A press conference was held at the Kazan Institute of Culture dedicated to the opening of the 9th Kazan International Festival of Amateur Youth and Children's Cinema

The founders of the festival are the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Union of Cinematographers of the Republic of Tatarstan. The organizer of the festival is the Kazan State Institute of Culture. The festival is held with the support of the State Library of the Republic of Tatarstan, "Tatarkino", the Ministry of Education and Science, as well as the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Tatarstan.

The press conference was attended by Rivkat Yusupov - rector of the Institute of Culture, Svetlana Yunusova – acting  dean of the faculty of cinematography and television of the university, Anastasia Malkova, executive director of the festival, Anatoly Sinitsyn, member of the festival jury, member of the Russian Union of Cinematographers and Guild of Film Critics and Film Critics, Vladimir Nikolayev, member of the festival jury, Honorable Cinematographer of Russia, Akhmetzyanova Yulia Alikovna, director, senior teacher of the Institute of Culture, Venus Yakupova - member of the festival jury, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Kazan Gazette".

In his opening remarks,  Rector of the Institute R. Yusupov noted that the Kazan Festival of Amateur Youth and Children's Cinema, taking place for the 9th time, proved its viability and relevance. This is convincingly evidenced by statistics - this year's cinema forum received twice as many applications as in 2016. I am glad that the animation program appeared and approved itself in the festival program.

"We," R. Yusupov stressed, will continue to build up a palette of specialties for cinema in our university. Maybe we'll get to the training of the actors, "the university head reassured. No wonder our university is recognized as the best creative regional institute in Russia.

According to the monitoring of the employment of graduates of the Faculty of Cinema Institute of Culture, the bar below 90 per cent is not omitted. This largely indicates a high level of education  by the specialists of this profile.

R. Yusupov noted with satisfaction the existence of close contacts, fixed by agreements, with such important organizations in the cinematography of Russia as VGIK, Mosfilm, the Academy of Cinematographic and Theatrical Art of N. Mikhalkov.  Rector of VGIK V. Malyshev and the head of Mosfilm K. Shahnazarov often visit Kazan, give lectures to students, hold master classes and  creative meetings.

The Institute of Culture is also expanding international contacts. So, an agreement on creative cooperation with one of the universities of Budapest (Hungary) has been  concluded.

Undoubtedly,  rector is pleased with the high creative results of many graduates.

Svetlana Yunusova during the press conference presented the jury members of the festival, quite qualified by composition, headed by Rimma Ratnikova - Deputy Chairman of the RT State Council and Chairman of the Union of RT Journalists. By the way, it should be noted that among the jury members there is also a well-known film critic from Hungary, our longtime and reliable friend Ivan Forgach.

In the contest of the festival works  13 nominations are participating. Moreover, the children's section is expanded, new nominations are introduced - "Best patriotic film" and "Best producer project".

Vladimir Artemievich Nikolaev, who stood at the origins of the birth of this film forum, stressed in his speech that the film festival was originally conceived as the most democratic - both on topics and genres, forms, etc. Everything was allowed. And they took part in the festival, which is called "from pioneers to pensioners."

As especially valuable, Vladimir Artemyevitch noted active participation in the first festivals of diasporas of Tatars from the regions of Russia and abroad.

Now among the authors of films, mostly young people.

Alexey Barykin, head of the profile department of the university, noted with great satisfaction that this festival played a significant role in the professional growth of students-future cinematographers. Not without reason, in 2011 the film  of the graduate of the university was included in the main program of the big festival - Kazan International Muslim Film Festival.

And this year already 7 works of students and graduates of the university - in the program KIFMC-2017. This is very revealing.

Julia Akhmetzyanova, a member of the selection committee, said that more than 350 applications with extensive geography - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Khakassia, Crimea, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Iraq, Hungary, Italy were submitted to the organizing committee. There were also the criteria for selecting films for the festival. This is, above all, good, a dialogue of cultures, patriotism ...

The works are interesting, among which there are striking with their high professional level, as well as searching for new original forms of cinematography, which clearly deserves and supports the creative research of young and spectator attention ...

On the first day of the festival, a master class by the famous Kazan film director and screenwriter Salavat Yuzeev was held, and the film-opening "The Bird", presented by Lenfilm, was shown.

On September 6 at 4 pm, the grand closing of the film festival will take place with the awarding of diplomas and awards to the winners.

All  program of the festival is held from 4 to 6 September at the site of the Kazan State Institute of Culture (Orenburg highway, 3).

The festival invites Kazan people and, above all, those who love  good, interesting cinema - not to miss a unique opportunity, come to watch films that will not be in a big release, but which certainly deserve a wide spectator interest