“My Unwanted Friends: Part I – Final Broadcast in Moscow” Announced as Winner of 2025 Indie Film Site Network Advocate Award | Festivals and awards

We are proud to be part of a network of sites that recognized Julia Loktev’s superb “My Unwanted Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow” with the IFSN Lawyer’s Prize 2025. Other films cited as essentials of 2025 include “Cutting Through Rocks,” “Familiar Touch,” “The Perfect Neighbor,” “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,” and “The Voice of Hind Rajab.” Please see the official press release below:

Indie Film Site Network (IFSN) announced Julia Loktev’s film My Unwanted Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow as the recipient of the IFSN Advocate Award 2025. The award was created in 2022 to recognize independent films each year that shed light on a humanitarian issue with a singular artistic vision. First prize is awarded to one million (1 million) media impressions on the Indie Film Site Network, which represents The Film Stage, Hammer to Nail, IONCINEMA.com, Next Best Picture, RogerEbert.com and Slant Magazine. Letterboxd also contributes to the price.

The finalists for the IFSN Advocate Award 2025 are Sara Khaki and Mohammad Reza Eyni. ​​Trace the rocksthat of Sarah Friedland Familiar touchthat of Geeta Gandbhir The perfect neighborSepideh Farsi Put your soul on your hand and walkand that of Kaouther Ben Hania Hind Rajab’s voicewhich will each receive 100,000 media impressions through ENSI.

The American filmmaker of Soviet origin Julia Loktev (The loneliest planet, Day Night Day Night) came to Moscow in 2021 to make a film about independent journalists declared “foreign agents” by Putin’s regime – in fact, just four months before Russia launched a full-scale war in Ukraine. Along with her friend Anna Nemzer, a talk show host at TV Rain, Russia’s last independent news channel, Loktev brings us into a community of sharp, warm and funny young women who speak truth to power as they face growing threats. Loktev filmed in Moscow during the first week of the full-scale invasion, as journalists attempted to counter Russian propaganda and report the truth about the war, until all independent media outlets were shut down and they were forced to flee the country. Structured in five chapters, halfway between a Russian novel and a reality show about a frightening reality, Loktev’s film is an extraordinary historical account of a country on the brink of fascism and an immersive and intimate inside view of opposition in an authoritarian society, which becomes more globally relevant every day.

“It’s such an honor. The way audiences experience this film has changed so much over the past few months,” said Julia Loktev. “It went from a film about journalists fighting an authoritarian regime in a faraway place to a film very close to home in the United States. People keep telling me that the film helped them deal with the present moment, which is also a form of advocacy – a reminder not to ignore the warning signs and, hopefully, an inspiration to keep fighting even when the fight sometimes seems lost.”

“As the vital right to press freedom continues to erode across the world, Julia Loktev’s speech My Unwanted Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow “By presenting the ENSI Lawyer’s Prize to Loktev, we would also like to salute the courage of the film’s subjects – Anna Nemzer, Ksenia Mironova, Sonya Groysman, Olga Churakova, Irina.” Dolinina––for her constant reporting in the face of immediate danger. We sincerely hope that a US distributor will join us in bringing this essential documentary to a wider audience.

My Unwanted Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow premiered at the 2024 New York Film Festival, then played at the Berlin International Film Festival, IDFA Best of Fests, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Visions du Réel Film Festival, and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, among others. It received an American selection in August at Film Forum and is currently seeking distribution in the United States.

The IFSN Advocate Award, created by the network as part of its mission to celebrate and support independent cinema, is selected by a jury of writers and editors from IFSN sites, with each site nominating a finalist and deliberating to award a winner. Previous winners of the IFSN Advocate Award include Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s. No other landD.Smith Kokomo Townand that of Shaunak Sen Everything that breathes.

About the Independent Film Sites Network

Indie Film Site Network (IFSN) is a collaboration between respected media outlets covering the most essential developments in independent and international cinema. IFSN, which represents The Film Stage, Hammer to Nail, IONCINEMA.com, Next Best Picture, RogerEbert.com and Slant Magazine, was created with the mission of supporting film criticism and fostering an ever-growing community of independent film lovers. For more information, visit indiefilmsitenetwork.com. For sales and partnership inquiries, contact sales@3rdimpression.com.