Central Partnership (part of Gazprom-Media Holding) held its presentation at the prestigious CineEurope Forum in Barcelona on October 6, 2021. This was the first presentation by a Russian film company in the Forum’s 30-year history.

Vadim Vereshchagin, general manager of Central Partnership, presented the company’s package of multi-genre new content for the first time in CineEurope’s history alongside leading Hollywood and European producers.

One of the first projects that Central Partnership presented was the action-drama Chempion Mira (World Champion), made by Nikita Mikhalkov’s TriTe Studio, Russia-1 channel and Central Partnership, with the support of the Cinema Foundation of Russia.

Another feature film that Vadim Vereshchagin spoke about at the presentation was the thriller Dekabr (December). It was made by Yellow, Black and White studio and START video service, with the support of the Cinema Foundation of Russia and Kinoprime Foundation.

Central Partnership’s presentation also included a video clip that gave a sneak peek at Sergey Mokritskiy’s war drama Pervy Oskar (First Oscar). This film was made by Central Partnership together with Novye Lyudi film company, with the participation of Russia-1 channel and the support of the Cinema Foundation of Russia.

Another video clip introduced Forum participants to 100 Let Tomu Vpered (100 Years Forward), a new joint project between Art Pictures and Vodorod studios. In the special clip, made especially for the Forum, the film’s creators talked about the original world featured in the film. Egor Baranov (Avanpost/The Blackout, Gogol trilogy) directed the project.

Miguel Menendez de Zubillaga from Elcana Media joined Vadim Vereshchagin to talk about the high-budged drama Magellan (produced by Gazprom-Media Holding’s GPM KIT, Elcano Media, MONO Films, Amazon Prime Video, the Spanish state television company RTVE, EiTB, Canal Sur and Fulwell 73). 

An exclusive selection of clips from the mystical claustrophobic horror film Ryad 19 (Row 19) was presented at the Forum. The film is made by KIT Film Studio (part of Gazprom-Media Holding), Central Partnership and Monumental Pictures with the support of the Cinema Foundation of Russia. Russian viewers will be able to watch Ryad 19 in movie theatres starting on November 11, 2021. The rights to the film have already been sold to the United States (Well Go USA), Latin American countries (BF Distribution), South Korea (Cinema Black), Italy (Minerva Pictures) and the Middle East (Phars Filmco Motion Pictures).

The film with the working title Vyzov (The Challenge) was the finishing touch to an exciting presentation. This is a joint production between Roscosmos State Corporation, Channel One and Yellow, Black and White studio, with Central Partnership serving as the film’s distributor.

A film crew - actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko - was sent to the International Space Station on October 5 as part of history’s first feature-length film to be shot in space. To prepare, they underwent accelerated training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Zvezdnyi Gorodok, including an introduction to the design and on-board systems of Soyuz MS and the Russian section of the ISS. After the preparation period, the film crew members successfully passed their examinations. On September 18, Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko went to the Baikonur cosmodrome for the final phase of the spaceflight preparations.

The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-19 manned transportation spacecraft launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on October 5 at 11:55, Moscow time. The crew included astronaut Anton Shkaplerov and the Vyzov film crew - Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko. Channel One and Roscosmos TV broadcast this historic event live. Central Partnership also showed a live broadcast to international distributors and studios that took part in the CineEurope Forum in Barcelona.

Vadim Vereshchagin spoke in detail about the upcoming film and also showed an exclusive video that gave a sense of the casting process, training and preparation of astronauts, the rocket launch and its docking with the ISS.

Vyzov is a space drama from director Klim Shipenko (Kholop/The Peasant, Salyut-7, Tekst/Text). In the plot, a female doctor has to prepare for a spaceflight in one month in order to go to the ISS and save an astronaut’s life. Eduard Iloyan, Denis Zhalinsky, Vitaly Shlyappo, Alexey Trotsyuk, Sergey Titinkov, Dmitry Rogozin and Konstantin Ernst produced the film.