Mosfilm

Mosfilm (, Mosfil’m ) is a film studio which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's film monopoly, its output includes most of the more widely acclaimed Soviet-era films, ranging from works by Andrei Tarkovsky and Sergei Eisenstein, to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production Dersu Uzala and War and Peace. History The Moscow film production company with studio facilities was established in November 1920 by the motion picture mogul Aleksandr Khanzhonkov ("first film factory") and I. Ermolev ("third film factory") as a unit of Goskino, the USSR's film monopoly. The first movie filmed by Mosfilm was On the Wings Skyward (directed by Boris Mikhin). In 1927, the construction of a new film studio complex began on Potylikha Street (renamed to Mosfilmovskaya Street in 1939) in Sparrow Hills of Moscow. This film studio was named after the Moscow amalgamated factory Soyuzkino "Tenth Anniversary of October Revolution". In 1934, the film studio was renamed to Moskinokombinat, and in 1936 was relaunched under the Mosfilm name, the name it carries till today. During World War II the film studio personnel were evacuated to Alma-Ata (August 1941) and merged with other Soviet production units into the Central United Film Studio (TsOKS). The Mosfilm personnel returned to Moscow at the end of 1943.