Day 5, June 24
Late in the afternoon, a Russian-style party took place in the Culture Fund’s mansion. Its highlight was, of course, Gina Lolobrigida, who appeared in a green suit. The Italian legend took a liking to the winners of the fourth International contest of young designers, "New Russia. United World." She particularly liked the collection presented by the "Viva Vox" team of two designers from Moscow. The collection was presented by young actors, including Igor Vernik, who charmed Lolobrigida with his "Hollywood smile" and gave her a flower while kneeling in front of her.

Day 6, June 25
After visiting luxurious restaurants and buffets, 75-year-old British director Ken Russel decided to see how ordinary people dine in this part of the world. He took his wife to the "Mu-Mu" cafe on Stary Arbat where they stood with trays in a long line and finally got their meals and sat down in the noisy room. The meals were fine, but the interior and the crowd shocked them enough to swear off any further experiments.
In the meantime, German actor Moritz Bleibtreu was going all out: He watched the competing films in the evenings, partied all night and slept in the daytime. We saw him hanging out at Jet Set at an after-party celebrating the premiere of the Russian flick, "Pokhititeli knig" (Book Thieves). Other members of the festival’s jury were also active in social life.

Day 7, June 26
Cinema critics and journalists gathered at a round table in the Dom Kino conference hall in the morning to talk about the "trash" genre (i.e. low-budget films). They opened a media forum and the "Trash" competition program. I don’t think such forums are very exciting. MIFF program director Kirill Razlogov insisted that Rob Zombie’s trash film, "The House of 1000 Corpses," should be included on the festival’s main competition list. In fact, Korean flick "Save the Green Planet!" which is quite close to the trash genre, was included on the competition list. And at the closing ceremony we learned that its director, Jang Jun-Hwan, won the Silver St. George.

Day 8, June 27
British director Peter Greenway arrived in Moscow not only to present the first part of his monumental project, "The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1. The Moab Story," but also on business: He was looking for actors to star in the movie’s second episode and hence spent most of his time at the "12 A" studio. And he didn’t watch anything at the festival, save his own flick, which he watched till the end.

Day 9, June 28
The upscale movie theater Rolan hosted a party sponsored by Martell, thrown to honor the brilliant French star, Fanny Ardant. She stoically sustained numerous camera flashes and went on smiling. Elegant as always, she wore a black dress ornamented with lace, a black blouse and low-heeled shoes. She wore almost no jewelry, except a pair of earrings and a ring. And she didn’t look tired at all. Sponsors gave her a special cocktail, "Callas Forever," mixed of mango juice and Martell cognac, but she preferred a half-liter glass of beer. Late at night, the crowd moved to the upscale dance club Zeppelin where a Movie Star party was underway. The party was meant to copy the festival’s opening ceremony with red carpets, floodlights, the works. The club was packed to the brim!

Day 10, June 29
The last day of the 25th Moscow International Film Festival. The festival’s honorable guests – Gina Lolobrigida, Fanny Ardant and Steven Seagal – not only contributed to the holiday atmosphere, but also gave and received prizes from the festival’s organizers, and they cried, too. Yes, forgive me for mentioning that, but tears were constantly flowing during the festival. Maybe the cold and rainy Moscow summer was to blame? Ardant was so touched when she was given the "Veryu (I Believe) Konstantin Stanislavsky" prize that she could not hold back her tears. Now the festival is over, but this doesn’t have to mean an end in the production and showing of good movies.