KROK International Animated Film Festival to set sail in Moscow on 20 September

The KROK International Animated Film Festival will open in Moscow on 20 September. The festival will take place on board the Konstantin Simonov, a large motor ship that will transport the festival along the Volga River from the Russian capital to St Petersburg, stopping off also in Dubna, Cherepovets, Goritsy and Petrozavodsk.

175 films from 44 countries will take part in the festival, with the majority coming from Russia. Among the competitors are Konstantin Bronzit’s We Can’t Live Without the Cosmos, Oksana Cherkasova’s Caravan, and Svetlana Filippova’s Brutus. Also featured will be an “animation jam” titled Gentle Owls created by 20 directors from a range of countries.

In parallel with the screenings on the boat, the competing films will be shown at the Moskino cinema in Moscow, as well as at the Aurora cinema and Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art in St Petersburg. Special events this year include the screening of the feature-length animated film Stones in my Pockets, made by Latvian animator Signe Baumane in the USA, and Andrey Zagdansky’s animated documentary Vagrich and the Black Square.

The festival will close in St Petersburg on 27 September.

KROK first took place in 1989, and since 1998 has been a yearly event with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.