Blog: Film festivals

The 34th Message to Man International Festival of documentary, short live-action, animated, and experimental films is scheduled to take place from 18 to 27 October 2024 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

With its history spanning three decades of cinema development, Message to Man was founded in 1989 in Leningrad by filmmaker Mikhail Litvyakov, who now serves as the Honorary President of the Festival.

In 2010, Alexei Uchitel, a renowned director of documentaries and feature films, assumed the role of the Festival's President.

Over the years, the Festival has hosted distinguished figures of world cinema, including Werner Herzog, Ulrich Seidl, Claude Lanzmann, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant, Agnès Varda, Mira Nair, Paolo Sorrentino, Alan Berliner, Eric Roberts, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Abdellatif Kechiche, Udo Kier, and many others.

The Festival programme revolves around three competitions: international, national, and experimental, providing a platform for both full-length and short films to vie for the Festival's Grand Prix. Message to Man consistently draws thousands of cinema enthusiasts to St. Petersburg each year.

In 2023, the Festival attracted over 10,000 spectators, and its competition and out-of-competition programmes featured around 200 films from across the globe.

“The Festival team was pleasantly surprised by the success of the last year's Message to Man. There is no need to state the obvious that we live in a challenging time, by all measures. Cinema has gained increased significance as a unifying language and as a way to reach out to one another.

We believe that was the reason why in 2023 the Festival attracted so many viewers. So, when people scrambled to get tickets for the screenings, it was, quite honestly, very heartwarming and important. This wasn't just about the sold-out tickets, but about solidarity.

It was equally important to bring together filmmakers from various countries: auteurs from Sweden, Spain, Belgium, Greece, India, Colombia, and Japan visited the Festival, emphasizing its global reach.

Therefore, the Message to Man Film Festival is pleased to announce a new competition in 2024. Our team firmly believes that good cinema is always an invitation to humanity,” says Mikhail Ratgauz, Programme Director of the Message to Man Film Festival.