This young festival, founded in 2023, has already earned a solid reputation as a festival that supports contemporary Russian auteur cinema. It is held in the small seaside town of Gelendzhik on the Black Sea, not far from the famous city of Sochi, where the highly acclaimed “Kinotavr” festival took place from 1991 to 2021 before deciding to end its run in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The festival, named after American filmmaker Robert Flaherty, has been running since 1995. Since 2006, it has been an annual international documentary film festival. This year, the opening film is the Iranian movie *Fereshteh-ha* (Angels) by Mahdi Zamanpour Kiasari.

Joël Chapron wished to expand on the interview he gave to the website in June 2026. Having examined the distribution side of the industry, he now turns his attention to new areas such as production, exhibition and export. He also discusses the future prospects for actors and directors both within and outside Russia. We would like to extend our warmest thanks to Joël Chapron for once again putting his expertise at the service of our website.

The festival features about 100 films: 45 of them are part of the various competitions, while the rest make up a variety of out-of-competition programs, which are particularly rich this year.