The 34th Window to Europe film festival has opened in the northwestern Russian city of Vyborg with a traditional orchestral parade down the main street.
Festival president Sergei Ursulyak, general producer Gevorg Nersisyan, and program director Andrei Apostolov led actors and directors through the historic town under the sound of live brass music to mark the start of the annual festival.
Vladimir Tolstoy, the general director of the Leo Tolstoy Museum in Moscow, also joined the festive procession. Tolstoy and his daughter Anastasia Tolstaya curate the festival's School of Criticism, an educational workshop for young film reviewers that has operated since the inaugural edition of the event.
A wide gathering of Russian film industry professionals arrived in Vyborg for the opening celebrations. The guest list included prominent movie producers Ruben Dishdishyan and Gavriil Gordeev, director Pavel Lungin, and popular screen actors Andrei Urgant and Alexei Rozin. Actresses Sofya Lebedeva, Alexandra Rebenok, and Lyanka Gryu were also present alongside screenwriter Savva Minaev, stand-up comedian Alexei Saprykin, and Olympic speed skating champion Svetlana Zhurova.
Opening ceremony and competition jury address
Actress Anna Zavtur and director Sergei Ursulyak hosted the formal opening ceremony inside the festival hall. During his opening remarks, Ursulyak entertained attendees by joking that he was currently filming a remake of War and Peace directed by Sarik Andreasyan.
The director's witty comment referenced two major adaptations of Leo Tolstoy's classic 1869 novel currently in production in Russia. Andreasyan's film project has reached the post-production stage, while Ursulyak traveled directly to Vyborg from the shooting location of a new television serial being produced for the Russia television channel.
Pavel Lungin, the chairman of the feature film competition jury, took the stage to share his thoughts on the main festival contest. Lungin noted that jury chairs traditionally invite festival guests to focus on documentary or animated films. He joked that organizers should instead forbid people from attending feature screenings, knowing that moviegoers prefer to do the opposite.
Lungin explained that the jury is seeking fresh voices, low-budget productions, and young directors who confront serious questions regarding human nature and society. He urged filmmakers to move away from glossy commercial blockbusters, comparing massive box-office hits like the Cheburashka franchise to the Eye of Sauron, glowing with billions of rubles spent on production. Lungin declared that he wanted the festival to highlight wild and unpredictable cinema.
Leaders of the other competition panels also addressed the opening crowd. Svyatoslav Ushakov, who leads the animation contest jury, highlighted twenty outstanding animated works in this year's selection and encouraged audiences to view them on the big screen. Meanwhile, documentary director Angelina Ashman was introduced as the chair of the non-feature film competition.
Main competition schedule and opening premiere
The festival structure includes ten feature films and ten non-feature documentary films competing in their respective main categories. Attendees will also follow the festival's famous Vyborg Count program, in which feature entries compete against winners from other national film festivals to win awards determined entirely by audience voting. Additionally, the festival will present a special memorial prize established in honor of the late film critic Armen Medvedev.
Director Dasha Charusha launched the festival's screening program with the premiere of her feature film It's All Her. The picture underwent a protracted development period before completion, making its selection as the opening film a meaningful milestone for the organizers.
This year's official festival poster features actor Yevgeny Leonov in his role as the projectionist Pashka from director Alexander Mitta's 1970 movie Shine, Shine, My Star. In Mitta's drama, Pashka works tirelessly to display films during difficult historical times to preserve cinematic art. Organizers emphasized that the Vyborg festival aims to follow that example by helping independent auteur cinema survive.
Charusha's opening film was originally titled Malvina and experienced repeated production delays, including multiple changes in directors and cast members. Producer Ruben Dishdishyan and his production team successfully finished the project and announced at the festival that national theatrical distribution will begin on October 8.
While the film enters a competitive domestic market already featuring several popular movies about people in their thirties, organizers described its release as a triumph of artistic determination. Jury member and screenwriter Savva Minaev demonstrated similar perseverance with his biographical film Redhead, centered on the poet Boris Ryzhy. Although Redhead was shown at festivals but failed to secure a theatrical release, Minaev continued writing and penned the script for Serf 3, a comedy sequel that has received praise for improving upon its predecessor.
Debut screenings and Tolstoy museum exhibition
The first day of competitive screenings featured the film Forest, directed by Hamlet Dulyan. The feature is a cinematic adaptation of the novel of the same name written by author Svetlana Tyulbasheva.
Critics view Forest as Dulyan's feature debut, although it represents his second completed directorial effort. His earlier project was a film adaptation of Yevgeny Zamyatin's famous 1921 dystopian novel We, starring Yegor Koreshkov and Yelena Podkaminskaya, which was never released to cinema audiences. Despite earlier setbacks, Dulyan produced Forest as a vivid work that offers rich material for critical discussion.
Off the screen, cultural events opened across the host city. A dedicated historical exhibition titled Getting as Close to Tolstoy as Possible opened at the Hermitage-Vyborg museum. Organized as a gift to the city and festival attendees with assistance from the Mosfilm movie studio, the exhibition was formally opened by Vladimir Tolstoy.
The exhibition highlights director Sergei Bondarchuk's acclaimed multi-part film adaptation of War and Peace, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1969. Visitors can view authentic costumes and props from the movie, including outfits worn by Bondarchuk as Pierre Bezukhov, Vyacheslav Tikhonov as Andrei Bolkonsky, and Lyudmila Savelyeva as Natasha Rostova. Archival film excerpts screened at the opening sparked conversations about whether modern adaptations will endure in public memory like Bondarchuk's masterpiece.
The festival will continue over several days in Vyborg with professional masterclasses, industry panel discussions, and networking events for emerging Russian filmmakers seeking new creative opportunities.
