The article examines the soundtrack of the film “Intervention” (1968), highlighting the innovative approach of Gennady Poloka and Sergei Slonimsky to musical dramaturgy. The paper looks at the role of music in structuring the frame and rhythmically organizing the action. It analyzes the ways to obtain comic and dramatic effects through music and various modes of its integration. Particular attention is paid to the unique role of the three diegetic songs. The author concludes that all of them, relating to the theme of death, serve as the emotional and conceptual epicenters of the action and reassess the apparent buffoonery as a philosophical drama exploring the relationship between authorities and marginalized individuals.

The article is devoted to a recent (2025) discovery of A. Kurosawa’s unrealized original script “The Mask of the Black Death”. The paper considers the connection between the chosen aesthetics of set design and the director’s artistic conception. Several aspects of set design influenced the key features of the plot, the author’s decision to move the location to Russia in particular. The study outlines the principles of visual modeling of cinematic space, characteristic of Akira Kurosawa’s filming methods. The paper looks at the role of the studio and location sets and their color schemes that the director considered crucial for developing the artistic style and for the ultimate success of the film, and identifies some parallels between visual script imagery and techniques used in Russian film classics. A number of production design challenges relevant to the modern filmmaking process are set up.

The article focuses on the portrayal of Russians in contemporary South Korean cinema covering the period from the establishment of the independent Russian Federation in 1992 to the present. Based on Korean TV dramas, the authors analyze the positive and negative traits attributed by directors to “Russian” characters in order to understand the contemporary perception of Russian people and the existing prejudices in Korean society.

The article focuses on the classic Buster Keaton film “Sherlock, Jr.” (1924). Buster Keaton is one of the key figures in the history of cinema, central to the American silent comedy genre. In the complex structure of Keaton's picture, ‘film’ rhymes with ‘dream.’ The two phenomena have been compared by various film theorists who found a close resemblance between them. The article analyzes “Sherlock, Jr.” in the context of these theories paralleling the nature of cinema to that of dreaming (O. Rank, S. Kracauer, V.A. Podoroga, etc.).

The article explores the fundamental paradigmatic crisis caused by the convergence of artificial intelligence and screen arts. It argues that what this convergence generates is not a temporary change, but a persistent zone of permanent reflexive instability, in which the velocity of technological transformation outpaces the capacity for theoretical understanding. This leads to a systemic categorical crisis: classical concepts of aesthetics and media theory (“author”, “originality”, “work”) lose their analytical power when confronted with algorithmic generation. The article argues that staying within this zone of conceptual instability is a necessary condition for the generation of new knowledge. The promising direction lies not in a return to old categories, but in the active development of interdisciplinary meta-languages capable of describing the hybrid nature of creativity in the anthropo-technical era.

The plot in which the protagonist is condemned by an external power to a predetermined future is well known. Possessing an enormous potential for confliction, it is referred to in the article as the “predestination plot”. The study explores the patterns of constructing artistic space and time for this particular type of plot. It is shown that the dominant temporality for a film with a doomed character is the “future in the present” time form. It implies a special type of causality that leads to the elimination of rigid logical connections, giving rise to an absurd reality. That’s exactly why the predestination plot is marked by spatial and temporal anomalies. The features of artistic space and time in the films with predetermined future are illustrated by examples of “The Green Knight” (2020) directed by David Lowery, “I'm Thinking of Ending Things” (2020) by Charlie Kaufman, and some others.

The plot of a hero condemned by an external force to a predetermined future, where the forces of predestination hold sway over him, is not new. Possessing enormous conflictual potential, this article dubs it the “predestination plot”. The study explores the patterns of constructing artistic space and time for this type of plot. It is shown that the dominant temporality for a film with a doomed hero is the “future in the present” temporal form. This implies a special type of causality that leads to the elimination of rigid logical connections, leading to the emergence of an absurd reality. This is precisely why the predestination plot is characterized by spatial and temporal anomalies. The features of artistic space and time in the plot of predetermination are examined using the examples of the films “The Green Knight” (2020) directed by David Lowery, “I'm Thinking of Ending Things” (2020) directed by Charlie Kaufman, and several others.

The article searches into the artistic, aesthetic and sociocultural aspects of fashion films, as a new unique screen form, exploring the diverse social, cultural, aesthetic, etc. background of their emergence and the functioning of these small-scale film forms within the online media environment. The study analyzes the influence of a number of non-classical aesthetic phenomena (kitsch, camp, simulacre, intertext, hypertext, physicality etc.), as well as the aesthetics of the music video, on the fashion film in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, in the process of forming its visual and narrative structures.

The article analyzes the interplay of diegetic spaces in the real and imaginary worlds in Alexander Kott's film “Chuck and Geck. A Big Adventure”. The authors consider the changes in the functions of both from the perspective of socio-psychological foundations and folklore traditions that explain the characters' behavior and affect the character-environment dialogue. Special attention is paid to the vocalization of the Mother and the theme of the Family, as the sources of children's behavioral patterns in the screen adaptation of Arkady Gaidar's story.

The article examines the Russian TV series of 2023-2025 that focus on the theme of gangsterism in the 1990s. It studies both dramatic (“The Fella’s Vow”, “Dashing”, “Outsourcing”, etc.) and comic series (“Dino”, “The Twisted Ones”) from the ideological and formal perspective. It also delves into their ultimate message and impact on public consciousness.

The article examines the films of Andrei Tarkovsky and Lars von Trier in the context of intertextual connections. The work of cinema is presented as a system open to dialogue, where there is the possibility of a response: doubts, objections, and agreements. An analysis of Lars von Trier's films reveals references to Andrei Tarkovsky's work in the repetition of plot motifs and the use of musical fragments. The main themes of the dialogue between the two artists are the relationship between humans and nature, humans and humans, and finally, humans and God. Despite its tension, it has an inner mobility, a movement between despair and hope. Dialogue is understood in the context of the theoretical works of Mikhail Bakhtin and Martin Buber.

The article explores the models of creating short animated films in relation to social media. Contemporary strategies and key production patterns are aimed at overcoming the audience’s short attention span, focusing on the viewer’s rapid engagement and fostering strong loyalty to the presented content. The evolution of methods — from specialized and modular approaches to the use of artificial intelligence — provides creators with powerful tools and simplifies the implementation of complex artistic tasks, while simultaneously posing new requirements to originality and visual storytelling.

The article analyzes the specifics of the viewer's perception of in-camera VFX and chromakey technologies used in Alexey German Jr.'s film “Air” (2024) and the film “Devyataev” (2021) by Timur Bekmambetov and Sergey Trofimov. The contrast between artistic approaches and the use of visual effects is considered. Conclusions are drawn as to how digital effects can alter the viewer's perception of the same object in different genre paradigms.

Russian film industry and theatre are currently facing new challenges, including intense competition, digitalization and shifting audience’s preferences. Technological advancements create new options; yet, their effective implementation requires extensive resources and strategic planning. The aim of this study is to provide scientifically grounded recommendations for establishing a special center for the development of cinema and theatre to foster new forms of cooperation and ensure the sustainable development of both media.