Half of the festival is over. Ahead is the second half of Antares

On September 19, the International Film Festival “Antares” crosses the equator. Six festival days are already behind us, but ahead there is still almost a week of cinema, meetings, and new stories about people who change the world around us through their labor.

The III International Film Festival “Antares” is taking place in Moscow from September 12 to 25. During the first half of the festival, its venues were visited by about 2,000 people, and more than 6,000 viewers watched films online on the “Antares-EFIR” platform.

And this is only the midpoint of the festival journey.

Cinema — in the new “Antares Hall”

This year, “Antares” has gained a new space for the festival’s main event — the cinema and concert hall “Antares Hall”.

This is a specially built hall with 100 seats, created primarily for comfortable film viewing and communication between audiences and authors.

For members of the international jury, six separate recliner seats are provided.

Films in the competition program are shown in the professional DCP format, with 5.1 multichannel sound. Therefore, the competition cinema of “Antares” can not only be seen but also heard exactly as its creators intended.

And audiences have already appreciated this.

All screenings require prior registration. Evening sessions are especially in demand: on certain days the hall is completely full, and no free seats remain.

For a festival dedicated to the working person, this is especially important: cinema about professions becomes not just part of the program — it becomes an occasion for a lively conversation between authors and viewers.

What audiences have already seen

The first half of the festival was built around different facets of the person and their profession.

The competition program brought together stories of people from a wide variety of specialties — from doctors, teachers, and social workers to blacksmiths, craftsmen, musicians, cosmonauts, railway workers, pilots, and representatives of completely unusual professions.

In the first days of the festival, viewers talked about choosing a profession, mastery, the future of labor, people who find themselves рядом with us, and the films themselves showed how different human stories connected with work can be.

Particularly intense was the day “Mastery” — the documentary program brought together films about a lute maker, a turner, a blacksmith, a potter, a staff maker, an umbrella maker, a carpet weaver, and other people for whom a profession becomes part of their personality and a way to pass on experience to the next generations.

The day “Future” offered a different perspective: on screen were stories of specialists in rocket and space production, operator-researchers, audiovisual translators, railway workers, metallurgists, and representatives of other professions that shape tomorrow.

And on September 19, the festival turns to the theme “People Who Are Nearby” — doctors, ambulance staff, social workers, teachers, actors, and other people whose work is directly connected with caring for others.

The second half — from heritage to overcoming

From September 20, the program will continue with new thematic days.

September 20 — “Heritage.” Viewers will see films about professions and knowledge passed down from generation to generation: about sea hunters, knitters, keepers of book culture, tea growers, archaeologists, blacksmiths, sailors, calligraphers, and many others. In the evening — the full-length competition with the film “The Star I Lost” from Argentina.

September 21 — “Responsibility.” On screen will appear search-and-rescue workers, airport specialists, judges, doctors, security guards, teachers, taxi drivers, and pilots. These are stories about professions where the fate of another person can truly depend on one person’s decision.

September 22 — “Memory and Generations.” The program includes stories of a nuclear icebreaker captain, a design engineer, a social worker, a tanner, a fashion designer, a rehabilitation trainer, and other heroes. The evening screening will combine two full-length films — “Forward into the Past” and “The Little Karate Kid.”

September 23 — “Choice.” On this day the festival will show stories of a female welder, a sapper, a firefighter, a garbage collector, a tailor, a metal sculptor, a craftsman, an artist, a salesperson, and a taxi driver.

Among the short films is “305 Fishkill Avenue” about a street sweeper. In the full-length program — “Korouskan,” a co-production of France and Réunion.

September 24 — “Overcoming.” The day will begin with a screenplay competition, continue with documentary and animation competitions, and end with the full-length film “The Song of The Lake” from Turkey. The animation program includes stories of artists, environmentalists, fencers, farmers, ballerinas, mechanics, fishermen, and other heroes.

And then comes September 25 — the final day of the festival, when “Antares” will sum up the results of this great cinematic journey.

There is still time to become part of “Antares”

In the first days, the festival has already gathered thousands of viewers — in the hall and online. But the competition program is not over yet.

Ahead are new films, new professions, new stories, and new meetings.

If you have not yet been to “Antares Hall,” now is the time to choose your screening and register. And if you have already been — perhaps it is in the second half of the festival that a film awaits you that will become your personal discovery of this “Antares.”

From September 12 to 25, we are watching cinema about people who work, create, save, teach, build, research, dream, and every day do their work.

“Antares” continues. The first half is behind us. The second is just beginning.

Every kind of work deserves cinema.