Not only Russian celebrities graced the red carpet this year. The star of The Pianist, Adrien Brody, has jetted into the Russian capital to present his Cadillac Records, described as a ‘tale of sex, violence, race and rock-n-roll in 1950s Chicago’.

In its 31st year, the Moscow Film Festival features 24 programs screening films from Europe, the USA, Russia and Asia.

Some 16 films have been chosen out of several thousand to enter the official competition.

14 countries, including Iran, Italy, Mexico, Japan, Israel and Ukraine are in the running for the festival’s top honor, the Golden St.George. Three of them are from Russian filmmakers. Last year, an Iranian drama ‘As Simple As That’ picked up the award.

“The main achievement of this festival, in my opinion, is that it managed to survive. Usually, events like this one cannot survive political and social upheavals. The fact that our festival has stayed afloat indicates that Russian cinematography is alive and well, and popular with the people to such an extent that people kept it alive, in spite of the fact that practically nothing of the old Russia has remained in place,” Nikita Mikhalkov, Oscar winning director and the festival’s president, said.

One of the world’s oldest film festivals is highlighting independent art-house productions, as well as big international movies like Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, which will be screened on the final day of the event, June 28.