The Estonian/Armenian/French/Belgian coproduction Winter in March directed by Natalia Mirzoyan received the 3rd Prize in la Cinef competition of the Cannes Festival on 22 May 2025.
The film is based on the true story of a married couple from St. Petersburg. It begins on the first day of the war between Russia and Ukraine and shows the events from the perspective of people who are Russian citizens but oppose the war. The film depicts the first month of the war and the heroes’ subsequent journey to Georgia. The ordeals lead to the couple’s estrangement, which ultimately ends in separation.
Winter in March is produced by ArtStep-studio (Armenia) and Rebel Frame (Estonia), coproduced by the Animation Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts, Black Boat Pictures (France) and White Boat Pictures (Belgium), and supported by the Estonian Film Institute, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Cinema Foundation of Armenia and the Armenian Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports.
The film was shot at the Animation Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts.
The First Prize in the La Cinef section was awarded to the South Korean short film First Summer. Chinese short film, 12 Moments Before the Flag-raising Ceremony, directed by Qu Zhizheng of the Beijing Film Academy, won the Second Prize.
This year’s La Cinef section featured 16 student films, selected from 2,679 submissions representing 646 film schools around the world.
