Focus on Russia, the Russian movie-oriented event in the fringes of Sofia Film Fest, is happening in one of the best years for Russia's film industry, Sergey Lazarouk, deputy head of the Agency for Culture and Cinematography of the Russian Federation, told a news conference in Sofia on March 12.

Russia had two Oscar-nominated movies for the first time ever, production has reached 130-135 movies a year and a movie hit a $20-30 million box office this year, he said.

One of the movies that earned an Oscar nomination, 12, directed by Nikita Mihalkov, was the March 7 opener of Focus on Russia. The other, Mongol, directed by Sergei Bodrov Sr., also features in the event's programme.

According to Lazarouk, the Russian movie selection is a compilation of the landmark projects of Russian cinematography over the past year.

The choice of films was justified, since they were all award-winning and have sparked immense interest in Russia and abroad, cinema critic Andrei Plahov said.

Anna Melikyan, the director of The Mermaid, screened in Sofia on March 12, was on Variety's directors to watch list in January, winning awards at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals.

Andrey Zvyagintsev, a young filmmaker participating with his second film The Banishment, won two Golden Lions at the Venice Festival and is among the contenders at this year's Cannes Festival.

Gruz 200, the thriller directed by Alexei Balabanov, has stirred controversy even before it started filming and was so naturalistic that it saw Russian critiques going to extremes.

Focus on Russia, the central cinema event within the framework of the Year of Russia in Bulgaria, features predominantly art films that have earned international recognition, Raissa Fomina, producer and Intercinema festival director, said.

This type of movies, as opposed to commercial movies, were in need of festival promotion since they were generally low-budget and needed to be noticed to be sold. The competition on the international movie market nowadays was more heated than ever and existing players, such as France or Hong Kong are highly reluctant to accept newcomers, Fomina said. Unless the movie is award-winning, it would hardly earn sales, she added.

Zvyagintsev's The Banishment, which won multiple awards, was sold in 75 countries, but it was more an exception than a rule, Fomina said. Russian films still had to rely heavily on their domestic audience.