Column by Evgenia Milova about social life

For the first time in the history of observations, social life was not interrupted last summer. Not that anything worthy of the columnist’s attention was happening, but so far July and August have been colorful with invitations, then only to distant shores. The current time has brought an unexpected change: instead of dying out with dignity, social life, on the contrary, clings to every day and evening, using ordinary occasions like the opening of a restaurant or simply a new menu in an already working one. To be honest, this is completely inconvenient: it was necessary to give people the opportunity to miss each other and secular photographers at least a little.

Nevertheless, a new season has begun, you can immediately feel it. Take the Korsch Prize – the Theater of Nations officially opened the season with it. This is a solemn but friendly ceremony: the award in the form of a brick is given to those who work in the theater or are friends with it. During the ceremony, the theater demonstrated brilliant casting. Thus, Sofia Ernst received the award in the “Debut” nomination from the hands of Igor Mirkurbanov and Elena Okutina. The play “Karenina. The Process” directed by Alla Sigalova, where Ms. Ernst plays the title role, was first performed in the Barvikha Concert Hall, but received permanent registration on the Small Stage of the Theater of Nations. Next, Daria Zlatopolskaya received the role in the “Author” nomination. She, quoting Shakespeare, presented the award to playwright and writer Dmitry Danilov. Both Mrs. Ernst and Mrs. Zlatopolskaya were watched in trepidation by their husbands from the hall. The role of the winner in the “School” nomination was played by Marina Brusnikina, recently appointed artistic director of RAMT, and in the “Admiration” nomination – co-authors of the “Balabanov” exhibition Sergei Selyanov and Anna Getman. Previously, among the award nominations there was also “Envy” – it was awarded with the wording “To those who are better than us.” However, this year the artistic director of the Theater of Nations, Yevgeny Mironov, apparently decided that no one would be envied now. The brick in the “Master” category went to actor Igor Gordin – and he immediately left for Sochi for the “New Season” festival.

The festival of original series and feature films from domestic online cinemas is only being held for the second time, but has already gained remarkable self-confidence. For example, in his address to guests, Eduard Iloyan called “New Season” at least ten times “the best online cinema festival in the world.” This happens when they go out on their own. And it seems very likely that the Wink, Start, Premier, Kion, Okko, IVI and Kinopoisk platforms did just that. In any case, there were no thanks for the support to the Ministry of Culture at the opening ceremony, unlike last year. But a business program appeared, which for many years they sluggishly tried to attach to Kinotavr. Now it’s a completely different matter: among those who arrived for the “New Season”, actors did not make up the overwhelming majority. Most of them were behind-the-scenes industry professionals, and they had a lot to discuss.

This was also reflected in the secular accompaniment of the festival. He was moderate. That is, Wink announced a “Padik party” at the local branch of “Simacha” on the very first evening. Shura was supposed to sing at the party, and the costumed concierge at the entrance to the club was responsible for the decoration of the entrance (padik is an entrance in slang, if anyone doesn’t know). But some of the equipment broke down, and instead of the concert, Shura performed a stand-up. As it turned out, not his genre.

The social breakfast of the charity auction Action! Evgenia Popova and Svetlana Bondarchuk. On this day, no one was selling anything at the Sakhalin restaurant; they were simply showing the best short films that had been made over the years of the existence of this initiative. Guests were able to get acquainted with what Mrs. Bondarchuk’s husband Sergei Kharchenko, her son Sergei Bondarchuk, and at least three short films in which she herself played, managed to film. This would be something to joke about, but in the competition of the festival that same evening they showed the series “Before and After” by Daria Moroz, and after it the new film of her father Yuri Moroz “The Sleepwalkers”. So we can safely state that nepotism remains the main feature of Russian cinema, be it in short films, in full films, or in multi-part films. And the results of the festival will be summed up on Tuesday.

Evgenia Milova, Kommersant columnist