19th Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr 2008 will take place in Sochi on June 7 - 15 this year. The official website is kinotavr.ru (Eng), and you can read my article with photos about last year’s «Kinotavr 2007» here. If interested to go, shop around, at least for the air fair, as prices listed on their tour website are pretty crazy.

During the same time — June 5-10 — Sochi will host 75-th Russian international cinema-market (Kinorynok or Kinorinok). This biggest event of the Russian and xUSSR republics’ film industry takes place three times a year, twice in Moscow (March & December) and in Sochi. It attracts over 1000 representatives from film studios, distribution companies, film producers, creative groups, movie theatres, and companies producing wide range of equipment and services for the film industry.

The official website of the event, with programme, floor layouts, photos, etc., is kinorinok.ru (Rus)

Geographically, these two events will be happening very close to each other, right in Sochi’s center.

Here are a few photos from previous Kinorynok events: Read the rest of this entry »

Sochi joins The Freeride World Tour! So, the five events are:

• Nissan Mammoth Challenge (USA), 22 to 26 January
• Nissan Caucasus Classic in Sochi (RUS), 31 January to 5 February
• Swatch O’Neill Big Mountain Pro, a mobile event in the Alps from 24 February to 2 March
• Nissan Freeride de Tignes (FRA), 9 to 12 March
• Nissan O’Neill Xtreme in Verbier from 14 to 23 March 

After the final event, the four Freeride World Champions (ski/snowboard/men/women) will be crowned. The Tour is endowed with a purse of $300,000, the highest sum ever to be paid in ski or snowboard freeride contests.

Read full article with information about the tour on xtremeverbier.com

WBFK World Champion Anatoly Nosyrev (RUS) will meet Kelly Leo (USA) for the ISKA Kickboxing World Championship Superheavyweight title fight in Sochi on August 17th.

Anatly Nosyrev (RUS)

Kelly Leo (USA)

Russian Thai Boxing Federation has applied to host 2008 European Thai Boxing Championship in Sochi, Russia. Sochi has strong Martial Arts traditions, for example we have one of Russia’s best Muai Thai clubs - «Atlan». Several of Atlan students have become Russian and European champions in Thai- and kickboxing. Also, Sochi often (every year?) hosts finals of the Russian «Pankration» (aka “Russian Absolute” – Russian version of UFC) Championship.

Wow! As you can imagine the news media of all sorts as well as regular people in blogs and forums are talking about our Olympic bid’s success. The win’s Pros and Cons arguments seem even more heated than before the vote: new infrastructure vs environmental worries, higher salaries vs high inflation, pride and recognition vs prospects of weaker foreign policy, ability vs inability to complete construction on time, international spotlight vs corruption - you name it, its been talked about. Whose shares went up? What will happen to people who live in and around the areas of constructions? What will happen to the “Olympic” money? Will the Olympics be profitable? Will it become’s Putin’s project for the upcoming years (after he leaves office next year after second term as President)? Both optimists and pessimists know all the answers, and they are completely opposite :) The truth, as always, lays somewhere in between. But everybody agrees - making this Olympics a success is a big exam for Russia.

I’ll try to avoid covering the arguments about all this questions as right now all of it is just speculations and personal views, and will stick to the facts.

So, how did Russia react to Sochi’s win? Mostly with shock and cheer! A lot of people, even the one’s who really wanted the win, did not believe in it. I’ve read that Russian betting offices lost over 10 million rubles (~$390 000). Betting is not that popular in Russia, but the point is they burned on this. A lot of people feel pride (so do I :)), and most are lost in guesses on how and how much this will change Russia’s South, and people’s lives.

July 5th (because of the time difference, it was 5th in Sochi when results were announced in Guatemala) will very likely become an official holiday in Sochi, this idea is already being proposed by Sochi’s mayor, Viktor Kolodyazhny. Russian businesses celebrated this victory with enthusiasm and introducing “olympic” sales. For example Russia’s biggest online store ozon.ru introduced 20% off almost all items for purchases on July 5th ans 6th, several travel agencies introduced lower rates to Sochi for those who’ll order next 10 days, “Ural airlines” introduced special “Olympic” rate for people going to Sochi for it’s development — from construction workers and engineers to sportsmen and their trainers, etc.

