St. Petersburg to Host EU Film Festival

An EU (European Union) film festival is to open at the local movie house here today.

Talking to reporters, Richard Wright, who heads the European Commission's mission in Russia, noted that the EU film festival ranked among two other major culture projects that will be timed to coincide with St. Petersburg's 300-th anniversary. These three projects were supported by all 15 EU countries.

Until now, Moscow used to host EU film festivals on a regular basis; one such festival was organized in St. Petersburg several years ago. We decided to return to St. Petersburg, which is marking its 300-th anniversary this year, Wright noted. In his words, this festival will feature European movies, which have never been shown by Russian distributors; nonetheless, some of them have already become quite popular the world over.

For example, Belgium will show its "Pauline and Paulette" movie that was directed by Livien Diebrauver. This movie was nominated for an Oscar award in 2001 as the best foreign movie.

All 15 EU countries are taking part in this festival for the first time ever, Wright stressed. Consequently, local audiences will have a unique opportunity to admire the cultural diversity of all EU countries over a seven-day period, Wright added.

This festival is to last until March 30.