Brad Pitt’s zombie apocalypse drama is to open the 35th Moscow International Film Festival - and the first 10 competition films have been revealed.

Leonid Vereshchagin, producer general of the festival announced at the Russian Film Pavilion in Cannes, the first 10 films in competition and the opening gala premiere on June 20 of Marc Forster’s World War Z starring Brad Pitt.

The festival will run from June 20-29.

Vereshchagin outlined the programme alongside programme director Kirill Razlogov, chief selector Andrey Plakhov and PR director Petr Shepotinnik, introduced by Catherine Mtsitouridze of Russian film promotion body Roskino.

He also revealed that Pitt will attend the opening gala.

The first members of the jury to be announced are writer and director Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Kandahar) and Ursula Meier (L’enfant d’en haut).

The films announced today which have been selected for Competition are:

  • Matterhorn Diederik Ebbinge (Netherlands)
  • Drogówka (Traffic Department) Wojciech Smarzowski (Poland)
  • Rol (The Role) Konstantin Lopushansky (Russia)
  • Spaghetti Story Ciro de Caro (Italy)
  • Sayonara Keikoku (The Ravine Of Goodbye) Tatsushi Ômori (Japan)
  • Los Chicos Del Puerto Alberto Morais (Spain)
  • Rosie Marsel Gisler (Switzerland)
  • Zerre (Particle) Erdem Tepegöz (Turkey)
  • Disorder Archil Kavtaradze (Georgia)
  • Skolzheniye (Slide) Anton Rozenberg (Russia)

“Our selection committee has had a tremendous job this year as we received more than 1,500 entries but I feel we have created a programme that reflects the core principles of the festival,” said Vereshchagin.

He added that there will be a new retrospective strand for documentaries on the theme of the Olympics; a retrospective of films by Bernardo Bertolucci and Costa Gavras; and a programme devoted to Dutch cinema under the banner of The Year of Holland.

Business Square

Industry event Moscow Business Square will return for a fifth year and will include 20 projects from Russian and international producers hunting co-productions.

There will also be a Generation Campus, running a programme that offers young filmmakers training in scriptwriting, directing, cinematography and editing.

The MIFF Media Forum, a parallel programme to the festival, will show work by contemporary Russian and international artists working with video, media art, documentary and still images, under the banner of Expanded Cinema IV: Reality is not Enough.

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