"The more your work corresponds to the real life, the better it seems..." - these words said by Durer, an artist of the Renaissance, are the most laconic expression of the aesthetic conception of the film festival Flahertiana.
Our festival is dedicated to the films were the hero lives on the screen a part of his life, directed by the author according to the laws of dramatic art. The first film of this genre, Nanook from the North, was made by Robert Flaherty in 1922. The film became the aesthetical manifest for the subsequent generations of cinema-makers.

Unlike his colleage from the Soviet Union Dziga Vertov, who at that time experimented a lot with montage, working out the type of screen thinking which we now call clip, Flaherty was focused on a prolonged observation of his characters. The naturalness of a documentary character's behavior in front of the camera is the main task of the film-director who works in the genre discovered by the American documentary film-maker. Our festival is dedicated to practical and theoretical questions of this genre of the documentary cinema.


From 1995 to 2008 there were 6 editions held. They welcomed 439 participants and guests from different countries and cities of Russia. 494 films from 37 countries of Europe, Asia, Southern and Northern Americas and 16 cities of Russia were screened at the festival. About 41300 people attended festival screenings.

Winners of the IX International Documentary Film Festival "Flahertiana-2009"

For the best film of the festival
Grand Prix "Big Golden Nanook"
is awarded to
film director Yu Guangyi
for the film "Survival Song"
(China)

For the best long film
prize "Silver Nanook"
is awarded to
film director Nati Baratz
for the film "Unmistaken Child"
(Israel)

For the best long film
prize "Silver Nanook"
is awarded to
film director Nati Baratz
for the film "Unmistaken Child"
(Israel)

For the best short film
prize "Silver Nanook"
is awarded to
film director Vladimir Golovnev
for the film "The Curtain"
(Russia)

FIPRESCI Jury prize
"Silver Nanook"
is awarded to
film director Yu Guangyi
for the film "Survival Song"
(China)

Special Jury Mention
for delicate reflection of relationships between man and woman
is awarded to
filmmaker Sean McAllister
for the film "Japan, a Story of Love and Hate"
(UK, Japan)

Audience Award
"Small Silver Nanook"
goes to
film director Andrey Golovnev
for the film "Post Horse"
(Russia)