At the film festival which is in opposition to Putin’s regime – an award to Audrius Stonys

 At the documentary festival “Art Doc” in Riga, Lithuanian director Audrius Stonys was awarded the Audience Award for his latest documentary “Woman and the Glacier”. ”It is a very important award for me. In the community of filmmakers, the audience award is particularly appreciated because it does not depend on jury decisions, but is given directly by the audience of the festival, who are the most open-minded evaluators of cinema”, – says A. Stonys, whose film has won the audience award for the second time. First time it was awarded to the director at the Vilnius Film Festival “Kino pavasaris” this year. According to the director, participation and appreciation at the Art Doc Festival is also important to him for other reasons.

“The Art Doc Festival is one of the last documentary festivals that are in open opposition to the current Russian government. Its founder and leader is one of the most prominent contemporary documentarians, Vitaly Mansky, who has created a number of internationally acclaimed films. His latest work “Under the Sun”, filmed in North Korea, has already won a wealth of prizes. And he himself, after he openly opposed annexation of Crimea, spoke against the Russian invasion in Ukraine, was condemned as enemy of the people and forced to move to live in Riga. I know how much it takes for him to organize the festival, which the Russian government tries to block by all means,” – says A. Stonys.

Supported by all forces of opposition to Putin’s regime, the festival takes place annually in Moscow, in several other cities of Russia and in Riga, gathering huge audiences and becoming the only event that speaks the truth. The festival focuses on political themes, but also on the quest of artistic documentary language, and on cinematic poetry.

The festival, the main slogan of which is “Instead of Freedom” was held last week in Riga. From there, Rolandas Kvietkauskas, the head of the Lithuanian Cinema Centre,  delivered the Audience Award to the Lithuanian director. Audrius Stonys himself presented his film in Bangladesh and South Korea at that time.

In the photo - Director of the Lithuanian Cinema Centre Rolandas Kvietkauskas and film director Audrius Stonys with the award.