(Source: http://markonmoscow.ru/news/page/11/)

“Zerkalo” is the international Film Festival named after Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986). It has been held in his native Ivanovo Region since 2007 annually. The participants include prominent directors and actors from Russia, the USA, Britain, France, Greece, Poland, Korea, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Iran, Iceland, Finland, Italy, Tajikistan, Georgia, and other countries. The VI-th Film Festival lasted from May 29 to June 3, 2012 in Plyos and Ivanovo (Ivanovo region).

Andrei Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, and theatre and opera director, whose world-famous works include “Stalker”, “The Mirror”, “Solaris”, “Andrei Rublev”, etc. He produced his films in Russia, Sweden and Italy, and directed the opera “Boris Godunov” in London. He also wrote a book on the film theory called “Sculpting in Time”. Tarkovsky created all the screenplays to his films himself, and only sometimes with the help of a co-writer. He managed to capture life as a reflection, life as a dream, life as a mirror. That is why the international Film Festival named after A.Tarkovsky is called “Zerkalo” meaning “the mirrow”.

Ivanovo is the city, where A.Tarkovsky spent his childhood, and every time “Zerkalo” brings together here the Russian and foreign gurus of cinematography, and offers a rich, diversified programme. What is notable, the festival’s organizers also pay attention to the young and debut directors, and even students. No doubt, that taking part in such kind of the event together with the kind support of the well-known directors and world-famous actors boosts the promotion and development of the young talents and their careers in this sphere.

“Zerkalo” was founded by the Government of the Ivanovo region with the support of the Russian Presidential Executive Office and the Ministry of Culture of Russia. During the Festival about 150 films are shown, over 50 creative meetings are held and about 25 thousand people visit festival events. Its jury includes the outstanding film directors and actors, such as Andrey Zvyagintsev (film director), Roger Christian (art director,  director), Johannes Zeiler  (actor), Vladas Bagdonas  (actor), and Dinara Drukarova (actress). Managemenet committee of the Film Festival is headed by Governor of the Ivanovo Region Mikhail Men. And Russian film director, the People’s Artist of Russia Pavel Lungin has been President of the Festival since 2010.

The programme of the festival is usually composed of several sections. Last time they were the following: Main competition, Tarkovsky context, “Native” - Russian cinema, Short films programme “Great names of a small movie”, Animation movies programme “In between”, “EUPHORIA”, and “VIDEO ART”. All together they made a competition of fiction films, special screening, retrospective shows, animation, and students’ films.

The festival opened with the film "Ivan's Childhood" by Andrei Tarkovsky. Other films shown at the festival included: "Faust" by Alexander Sokurov, "Boris Godunov" by Vladimir Mirzoyev, "Two Days" by Avdotya Smirnova, "Yelena" by Andrei Zvyagintsev, "The Conductor" by Pavel Lungin, "Once Upon Time There Was a Woman" by Andrei Smirnov and others.

Grand Prix of the Festival was awarded to “In the fog” directed by Sergey Loznitsa. As well as a statuette, the main winner got a sum of 900,000 rubles in prize money. Later “In the fog” was also nominated for the palm D’or in Cannes.

Eduardo Nuñes won Best Director award for his feature "Southwest".  Award for the Professional achievement and reflecting of paradoxicality of the human nature went to "The loneliest planet" directed by Julia Loktev (USA/Germany).  These winners were also awarded with the prize money of 300,000 rubles.
Best Cast award was given to "Back to stay" directed by Milagros Mumenthaler (Argentina/ Switzerland). And special award "For honest and uncompromising account of painful problems in one`s own country" went to Israeli film "Room 514" directed by Sharon Bar-Ziv.  Audience award has been won by "Thursday till sunday", directed by Dominga Sotomayor (Chile/ Netherlands).

Since 2007 “Zerkalo” has become highly appreciated not only in Russia, but in the foreign countries as well. And as Pavel Lungin says, "Ples and Ivanovo create an atmosphere close to that of Tarkovsky's films". “Zerkalo” attracts the attention of the world-famous directors and actors, visiting and actively participating in the Festival, and paves the way to the young creators who are likely to develop the future of the cinematography.