and television films were produced here! Many of them became part of legendary classics. Movies that were produced at Lenfilm, received more than 200 awards during the most prestigious international festivals.

Among them:

• "A Lady with a Lap Dog" - Prize of Cannes Film Festival, 1960
• "Hamlet" and "King Lire" - More than 30 international cinema prizes
• "Wild Dog Dingo" -Golden Lion of Venice Film Festival, 1963
• "My friend Ivan Lapshin" - Bronze Leopard of Locarno Film Festival, 1985
• "A Year of a Dog" - Silver Bear of Berlin Film Festival, 1994
• " Moloch " - Prize of Cannes Film Festival, 2000
• "The Italian" - Grand Prix of Kinderfilmfest, Berlin Film Festival, 2005

Legendary movies "Chapaev", "Delegate of Baltic", "Peter the Great", "Cinderella", "The Rumyantsev Case", "Wedding in Malinovka", "The Amphibian Man", "The Republic of Shkid", "The Chief of Chukotka", "Beginning", "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson", "The Winter Cherry", "In Love on His Own Initiative", "Friends and Years", "The Monologue", "Khrustalyov, My Car!", "Peculiarities of the National Hunting" were produced at the studio and were received with a large amount of popularity among viewers.

Filmofond Lenfilm offers these and many other features and documentary films to its partners for distribution on different directions: theatre releases, television, home video, and DVD.

Names

Prominent filmmakers, as well as masters of national cinematography worked at the Lenfilm Studios. Among them: film directors Iosif Heifits, Vladimir Petrov, Ilia Averbakh, Gleb Panfilov, Semen Aranovich, Dinara Asanova; cameramen Andrei Moskvin, Vyacheslav Gordanov, Dmitry Meskhiev, Yuri Veskler; composers Dmitry Shostakovich, Isaak Dunaevsky, Vasily Soloviev-Sedoy, Veniamin Basner, Isaak Shvarts, Andrei Petrov.

Prominent film stars acted here. Among them Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, Sandrine Bonnair, Michele Placido, Julia Ormond ("Young Catherine"), Tilda Swinton ("Orlando"), Franco Nero, Greta Scaachi, Ava Gardner, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximilian Schell, Michael Caine, Sophie Marceau, Marina Vlady and many others.

Best traditions of " Leningrad school" are successfully continued by Vitaly Melnikov, Sergei Mikhaelyan, Alexei German, Vladimir Bortko, Alexander Sokurov, Alexei Balabanov, Sergei Ovcharov, Alexander Rogozhkin, Lidia Bobrova, Andrei Kravchuk and many others.