The 22nd Golden Mask Festival is taking place in Moscow from February to April, 2016.

The most important national theater festival of Russia will select and award the best performances of the theatrical season of 2014-2015, as well as the best stage directors, actors, artists, and composers. Besides the traditional competitive program the festival embraces new projects.

Unusual stage productions from various cities of this country can be seen at the out-of-competition program Mask Plus. Performances for children of various age groups are presented within the Children's Weekend program. Stage plays are broadcasted live in the framework of the special program Golden Mask in Cinema, whereas the project Golden Mask in the City will take stage productions beyond the theater walls and to the streets and squares, shopping malls and cafes. The Russian Case program is intended for foreign producers and critics. Besides, the festival is accompanied with work of the Theater Institute, which brings up young specialists.

The festival Golden Mask 2016 was opened with The Queen of Spades staged by the Samara Opera and Ballet Theater on February 4. On the same month two performances will be presented by the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater.

The main intrigue of the festival is related to the first prize as usual. Among the prize contenders in the nomination Drama Theatre there are Zholdak Dreams of the Petersburg Big Drama Theatre directed by the avant-gardist Andriy Zholdak, The Jeweller's Anniversary staged by Konstantin Bogomolov and starring Oleg Tabakov, The Masquerade. Memoirs of the Future of the Aleksandrinsky Theater, and Nuremberg of the Russian Academic Youth Theatre.

The list of rivals in the Opera nomination includes the conservative Queen of Spades of the Mariinsky Theater and the modern version of Figaro's Weddings staged by the Bolshoi Theater. The most nonconventional performances in this category will be episodes 2 and 5 of the grand opera series The Sverlitsians of the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre.

The Golden Mask contenders in the Ballet category are three stage productions from Yekaterinburg, namely Step Lightly, Vain Precaution and The Veil.

The only performance from St. Petersburg is the psychological ballet Up & Down by the Boris Eifman Ballet Theater. Moscow is represented with The Hero of Our Time staged in the Bolshoi Theater and Minos from the Ballet Moscow Theater.