Moscow, Russia, November 9, 2021– VGIK will host a special screening of the Sci-Fi near-future dystopia film Warning as part of the 41st VGIK International Film Festival on Thursday, November 18, 2021. Executive producer and president of Studio Mao will be present to introduce the film and chair a Q & A session after the film. The session will include the director of Dona Art Natalia Domoratskaya the film’s distributor in Russia, also present for the Q & A will the Russian team that localized the film; Vadim Pudnikov (sound engineer), and Natalia Dubrovskaya (project director).

Warning is a Sci-Fi thriller produced by Anova Pictures in association with Studio Mao about the relationship between humans and technology. In the near future, virtual assistants and other smart machines have become indispensable: they save the planet from loneliness, take up free time, and help keep the home and to-do list in order. They, like humans, are vulnerable and prone to aging, but in their search for the meaning of life, even the smartest gadgets are still powerless. When on Earth, due to an interplanetary storm all electronics fail, several heroes of this anthology get a unique opportunity to wake up from digital sleep and look at their life with a fresh look, not obscured by numerous digital programs.

Warning won the Méliès d’argent and the Audience Award at the Trieste Science + Fiction Film festival. It also won Best Script and a special Media Prize at the Sochi Russian/British International Film Festival.

Warning is currently available exclusively on the Okko multimedia platform.

The film features an ensemble cast featuring Alex Pettyfer, Alice Eve, Annabelle Wallis, Benedict Samuel, Charlotte Le Bon, Kylie Bunbury, Thomas Jane, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Rupert Everett, Tomasz Kot, Garance Marillier, and James D’Arcy as the voice of God.

VGIK

The 41 VGIK International Student Festival https://vgikfestival.com/ is hosted with support from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the President’s Grants Fund, the National Fund for rights holders. The main goal of the Festival is to recognize and stimulate young talents. Through the years among the winners have been people who later became highly significant individuals in international cinema: Andrey Konchalovskiy, Andrey Tarkovskiy, Vasiliy Shukshin, Nikita Mikhalkov, Vadim Abdrashitov, Pyotr Buslov, Boris Akopov, Aleksandr Hunt and others.

OKKO

Okko multimedia service Okko.tv is one of the largest Russian VoD services. The project started in 2011 and today is presented on all key platforms: Smart TV, mobile (IOS and Android), Apple TV, PlayStation 3, 4 and 5, web (PC).

Okko users can buy and download the movie they like in high quality (8K, 4K, HDR), rent content for 48 hours, or buy a subscription and watch it on any popular platform. The collection of the service includes more than 100 thousand units of popular content from world film studios Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, as well as leading European and Russian film and TV series producers.

Okko subscribers have access to the popular Amediateki and START series, Russian cinema and world blockbusters, art house and children’s content, as well as educational programs and content from the field of art. Okko offers subscriptions “Optimum”, “Premium” and “Light”, which open access to 90, 100 and 85 thousand units of content respectively. “Light” and “Optimum” are available in Sberprime and Sberprime + subscriptions.

The Okko platform also offers the Okko Sport live streaming service, offering viewing of the English Premier League, MLS, Argentina Cup and Championship, and CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Okko Sport shows MMA tournaments Bellator, Brave CF, PFL and tennis tournaments ATP 250. Subscribers of Okko will also have access to broadcasts of the final stage of the Davis Cup.

The Okko multimedia service is part of the SberIntervention group of companies, which unites the entertainment assets of the Sberbank ecosystem.

Anova Pictures

Anova Pictures https://www.anovapictures.com/, run by Cybill Lui Eppich, produces elevated genre and prestige features. The Silencing, a thriller/action film starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones), Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders) and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (After) directed by Robin Pront (The Ardennes) was a bonafide smash hit. Released across all platforms in summer 2020, Indiewire called it a “breakout success” and Variety reported the “hit” as the top-grossing new film release with the highest per-screen average playing in 79 theaters and was the #1 rental for weeks continuing to top the charts two months into its domestic release while the film continued its international run as Universal Pictures’ top-performing PVOD title.

The Anova Pictures board consists of American Entertainment Investor’s Joseph N Cohen and studio marketing veteran Andrew Fogelson, who have a proven track record of identifying, assisting, and supporting successful companies in the media and entertainment space.

About Studio Mao

Studio Mao is a premiere global content management company founded in 2006 with a strong focus on motion picture production, development and distribution. The company produces feature films, including Guy Nattiv’s Oscar nominated (Best Live Action Short) film SKIN, the critically-acclaimed award-winning film Filth by the author of Trainspotting Irvine Welsh in which James McAvoy won Best Actor awards at the Scottish BAFTA’s, British Independent Film Awards, Empire Awards and London Critics Circle Film Awards. The film’s director Jon S. Baird also won the London Critics Circle Breakthrough British Filmmaker award and the film was nominated on multiple occasions for Best Feature Film. Filth was the highest grossing independent film in England in 2013 and was produced with Maven Pictures and Steel Mill Pictures. Studio Mao also collaborated with Maven Pictures on the Netflix acquired The Kindergarten Teacher (Maggie Gyllenhaal) that won Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival,  Wilding (Bel Powley, Liv Tyler), American Honey (Shia La Beouf, Riley Keoug, Sasha Lane), Freak Show (Alex Lawther, AnnaSophia Robb, Abigail Breslin, Laverne Cox, Bette Midler), Girl Most Likely (Kristen Wiig, Darren Criss), Ten Thousand Saints (Ethan Hawke, Hailee Steinfeld, Asa Butterfield). Studio Mao is responsible for arranging distribution of the docudrama The Man Who Saved the World (Stanislav Petrov, Kevin Costner, Sergey Shnyryov, Nataliya Vdovina) in Russia/CIS on theatrical and digital platforms.

Films have premiered at major festivals including the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Berlinale in Berlin, and the Sundance Film festival. Films have been sold at festival to major distributors for worldwide theatrical release.

The Studio Mao brand is synonymous with high quality, original and bold content that is distributed to markets around the world. The company is actively involved in developing its proprietary HD content management and video streaming platform “STP™” designed to securely deliver content worldwide and on multiple platforms. Subscribers will be able to view Studio Mao movie releases and content utilizing STP™ technology that will further permit an interactive experience with dynamic and live HD feeds.

The company’s open-source mantra is “Leave no creative stone unturned”.

For more information about Studio Mao, please visit www.studiomao.com

Contact:

Steve Kent
asst@studiomao.com
+1 (212) 961-6882