This will become the tenth human-rights film festival; meanwhile the national human-rights situation has not improved, at first glance, festival-jury chairman and film director Alexei Simonov noted.

All in all, this film festival will feature 113 movies, including 61 Russian films. Russian film directors who defend human rights in the course of their work will be vying

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for awards. The festivals international program features 52 movies, aiming to encourage Russian film distributors who promote such movies all across the nation.

Film director Marlen Khutsiyev, merited artist of the USSR, became festival president.

The festival program consists of 23 feature movies (including short features), 36 documentaries and two animated cartoons. Jury members, including film directors Yelena Tsyplakova, Valery Akhadov and Vadim Abdrashitov, peoples artist of the USSR Georgy Zhzhenov, writer Anatoly Pristavkin, human-rights activist Sergei Kovalev and documentary director Sergei Govorukhin, will choose winners.

All in all, 11 awards will be presented; their list includes best feature-film and best-documentary prizes, the Valery Frid dramatic-art prize, a debuting prize, a prize of the Russian filmmakers guild, a distributors prize and some others.

Each festival day will be devoted to one separate issue. Among other things, the festival is going to feature such programs as films in defense of refugees rights, films about totalitarianism, the Right To Films youth forum, films in defense of childrens rights, a womens film forum, as well as war movies and films about terrorism.

Festival results will be summed up at the Cinema House December 17, with the awards ceremony taking place the same day.

MOSCOW, December 10 (RIA Novosti)