'Anna's War' Wins Best Film at Russia's NIKA Awards Ceremony

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It is the second time this year the film has been named Russia's best in a national showcase.


Alexey Fedorchenko's World War II drama Anna's War (Voina Anny) Saturday won the award for best film at Russia's national NIKA film awards.


It marks the second time this year the film, about six-year-old Jewish girl who is the sole survivor when her entire family is killed in a mass execution during World War Two, has been feted with a national film honor: In January it was named Russia's best film at rival national movie awards, the Golden Eagles.


In comments during Saturday's live televised awards ceremony in Moscow, Fedorchenko praised child actress Marta Kozlova, saying: "If it were not for this girl, this film would not have happened." Kozlova picked up best actress for her role in the film.


Kirill Serebrennikov - who is currently on trial in Moscow on charges in a $2 million fraud case related to his role running a state-funded theater centre - was named best director for his film Summer. The film, which premiered last year in main competition in Cannes, was completed after Serebrennikov was put under house arrest in August 2017.


Ilya Stewart, the film's producer, who accepted the award on behalf of Serebrennikov, said he sincerely hoped it was the last time the director was "unable to collect" an award himself. Support for Serebrennikov was repeated by other awardees throughout the evening ceremony, including Roma Zver, who won "discovering of the year" for his role as Mike Naumenko in Summer.


Best actor was shared by Alexey Serebryakov for his role in Van Goghs (directed by Sergei Livnev), the story of the difficult relationship between a man and his famous conductor father; and Yevgeny Tsyganov for his role as a Siberian prison guard with cancer given only two months to live, who decides to live as a woman as a way of fighting the disease in The Man Who Surprised Everyone (directed by Alexey Chupov and Natalya Merkulova.)


The NIKA awards were established in 1989, three years before its rival, the Eagle Awards was established, since when the two have been competing for the status of "the Russian Oscars".