The Northern Character film festival, which has recently opened in Murmansk for the tenth time, has become an influential film forum in the Barents Region and one of the most outstanding events in the cultural life of Northern Europe over recent years, said the Murmansk Region governor Marina Kovtun during the opening ceremony.
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The films will be competing in seven different categories, such as Documentary, Short Fiction Film, Youth Program, Culture Program, Feature Story and others. For the first time ever, the Northern Character festival’s jury will include only female film directors from Russia, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
“All the films and programs included in the festival’s program prove one thing: the global North is in many ways just the same,” Marina Kovtun said. “We, northerners from different countries and regions, have the same concerns, the same view of the world, the same ideas of what is beautiful as well as what is right.”
Новая Каренина и уличный кинотеатр. Завтра в Мурманске откроется международный фестиваль документальных фильмов и телевизионных программ «Северный характер». https://t.co/Mm9kwtV6eJ pic.twitter.com/6x6LjTWUI7
— Мурманский вестник (@mvestnik_ru) November 22, 2017
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A total of 118 works were submitted to the festival, with 53 of them entering the contest program. Not only Northern countries’ journalists and film directors were willing to take part in the festival: this year the list of countries that applied to take part includes Iraq, Iran, Uzbekistan, India, Italy, the UK, Germany, Nigeria and Georgia.
The names of the winners of the festival’s Grand Prix and other prizes as well will be announced on Saturday.
