The first Moscow film festival opened 75 years ago on February 21, 1935 under Joseph Stalin. Its official name was the Soviet Film Festival in Moscow.
The first Moscow film festival opened 75 years ago on February 21, 1935 under Joseph Stalin. Its official name was the Soviet Film Festival in Moscow. The jury headed by famous director Sergei Eisenstein gave the main prize to the movie Chapayev. In the photo: Boris Babochkin as revolution hero Chapayev.
Later Stalin lost interest in the festival and the event resumed only in 1959 under Nikita Khrushchev. Sergei Bondarchuk's Destiny of a Man won the Grand Prix. In the photo: Sergei Bondarchuk, right, his wife, actress Irina Skobtseva and Yugoslavian film director D. Malyshev at the festival's opening ceremony in 1959.
Federico Fellini's 8½ won the Grand Prix in 1963. In the photo: Fellini, his wife Giulietta Masina and Valentina Tereshkova, the world's first woman space pilot, right, at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses during the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival, 1963.
The event was held every second year in July, alternating with the Karlovy Vary festival. Italian actress Sophia Loren at the 4th Moscow International Film Festival in 1965.
Italian actress Claudia Cardinale at the 5th International Moscow Film Festival in 1967.
Actresses from Senegal at the 5th International Moscow Film Festival in 1967.
Winners of the 9th Moscow Films Festival (1975) - film directors (from left to right) Ettore Scola (Italy), Akira Kurosawa (Japan), and Andrzej Wajda.
French actor Gérard Depardieu, left, and film director Claude Berri, at
the 15th Moscow International Film Festival, 1987
the 15th Moscow International Film Festival, 1987
Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida at the 20th Moscow International Film Festival, 1997.
Film director Nikita Mikhalkov, the festival's president since 1999, and wife Tatyana at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.
Actor Jack Nicholson at the 23rd International Film Festival in Moscow.
In 2004, Quentin Tarantino attended the Moscow premiere of his movie Kill Bill: Vol. 2, which opened the 26th Moscow International Film Festival.
U.S. actress Meryl Streep at the 26th Moscow International Film Festival.
Charlize Theron and Will Smith at the 30th Moscow International Film Festival.
Serb filmmaker Emir Kusturica at the 30th Moscow International Film Festival.
U.S. actor Adrien Brody at the 31st Moscow International Film Festival.
