Oscar winning Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov has given a dinner celebrating the creation of a fund aimed at helping veteran cinematographers at home.

Entitled “Urga. Territory of Love”, the fund will spend up to $US 1 MLN a year on pensions, insurance and medical aid.

Meanwhile, Russia's National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has welcomed new members such as theatre director Kirill Serebrennikov and two of the country's most promising actresses: Viktoria Tolstoganova and Anna Mikhalkova.

Anna's father, Nikita Mikhalkov, who is also the President of the Moscow International Film Festival, shared his impressions of the event.

“I am impressed by the fact that compared to last year three times as many people have attended the festival. I am also impressed that all the programmes in the festival's framework attracted a capacity crowd. And I am very happy that average film goers, who I regularly meet at the Oktyabr movie theatre, came up to me saying thank you for the festival,” Nikita Mikhalkov  added.