This article commemorates the 55th anniversary of the release of Vladimir Rogovoy’s “Officers” (1971) and the 50th anniversary of Leonid Bykov’s “One-Two, Soldiers Were Marching...” (1976), focusing on the history of the literary screenplays for these films. The screenplay for “One-Two, Soldiers Were Marching...” first appeared in 1974 as a standalone novella, though it was not published at the time. The article recounts how writer Boris Vasilyev revived the screenplay 35 years later and subsequently publish it as a novella. Accounts regarding the creation of the screenplay for “Officers” — including the revised version from the 1990s — highlight the literary material that did not make it to the final cut. These omitted sections offer a significantly different perspective on and interpretation of the issues, ideology and imagery in a work that has become a classic of Soviet and Russian cinema and a cornerstone of the Russian film canon. The article attempts to analyze the emotional resonance and ideological content of the screenplays through the optics of a modern interpretation. It also presents materials from Boris Vasilyev’s private archive, located in Solnechnogorsk, Moscow Region.

This article examines the evolution of sound in Soviet cinema in the 1960s as an alternative to the classical musical tradition. It analyzes the shift from self-contained musical forms to fragmentation, the poeticization and absurdization of speech, and the incorporation of sound effects as an expressive element. The study demonstrates how sound turned into a major instrument in the post-war quest for a new cinematic language, identifying technological progress and the philosophical context of the era as key factors in this transformation.

The article attempts to compare works belonging to different art forms — literature and cinema. Given that writers and directors employ artistic methods and techniques that differ in nature, we have focused our comparative analysis on the narrative’s level of events, emphasizing formal aspects only when doing so aids in grasping the underlying concept. The study focuses on “Rita’s Last Fairy Tale”, Renata Litvinova’s auteur film, which shares significant plot elements and motifs with José Saramago’s novel “Death with Interruptions”; suggesting that the novel might be one of the pre-texts, whose influence substantially transformed the film’s original script.

The subject of this article is the film “Tár” (2022) by American director Todd Field, which sharply addresses the issue of current democratic trends, specifically, the imposition of the minority’s will upon the majority. “Tár” stands out as a fundamentally conservative statement, a rarity in modern Hollywood. Drawing on law and media philosophy, the author attempts to explain “cancel culture” and argues that it poses a threat to culture itself.

This article analyzes Francesco Rosi’s film “Three Brothers” based on Andrei Platonov’s short story “The Third Son”. The author argues that turning to Soviet prose was driven by a search for philosophical and moral foundations capable of halting the erosion of family and kinship ties in contemporary Italian society, as well as finding paths to reconciliation in the country’s sociopolitical life — a period characterized by what was then termed a “low-intensity civil war” involving rising waves of violence from far-right and far-left extremists. The growing atomization of society is reflected not only in the theme of modern man’s loneliness — explored by many Italian directors — but also in the analysis of the political landscape of an era marked by a lack of affinity within European society. Francesco Rosi is one of those who perceive the common roots linking the breakdown of family ties and the country’s fierce political confrontation; yet, he does not merely acknowledge the situation but seeks a way out. He finds this solution in the works of the Soviet writer Platonov and, indirectly, in the philosophical concept of the “Common Cause” advanced by the Russian cosmist philosopher N. Fedorov, who influenced Platonov.

The article highlights the key milestones in the history of Cambodian cinema. The topic is particularly relevant due to the lack of prior research: the majority of films produced in the country before 1975 are irretrievably lost, and most of the surviving works have never been translated into foreign languages. Drawing on available sources, the author attempts to outline the evolution of Khmer cinema, paying special attention to the work of the filmmaker-king Norodom Sihanouk.

This article examines the evolving portrayals of the “Ivan the Fool” character in Russian cinematic fairy tales. His transformation from a familiar folklore archetype into a multifaceted hero capable of shifting roles demonstrates the diverse ways this character is represented in cinema. Analyzing these changes in the depiction of perhaps the most democratic of folklore archetypes — as seen in both Soviet and contemporary Russian fairy-tale films — reveals the characterizations that defined the spirit of their respective eras.

