KALUGA, October 30. Faithful Heart, the first International Film Festival of Family and Children's Films, has closed in Kaluga. Its aim was to encourage young and established filmmakers to make feature films promoting family values, said the festival organizers.
The festival was attended by prominent filmmakers from Russia, Germany, Sweden, Belarus, China and Uzbekistan. The competition lasted a week and included 40 films. There were also special program screenings: "Social Advertisement Night," "Family Film" and "The Best Fairy Tale Movie."
Thom Palmen, president of the European Coordination of Film Festivals, co-chaired the jury with Juozas Budraitis, a famous Lithuanian film actor and cultural attache in Russia.
The festival's grand prix – a silver statuette depicting two Orthodox saints, Peter and Fevronia, patrons of family and marriage – went to Swedish-Finnish film "Elina, As If I Wasn’t There" directed by Klaus Haro. It tells a story of hardships encountered by an ethnic minority child.
"Wonder of Bern" directed by German Zenke Wortman was greatly appreciated by the audience, largely because of the famous actor Peter Lomajer, who starred in the film together with his children and won the Best Actor award. This is a dramatic story of relations between children and adults. The Best Actress award also went to Germany, to Martina Gedek, starring in "Bella Martha" (Germany – Italy – Austria – Switzerland). The Best Child Actor awards were given to Kolya Spiridonov, starring in "Italyanets" (The Italian, Russia) and Masha Vozba, who played the leading part in a Belarusian first-love story, "Dunechka".
The festival had been a success, Palmen said, and it was almost certain that the next one would also be held in Kaluga.
