Russian federal television channels did not mention that director Andrei Zvyagintsev received the Grand Prix at the 79th Cannes Film Festival for the film “Minotaur,” the agency wrote.
In the evening news on Saturday, May 23, neither Channel One, nor Russia 1, nor NTV mentioned the Cannes Film Festival. There was nothing about Zvyagintsev’s award on the morning news the next day.
At the same time, NTV talked at least two years ago about awarding the Palme d’Or to the film “Anora,” starring Russian actors Yura Borisov and Mark Edelstein, the agency notes.
“Minotaur” is Zvyagintsev’s first film in almost 10 years. His previous film, Loveless, won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2017. After taking home the grand prize for “Minotaur,” Zvyagintsev gave a speech in which he addressed the president of the Russian Federation, a man who “doesn’t use a VPN to watch this concert live.” In a short speech, Zvyagintsev called on Vladimir Putin to stop the war in Ukraine.
In an interview with Dozd, Zvyagintsev said that his film crew will try to obtain a distribution certificate for the film “Minotaur” through the Ministry of Culture, but he does not mind watching his new film illegally in Russia, because “he has no other way.”