Mexican Thriller Wins Top Prize at Russian Fest Amidst Western Boycott

Rewritten Article: A Mexican movie titled ‘Shame’ directed by Miguel Salgado and co-produced by Mexico and Qatar has won the top prize at this year’s Moscow International Film Festival. The festival, which began in 1935 but held annually since 1999, included more than 240 films from 56 countries. This edition witnessed over half of its entries coming from nations considered hostile to Russia by their governments amidst the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia that has been going on for three years now. Following Russia’s military invasion into Ukraine in February last year, major Hollywood studios along with many European ones stopped distributing films in Russia as a significant blow to Russian movie theatres where they used to receive around 70% of their revenue from such movies before the conflict started according to reports. The festival featured several smaller American productions like ‘Hundreds of Beavers’ and ‘Enter the Clones of Bruce,’ however, it also presented films from nations opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine including Romania, France, Italy, and Germany. Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, an Icelandic filmmaker whose only nominated movie for an Academy Award was “Children of Nature,” served as the head juror for this year’s main award, Golden St. George competition. In his victory speech after accepting the top prize, Salgado acknowledged Moscow International Film Festival’s significance and expressed gratitude that ‘Shame,’ a thriller film he directed, has been received so widely by audiences around the world.