The Nika Award (sometimes styled NIKA Award) is the main annual national film award in Russia, presented by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Science, and seen as the national equivalent of the Oscars.
History
The award was established in 1987 in Moscow by Yuli Gusman, and ostensibly modelled on the Oscars. The Russian award takes its name from Nike, the goddess of victory. Accordingly, the prize is modelled after the sculpture of the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
The oldest professional film award in Russia, the Nika Award was established during the final years of USSR by the influential Russian Union of Filmmakers.
At first the awards were judged by all the members of the Union of Filmmakers. In the early 1990s, a special academy, consisting of over 500 academicians, was elected for distributing the awards, which recognise outstanding achievements in cinema (not television) produced in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
In 2002 Nikita Mikhalkov established the competing Golden Eagle Award, modelled on the Golden Globe Awards as it honours both film and television production of Russia.
Description
The award name is sometimes styled NIKA Awards.
The Nika Awards ceremony is broadcast annually and attracts huge publicity across Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Award categories
Current categories
Nika Award for Best Picture: since 1988
Nika Award for Best Director: since 1988
Nika Award for Best Screenplay: since 1988
Nika Award for Best Actor: since 1988
Nika Awards for Best Actress: since 1988
Nika Award for Best Supporting Actor: since 2002
Nika Award for Best Supporting Actress: since 2002
Nika Award for Best Cinematography: since 1988
Nika Award for Best Production Design: since 1988
Nika Award for Best Costume Design: since 1988
Nika Award for Best Sound: since 1988
Nika Award for Best Music: since 1988
Nika Award for Best Animation Film: since 1988
Nika Award for Best Documentary: since 1988
Nika Award for Best Film of the CIS and Baltic States: since 2003
Nika Award for Discovery of the Year: since 2002
Nika Award for Best Contribution to the Cinematic Science, Criticism and Education: since 2002 Nika Award for the Lifetime Achievement Award: since 1988
Retired awards
Nika Award for Best Supporting Performance (awarded 1988–2001) Nika Award for Best Producer (awarded 1994–1995) Nika Award for Best Cinematography in Documentary (awarded 1989)
Films with multiple wins
7 wins
Taurus (2002) The Horde (2013) Hard to Be a God (2015) 6 wins Repentance (1988) Promised Heaven (1992) Prisoner of the Mountains (1997) Khrustalyov, My Car! (2000) The Island (2007) Mongol (2008) Once Upon a Time There Lived a Simple Woman (2012) 5 wins The Thief (1998) Our Own (2005) The Geographer Drank His Globe Away (2014) Arrhythmia (2018) A Frenchman (2020)