Anyways, I’ll keep an eye on the developments and keep you posted ;)

«Kinotavr» is Russia’s biggest open film festival. It takes place in Sochi annually, this year its 18th time.

The opening ceremony took place evening June 3rd. There are fourteen moves in the competition program; they’ve been selected from over 100 films. Most of the participating movies are Russian (only one foreign move is Ukrainian), you can find the complete list of the titles at the official website’s program page.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over 70 companies from Russia presented their services during «Hospitality and recreation industry» exhibition which is taking place in Sochi. Also, the Third Open Sochi Culinary Championship will be part of the exhibition, and will have prizes for “Young chef” (for students of culinary schools), “Perfect chef” (for professional chefs), and “Art-class” (for cooks and pastry-cooks).

International contest of A.S.Makarenko (Makarenko was great Russian teacher and writer) for educational institutions, which each year takes place in a different city, is starting in Sochi on April 1st, and will bring together student teams from 40 Russian regions. During the event, Russia’s biggest publishers will present new educational literature. Guest list includes famous Russian academicians, doctors, and professors. Also, official from Italian embassy in Russia, Emiliano Mettini, will talk about education experiences in Italy.

Here are some photos from the Nike Free Mountain 2007 skiing and snowboarding competition that took place in Krasnaya Polyana, Sochi on March 1-3.

See more larger pictures: »

Read the rest of this entry »

The finals of the international Missis World 2007 pageant took place tonight in «Zimny» Theater in Sochi, Russia. And here are the results!

Missis World 2007: Mrs. America - Diane Tucker
Missis Benevolence: Mrs. Canada - Mai-Lea Dejong
Missis Fitness: Mrs. Russia - Maria Gufronova
Best Dress: Mrs. France - Rejane Klein Maurer

Video 

I found three video clips on different Russian news sites. All three are different, some are from before the event, some are videos of the event itself. But they all have Russian narration. If you want to see the picture, here’s the list with instructions. Also, below I’m posting a few screenshots from two of those clips. Tip: if the playback is faster then the download and the video is jerking, press pause button after playback begun, and give it a little time to buffer data up; then press play button again to watch the video.

Screnshots

Read the rest of this entry »

These are just photos from the Mrs World website, they are not from Zimny Theater. If I find photos from the event in Sochi I’ll post ‘em here too. Update: event photos and links to videos in the new post.

Missis World 2007

Mrs. America - Diane Tucker

Missis Benevolence

Mrs. Canada - Mai-Lea Dejong

Missis Fitness

Mrs. Russia - Maria Gufronova

Best dress

Mrs. France - Rejane Klein Maurer

Photos (c) MrsWorld.com

The first part of Missis World contest was actually run last night in «Zhemchuzhyna» hotel. Out of thirty ladies that reached this stage only ten will compete in the final stage tomorrow in «Zimy» Theater. Their names are already known, but they are kept secret by the organizers.

The stage that ran last nigh included interview contest (called “Interview” :) and accounted for 50% of the score), and swimsuit (25% of the score) and evening dress (25% of the score) contests.

Here are three photos from sochi-news.ru

I also found decent photos from last year’s Missis Wold 2006 event held in St. Petersburg.

Russian Congress of Andrology and 3rd Congress of Professional Association of Russian Andrologists is scheduled in Sochi, Dagomys district on April 27-29. Official program, in Russian, can be found on Association’s official website.

The next biggest thing to hit Sochi after International Olympics Committee visit will be this year’s finals of the International beauty contest - Missis World 2007.

First thing’s first: the official website of the contest is www.mrsworld.com. This sorry excuse for the website is pretty useless, but it does have (low quality) pictures of all ladies, so check ‘em out and let me know who you think should win the contest! :) I personally like Yulia Ogrokhyna of Ukraine :-D

The date of the event is March 8 - the International Women’s Day. Until then, ladies, who are currently in Sochi, are Read the rest of this entry »

Nike Free Mountain 2007 competition will be in Krasnaya Polyana from March 1st to March 3rd. Program includes freeride and jibbing (sub-style of freestyle that uses obstacles such as trees, stumps, rails, etc.) competitions, and will gather around 200 skiers and snowboarders from Russia. Prize fund is $15 000 US.
 
Source: sport-express.ru

Nike regularly sponsors other sport and adventure competitions in Sochi in spring and summer.