Russian Film Festival in China attracts over 5 mln spectators: Agency

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The online Russian Film Festival (RFF) in China was attended by almost five million people, who came to see the drama Salyut-7, the fantastic drama Attraction, and comedy Partner leading in viewership, the press service of the Russian state movie agency Roskino reported on Wednesday.  

"The Russian Film Festival held online on one of the world's largest Tencent Video platforms from September 26 to October 15, has ended in China. More than 5 million people have become viewers," according to the report.    

Chinese viewers were able to watch for free 17 Russian films of different genres in a period of three weeks. The top three films in terms of the number of views, the report added, included the drama about aliens Attraction directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk, drama Salyut-7 directed by Klim Shipenko, and Alexander Andryushchenko's comedy Partner.  

Other movies that were shown were recent Russian hits such as the sports drama Upward Movement, the disaster movie Metro, the space drama The Time of the First, the comedy I'm losing weight, and the thriller trilogy based on the works of great Russian classic Nikolai Gogol.

"This is a great result, and we are glad that the Chinese audience appreciated the modern Russian cinema. The preferences of the audience confirm the trend toward science fiction and spectacular pictures with powerful visual effects in the Chinese film market. The undisputed leader was the sci-fi film Attraction by Fyodor Bondarchuk, it was watched by more than 2.5 million people. In general, there has always been a request for spectacular large-scale action in China, which is confirmed by other films from the TOP 5: Salyut-7, Metro, and Upward Movement. The Russian Film Festival in China has become the most successful event in the entire history of the RFF project, and we are already in dialogue with Chinese partners about areas of cooperation in 2023," Roskino General Director Inna Shalyto said.  

The director of Attraction, Fyodor Bondarchuk, noted that Chinese viewers today can rightfully be called the most devoted audience of blockbusters, adding that it is "a great joy" for Roskino to gain recognition from the Chinese moviegoers well acquainted with this genre, according to the report.    

The RFF, held online and offline, has been held by Roskino with the support of the Russian culture ministry since 2020, with the main goal of introducing foreign viewers to Russian feature films, TV series, and animation.

In 2020-2021, the festival visited 23 countries, attracting over a million viewers. In 2022, the festival has already been held in many countries, including Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Jordan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus.