On April 16, the closing ceremony of the VI Tsiolkovsky International Space Film Festival was held at the State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics named after K. Tsiolkovsky. The event was hosted by documentary filmmaker, journalist, TV presenter, writer, and program director of the festival’s documentary section Igor PROKOPENKO and the festival president, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Igor UGOLNIKOV.
As is tradition, the ceremony was opened by the head of the Kaluga Region, Vladislav SHAPSHA. The Governor’s Prize was awarded to the short documentary “Legends of Science. Alexander Chizhevsky. Inspired by the Sun.” The award was received by TV journalist and project presenter Alexander MYAGCHENKOV.
As is tradition, the ceremony was opened by the head of the Kaluga Region, Vladislav SHAPSHA. The Governor’s Prize was awarded to the short documentary “Legends of Science. Alexander Chizhevsky. Inspired by the Sun.” The award was received by TV journalist and project presenter Alexander MYAGCHENKOV.
The next award, the Festival President’s Prize, was presented by Igor UGOLNIKOV to the feature-length documentary “Space. The Battlefield of a Nuclear War”. The award was received by screenwriter Anna KOLODEZNEVA and producers Ekaterina ROMANOVA and Alexander KOSTRICHENKO. Notably, the film also received the journalists’ vote.
The Special Prize of the festival’s key partner, State Corporation "Roscosmos", was awarded to the full-dome film “Russian Orbital Observatories.” The award was presented by test cosmonaut, Ph.D., and deputy commander of the research and testing unit, Andrey BABKIN, to the project’s scientific supervisor Nadezhda SHAKHVOROSTOVA.
The audience was then treated to a performance on the theremin—an enchanting musical instrument of the future with roots in the past, famously used in Soviet cinema since the 1940s.
The audience was then treated to a performance on the theremin—an enchanting musical instrument of the future with roots in the past, famously used in Soviet cinema since the 1940s.
For the first time, the festival jury included an “expert panel” of cosmonauts. Their special prize was awarded to the feature film “Alien” and its executive producer Maksim DOBROMYSLYOV by test cosmonaut Andrey BABKIN, Hero of Russia and cosmonaut Oleg ARTEMYEV, and Hero of Russia and cosmonaut Sergey PROKOPYEV.
Soviet and Russian theater, film, and voice actor, film director, singer-songwriter, and screenwriter Sergey MAKHOVIKOV performed the well-known song “I Love You, Life,” receiving a warm ovation for his multifaceted talent.
The Special Prize from the city of Kaluga was presented to the Honored Artist of the RSFSR and Merited Cultural Worker of Russia, director and author of the film “Altai. Grain of the Future” Natalia BONDARCHUK and cinematographer Igor DNESTRYANSKY. The award was presented by cosmonaut Sergey PROKOPYEV, whose call sign is “Altai,” and Kaluga’s Deputy Mayor Roman YEVSTRATOV.
Sound engineer and member of the Russian Filmmakers’ Union Anatoly BELOZYOROV and composer-arranger, Merited Cultural Worker of the Russian Federation, Yuri POTEYENKO, opened the animation block and announced the winners. The award went to the Brazilian short animation “Micronaut” directed by Emerson RODRIGUES. A second award in this category went to the Russian short animated film “For You” by director Pavel PEREGUDOV.
The award for Best Documentary Film was presented by Aleksey RYAZANTSEV, Honored Cultural Worker of the Russian Federation, Merited Cinematographer, Honorary Professor of the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television, member of the Filmmakers’ Union, producer, screenwriter, dubbing actor known for voicing Professor Snape and Aragorn, and president of Karoprokat. The prize went to the feature documentary “Alexei Leonov. On the Very Edge”, awarded to executive producer Tatyana OGORODNIKOVA and producer Oksana LEONOVA, daughter of the twice Hero of the Soviet Union, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.
The documentary “The Eyes and Ears of Baikonur” received the award for Best Short Documentary. It was presented to producer Alexander OSTROVSKY and cinematographer Konstantin KOLODYAZHNY by jury member, producer and director Almas ALIMZHANOV (Kazakhstan).
To announce the winners in the category of Best Full-Dome Film, program director of the full-dome section, co-chairman of the Russian Planetarium Association Andrey LOBANOV and senior researcher at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, astrophysicist Oleg UGOLNIKOV took the stage. The Special Prize went to “Pokryshkin. Formula of Victory” by the Large Novosibirsk Planetarium. The Best Full-Dome Film Award was presented to “Starry Sky of the Ancients” by the State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga. The award was accepted by Dmitry FETISOV, head of the museum’s physical and astronomical department.
The winner in the category Best Short Fiction Film was announced by jury member, playwright, and producer Eugène SHCHEDRIN. The award went to the Russian film “Black Box” directed by Nikolay BELYAKOV.
Sergey MAKHOVIKOV returned to the stage to perform “Tenderness”, Yuri Gagarin’s favorite song, a staple at every Tsiolkovsky Film Festival. Following this heartfelt performance, the main festival prizes were awarded.
The Klushantsev Grand Prix for Best Technical Achievement and Special Effects was awarded to the Indian feature film “My Neighbor is an Alien” directed by R. Ravikumar. The prize was presented by Almas ALIMZHANOV and editor-director Maria SERGEENKOVA to Anup Kumar SRIVASTAVA, Advisor (Space)/Representative of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) at the Indian Embassy in Russia.
The Klushantsev Grand Prix for Best Technical Achievement and Special Effects was awarded to the Indian feature film “My Neighbor is an Alien” directed by R. Ravikumar. The prize was presented by Almas ALIMZHANOV and editor-director Maria SERGEENKOVA to Anup Kumar SRIVASTAVA, Advisor (Space)/Representative of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) at the Indian Embassy in Russia.
The Gagarin Grand Prix, introduced last year thanks to the founder of the “Ethnomir” park Ruslan BAYRAMOV, was awarded by cosmonauts Andrey BABKIN and Oleg ARTEMYEV to producer Albert RYABYSHEV, director Anton BARMATOV, and actor Boris DEYKOV for the film “Pirates of The Barracuda Galaxy.”
The Korolyov Grand Prix for documentary film was awarded by Igor PROKOPENKO to “Back to the Far Side” directed by Chen YILIN, presented by CGTN and the China National Space Administration. The award was accepted in Kaluga by Xiong Pan, Deputy Director of the Press Office of the Chinese space agency.
For the festival’s top honor, the Tsiolkovsky Grand Prix - director of the State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics and jury chair Natalia ABAKUMOVA took the stage. The award went to director Mikhail KOSTENCHUK for his short documentary “Gennady Golobokov – The Man and the Artist of the Future.” The prize, shaped as the festival’s emblem characters from Tsiolkovsky’s sketch for “Cosmic Voyage,” contains a fragment of a real meteorite.
The VI Tsiolkovsky International Space Film Festival was held with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives, the Government and Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Kaluga Region. Festival partners include State Corporation "Roscosmos," Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Research Institute, the State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics, the Kaluga regional branch of the “Volunteers of Culture” movement, and other public and commercial organizations.
The festival’s key media partner is TASS, supported by media partnerships from Roscosmos Media and TRK "Nika."
The festival’s key media partner is TASS, supported by media partnerships from Roscosmos Media and TRK "Nika."