The acceptance of applications for the festival «People and Environment» has been completed

Applications for the 17th Baikal International Film Festival «People and Environment» n.a. V. Rasputin. This year, the organizing committee will consider 624 works from 45 countries. Russian authors submitted 32 movies, the other came from India (63), Italy (32), Germany (29), USA and Iran (27 each), Turkey (26), France (25), Spain (23), Brazil 19), Great Britain (13) and other countries. Last year, 408 films from 71 countries were received.

Works on the competition were accepted until June 1 of this year. In addition, this year the organizers decided to introduce two new nominations — «The Best Feature Film» and «The Best Social — ecological Video».

Polina Stepanova, program manager for social and environmental videos:

«As a rule, social videos are not actively funded. It's nice to see professional, quality work. The offer of participation in the festival was reacted by such major eco-associations as GreenPeace and WWF. REK film studio present the Irkutsk region in this nomination. The winners of Russian eco-festivals are also participating».

At the same time, the main theme that should be revealed to the authors remains the same: attracting the attention of society to the problems of the relationship between man and the environment.

Alexandra Merzlyakova, program manager for the feature film:

«It seems to me that the appearance of the «Feature Film» nomination in the festival «People and Environment» is a very timely and necessary fact. I watched more than 150 films submitted for the festival, and saw that the topic of interaction with nature is very close to directors all over the world. Most often through the images of water, sky, boundless fields and snow-white peaks of mountains, the authors of films try to reflect the experiences of their characters, how their lives change as time passes, how the older generation interacts with the young, and sometimes even as an illustration of dreams».

According to Alexandra’s words, the festival received many movies about the life of farmers from Iran and India — where the arid climate turns the farmer's work into a daily struggle. There were films in which the contrast between the city and untouched rural landscapes was revealed, and what different people live there.

«Of course, it's great that the festival received a lot of films, where the main characters are children. I think that each viewer will have what to see this year», added Alexandra Merzlyakova.

Traditionally, the jury of the festival evaluates films in the nominations: «Best documentary», «Best popular science film», «Best full-dome film», «Baikal» prize for the sharpness of the problem (awarded to the film about the most pressing environmental problems). Also special prizes of the festival are
awarded: the prize of the youth jury, the media-community and the prize of audience sympathy.

Preliminary competitive and non-competitive programs of the festival will be announced in July. The festival will be held on September 21 — 25, 2018.

Reference
Baikal International Film Festival «People and Environment» n.a. V. Rasputin — the festival of «pure cinema» on the shore of the cleanest lake in the world, was conceived as a platform, which makes one think about the complex relationship between man and nature with the goal of forming an ecological consciousness. It has been held since 1999. Since 2015 has been named after V. Rasputin.