OREANDA-NEWS. March 07, 2012. Between February 24 and March 1, with the support of Gazprom Neft, Khanty-Mansiysk will be the venue for the tenth anniversary of the Spirit of Fire International Festival of Cinematic Debuts. The guest of honour at the event will be a star of world cinema Fanny Ardant.

The competition program of the festival will see the screening of films by directors from France, Argentina, Austria, Romania, Georgia, Portugal, Ukraine, Belgium and a number of other countries. An international jury led by legendary Russian film director Rezo Chkheidze will determine the best debut films. This jury will also include Honoured Artist, actor Sergei Shakurov, and Honoured actress Irina Rozanova.

The festival will begin with a showing of Michel Hazanavicius’ “Artist”, and will close with “What If We All Lived Together”, featuring Pierre Richard and Geraldine Chaplin.

“Gazprom Neft has traditionally given its support to the Spirit of Fire Film Festival as a part of its socio-economic agreement with the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region, one of the Company’s most important regions for oil production. We are interested in further developing the regional economy, social and cultural infrastructure”, said Gazprom Neft Board of Directors member Alexander Dybal.