This article looks into the specific application of the MacGuffin and anti-MacGuffin in world cinema while outlining the key theoretical concepts regarding these narrative devices and their use in film, television, and animation; it also develops theories concerning the relationship between the MacGuffin and the anti-MacGuffin—drawing on Alfred Hitchcock’s definition and subsequent interpretations by film theorists—and presents various ways in which they interact within a film.

The author analyzes the theme of covert surveillance in cinema, drawing on Francis Ford Coppola’s The “Conversation” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” and “Vertigo”. The study identifies the structure and elements of the surveillance motif in film and examines the “role reversal” scenario, in which the observer finds themselves in the opposite position. Furthermore, the article explores the impact of covert surveillance on the narrative elements — characterization, internal conflict, and dramatic plot twists.

The article provides an overview and analysis of a poll conducted to study the practice of re-watching films among Russians and Russian-speaking residents of other countries. The study is the first to examine the specifics of forming a personal selection of favourite films as an indicator of cultural preferences and aims to identify the structure of such a selection. The methodological foundation of the research comprises online surveying [19] and axiological testing (analysis of value-semantic components of film works) [7]. The identified patterns reveal a stable academically relevant trend.

The article examines the development of the inclusive agenda in the Russian Cinema of 2024–2025 due to the federal focused policy. Based on monitoring the implementation of target indicators in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, conducted using the method of qualitative content analysis, the authors analyze three key areas: actual film production, the activities of cultural and educational institutions, and the organization of thematic festivals and screenings. The authors conclude that contemporary Russian cinema, supported by the state, is moving from the representation of inclusion to its institutionalization and, ultimately, to becoming a sustainable mechanism of social transformation, where every citizen can realize their creative potential and society learns to hear everyone.

The article examines the institutional transformations of Armenian cinema in 2018–2025, including the establishment of Armenian Cinema Day, the adoption of the Law “On Cinematography,” the introduction of the rebate system, and the creation of the Cinema Foundation of Armenia. Based on institutional and political economy analysis, the study identifies contradictions between the declared goals of the reforms and their outcomes, addressing issues of transparency, resource allocation, and the risks of centralization in industry governance.

The article examines a methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of visual production involving generative neural networks. It presents the results of a SWOT analysis of approaches to image creation and provides a comparative analysis of generative image-creation platforms. Quantitative and qualitative metrics for evaluating visual content are also discussed.

To examine users’ attitudes toward visual content created by generative neural networks and identify the need for professional production support, an online survey was conducted; the results of which are presented in the study. The survey revealed that the majority of the respondents are familiar with AI capabilities and are willing to use such tools. However, users face a number of challenges, such as the difficulty of controlling the output, generation errors, and the need for precise briefing and an understanding of legal constraints. There is a strong demand for transparency: users want to distinguish between AI-generated images and traditional photographs, and the level of trust is directly linked to the expertise of the staff attending the process. Empirical data demonstrates that, despite the advantages of AI-generated visuals — such as time and cost redsaving, flexibility, and scalability — working with AI independently does not solve every problem and often creates new challenges.

This article examines certain immanent compositional principles related to deep human psychological processes, their creative potential, and the characteristics of artistic perception and thinking. To this end, the study analyzes visual illusions as illustrations of elementary compositional structures. The author points out that the compositional component is always the relationship between two entities which take countless forms within an artistic compositional pattern. Therefore, composition theory is dominated by descriptive rather than mathematical methods, which view the essence of composition as a “construction for meaning”, as the structure (construction) of dialogue in the artistic “situation of interaction” between “artist-artwork-viewer”. In this case, compositional thinking can only be examined if this structure is accepted as the foundation, the primary, indivisible unit, the “semantic atom”, the starting point of analysis.