Konchalovsky refused to compete in film directing with Navalny

As Konchalovsky said on his Facebook page, the reason for his step was the “mistake” of the expert council, which allowed a “publicistic project” to participate in the award. He announced his decision publicly three days before the date of the official announcement of the results for 2020.

“I regret to report that I have made a difficult decision for myself and ask you to remove my film Dear Comrades! From the nomination for the National Film Critics and Film Press Awards for 2020. (…) I am sad to see that this year the nominee for the National Film Critics and Film Press Awards in the category “Event of the Year” is a publicistic project that can be considered a political act, but cannot receive any marks according to the criteria of cinematography. It is as if the editorial in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda won the Literature Prize. I'm sorry, but the mistake of the Expert Council deprived us this year of the opportunity to objectively assess the art of cinematography within the professional community”, - wrote Konchalovsky.

Konchalovsky did not mention the name of the "publicistic project", but the hint is quite obvious.

Earlier, the White Elephant Prize Expert Council called for the award in the Event of the Year category to opposition politician Alexei Navalny for a series of groundbreaking investigative documentaries, including a video project about a “palace for Putin”. In a short time, he collected over 100 million views. Among the works of Navalny, an investigation into the poisoning of the politician by Novichok was also noted, during which Navalny was able to miraculously survive, and then unravel the history of the large-scale surveillance organized by the special services and even record an interview with one of his alleged poisoners.

The fact that Navalny's films were nominated for the White Elephant award in March angered Konchalovsky's younger brother, Nikita Mikhalkov. Mikhalkov said that Navalny has nothing to do with cinema.

“If you give a prize for politics, well, my dears, you say so. And when you want to give Navalny's program a prize as a cinematic work, then you are not a damn film critic, that's all”, - Mikhalkov said.

At the same time, Mikhalkov kept silent that he himself actively participates in politics, being a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin during election campaigns. Representatives of the White Elephant Prize Expert Council stated that the Union of Cinematographers, headed by Nikita Mikhalkov, put pressure on them and tried to exclude people who were not members of the Union from the Expert Council of the Prize.

Many attributed this to the fact that experts proposed to nominate Alexei Navalny, who is considered the main opponent of the Kremlin, to the list of nominees. Now Navalny is in prison in the Vladimir region in the case of "Yves Rocher", the initiation of which the ECHR recognized as "politically motivated". Navalny's defense is sounding the alarm due to the fact that a doctor is not allowed to see a sick Navalny in the colony. In protest against the refusal of medical care, Navalny went on a hunger strike in the colony.