MOSCOW (Russian Film Business Today) – The 11^th ceremony to award the Blockbuster Awards took place on January 28 at the Renaissance Moscow Hotel. Since 1997, the Blockbuster Awards are professional prizes have been awarded based on year-end results in the film and video business. Until 2001, this event was called Prizes of VideoMagazin Weekly. In 2002, after the magazine Russian Film Business Today was launched, the awards were renamed the Blockbuster Awards. The main criterion for laureates has traditionally been commercial success of films released theatrically and on video in the previous year.

The awards, which are organized by the magazines Russian Film Business Today and VideoMagazin, were attended by many representatives of the Russian film business – distributors, heads of cinema chains, producers, directors and actors. The emcees of the evening were the actor Yegor Pazenko and producer Alyona Sidorenko.

The ceremony opened with the best selling films on DVD. The sales champion in the CIS was 300, which was distributed by Universal Pictures Russia, also recognized as the best distributor of films on DVD. The Hits of the Year prizes went to Mongol (Soyuz-Video), Lovey-Dovey [Lyubov’-Morkov’] (Vox Video), Apocalypto, Paragraph 78 – Film 2, 12 (all CP Digital), Night at the Museum (20^th Century Fox CIS), Ghost Rider, Casino Royale (Videoservice) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Universal Pictures Russia). A special prize for “contributions to the promotion of programs about art on the Russian video market” was awarded to the company TEN-Video.

The box office champion for the CIS was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which grossed $30.85 million (BVSPR). The prize for Best Film According to a Survey of Film Critics was Pan’s Labyrinth (RUSCICO/East-West). In the section CIS Box Office Hit, four films from Central Partnership were awarded: Shadowboxing 2: Revenge ($11.77 million), Taxi 4 ($12.05 million), The Wolfhound ($20.02 million), films from last year’s package from UPI – Transformers ($15.25 million) and Shrek the Third ($23.39 million), as well as the lyrical youth comedy The Heat [Zhara] (Gemini, $15.71 million), the action-adventure Spider Man 3 (BVSPR, $13.95 million), the fantasy film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Caro Premier, $16.33 million) and the supernatural comedy Night at the Museum (20^th Century Fox CIS, $12.99 million). Paradise’s release of the spy drama Lust Caution ($0.21 million) was the highest-grossing Asian film. The action comedy Taxi 4, which grossed $12.05 million brought Central Partnership the prize for the highest grossing European film.

The anthology film Paris, Je T’aime, distributed by CP Classics grossed $1.05 million in theater, making it the highest grossing film in limited release. The Alexei Mikhalev Prize for Best Translation of a Theatrical Film went to the translation of the musical comedy Hairspray, distributed by Caro Premier. Paramount/DreamWorks was recognized as the highest grossing Hollywood company in Russia. Its receipts totaled $65.42 million. The Producer of the Year Award went to Ruben Dishdishyan, the general director of Central Partnership. The Russian Film Business Today Editor-in-Chief Award went to the thriller Death Proof (West). UPI, the receipts of which totaled $95.95 million, was awarded the Distributor of the Year award.