Listapad to Run in Minsk from 30 October to 6 November: Tickets Already on Sale

The 32nd Minsk International Film Festival Listapad will run from 30 October to 6 November. Tickets for it have already gone on sale. The festival is held under the slogan "Watch. Live. Cherish."

The capital, according to the announcement, will once again become a centre of attraction for filmmakers and audiences.

According to the organisers, more than 3000 submissions were received for the festival. They also name a programme of 8 competitions: feature, documentary and animated film, work by young directors, national film schools and Belarusian filmmakers. In the competition, according to them, more than 130 films from 55 countries will be shown. A traditional competition, Listapadzik, is provided for children and young people.

The opening film will be the Belarusian-Russian picture "Batka Minai. Partisan Legend". The main prize, the "Gold of Listapad", will be awarded to the best feature film. A separate event is Belarusian Cinema Day, where domestic films made over the past year will be presented.

The opening and closing ceremonies will be hosted by the Moskva cinema, which is named as the festival's main venue. It is described as renovated. The competition programmes of non-fiction film and short films will also be shown there.

Screenings will also take place at the Tsentralny and Belarus cinemas, and at venues of Belarusfilm, the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts and the Belarusian State Academy of Arts. Events are planned in the regions as well. Vital Brel, head of the culture department of the Minsk City Executive Committee, said the venues have remained traditional. According to him, the Belarus, Tsentralny and Pioner cinemas will be used for children's films and documentaries.

Audiences will see documentary films from the United Kingdom, Colombia, Hungary, Spain and Egypt. Short films will be brought from Iran, Thailand and Canada.

Tickets cost from 5 to 12. The most expensive are evening screenings of feature films, up to 12; the cheapest are short films, from 5. In the festival's announcement, people are advised to buy tickets in advance.

The organisers interpret the festival's slogan as more than a call to watch: in their version, it is an invitation to feel, to empathise and to value the artistic and human experience that cinema shares.

In October 2023, different dates were announced for Listapad: from 17 to 24 November. This year the festival begins on 30 October.

State media describe the festival as a place of attraction for filmmakers and audiences from around the world. In their own announcement of the start of sales, the organisers invite film lovers and promise to change the usual perception of screen art. These are statements by the organisers themselves, and they can only be checked at the screenings.