The competition program of the III International Film Festival "Antares" has been announced: 172 films from 44 countries and 133 professions on screen

Today, the Moscow Festival Center hosted an official briefing to announce the competition program for the 3rd Antares International Film Festival. The festival, which will take place in Moscow from September 12 to 25, 2026, will present audiences and industry professionals with an impressive array of contemporary cinema dedicated to the working man and the diversity of professions.

The festival's organizing committee proudly announced the completion of the competition program. This year, a record number of applications were received, and 172 films from 44 countries, spanning all continents, were selected, confirming Antares's status as a significant international platform.

Program Facts and Figures:

• 223 — the total number of submitted works, including the screenplay competition and the special "Trade Union Close-Up" competition.
• 172 — the number of films in the competition program.
• 44 — the number of participating countries.
• 76 — documentaries (DF).
• 62 — short fiction films (SF).
• 21 — Full-length feature film (FF).
• 12 — animated films (AF).
• 9 — scripts in the screenwriting competition (SC).
• 42 — work in the "Trade Union Close-Up" competition.

The festival's main theme—the diversity of professions—is vividly reflected in the selected films. In total, the films in the competition program represent 133 different professions—from accountant and courier to captain of a nuclear icebreaker and umbrella maker. The most frequent screen characters include actors (18 films), doctors (6), teachers (5), drivers and taxi drivers (4 each), as well as cosmonauts, fishermen, welders, and representatives of many other professions.

During the Briefing, the event participants discussed in detail the key features of the upcoming festival:

• President of the Antares International Film Festival and President of the Safety and Quality Association, Alexander Alexandrovich Khalimovsky noted the high level of the presented works and the importance of the theme of labor in modern cinema.
• Chair of the film festival jury and the jury of the full-length feature film competition, Natalia Uglitskikh shared her first impressions of the competition films and spoke about the selection criteria.
• President of the Federation of Film Clubs, Mikhail Karpovich Basheratyan emphasized the role of Film clubs in promoting festival films.
• Alexander Vladimirovich Shershukov, Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR), Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper "Solidarity," and jury member of the "Trade Union Close-Up" competition, presented the special competition, which for the second year in a row has generated great interest among trade union organizations from across the country.
• Andrey Afrin, Director and Program Director of the film festival, summarized the results of the selection round and presented the full program statistics.