MOSCOW (Russian Film Business Today) – On March 26 in Moscow’s Kinotsentr na Krasnoy Presne (Cinema Center on Krasnaya Presnya), the Russian premiere of the film To Each His Cinema took place. The film, which is a unique compendium of short films made by 33 directors from 25 countries, was the first release from a package of films from the renewed brand CP Classic – a division of Central Partnership devoted to distribution of auteur and festival cinema intended for prolonged theatrical runs in Russian cinemas the main audience of which consists of admirers of non-standard cinema.

CP Classic has existed within the framework of Central Partnership for a long time. The first film from the library of films to which this division holds rights was David Lynch’s The Straight Story. Since then, CP Classic has released quite a few intriguing Russian and foreign films. Most of these were released in Russia in limited release; however, some films were released on more than 30 prints. For example, Emir Kusturica’s Promise Me This was issued on 50 prints. Nevertheless, CP Classic, the generally-accepted birthday of which is the date of the Russian premiere of To Each His Cinema, started operations as a separate company division only on March 1 of this year. CP Classic is headed by Natalya Khlyustova and has four staff members. Central Partnership’s management is counting on financial returns from the division’s operations within the next two years.

“The main goal for us is to provide for a long theatrical runs for our films,” said Khlyustova, “We need for films from the CP Classic package, which will be released no less frequently than once a month, to be shown not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg but in all Russian cities with populations of 1 million or more, as well as other regions of Russia and CIS countries. We will have a dedicated booker working with cinemas interested in CP Classic’s films.”

“We hope that the CP Classic brand will become know throughout the country,” said Ruben Dishdishyan, CEO of Central Partnership, “We aim for it to release hip and non-trivial films to cinemas, and then to DVD and TV.”

“It is not an accident that we are avoiding the term ‘arthouse’,” said Mark Lolo, general director of Central Partnership Sales House, “In my view, this term has discredited itself in Russia, just as the blanket term ‘blockbuster’ has. I would like to emphasize that CP Classic will not distribute so-called arthouse cinema, which is synonymous with boredom and elitism, but high-quality cinema.”

Apart from To Each His Cinema, the CP Classic package for 2008–2009 includes Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s The Lark Farm (April 24 theatrical release), Alain Corneau’s The Second Wind (May 8 release), Hector Babenco’s melodrama The Past, Michael Haneke’s 2007 remake of his 1997 film Funny Games, Woody Allen’s comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Lars von Trier’s horror film Antichrist, Won Kar Wai’s 1994 drama Ashes of Time, Jim Jarmusch’s thriller Limits of Control, etc.

CP Classic will pay special attention to releases by Russian film directors. CP Classic plans to release Alexander Proshkin’s drama Live and Remember (based on the eponymous novella by Valentina Rasputin), Katya Shagalova’s drama Once Upon a Time in the Provinces, Boris Khlebnikov’s comedy-drama Aggravation and other Russian films. CP Classic’s Russian slate also includes such special projects as SemYa, a compendium of children’s films, the box office proceeds of which will applied to the establishment of arts centers in orphanages.