It had been of no interest both for general public and for specialists for many years. This year, however, various occurrences attracted the mass media attention to the festival, so that it almost became a national event. The organizers themselves did their utmost to include the only good film - Sokurov's "Taurus" - in the contest programme. Besides, specially for the press a free space in the contest was left for a film-surprise. . It was "Collector" by a well-known clipmaker Yury Grymov, shown on the festival for the first time. 1,5 mln dollars were spent on its production, still the screenplay is a complete nonsense. Yet, however sad it is, the main intrigue of the festival didn't depend on the organizers. They just started to die - first the festival's president, film director Savva Kulish, then the jury chairman Stanislav Rostotsky. This of course attracted the press attention to the festival. However, there was no criminal intrigue in Agatha Christy style. In fact, there were no more intrigues at all. All the first prizes (best film, best male actor, best female actor) were naturally given to Sokurov's film, which received favourable reviews in Europe, but failed at the Cannes festival. Grymov was given nothing.

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