That’s changing.
A boom in VOD — according to a report by TMT Consulting, Russia’s online video market grew by 66 percent in 2020 — has led to a surge in high-end TV production, like plague thriller a female-driven dramedy commissioned by local SVOD More.TV, or the addictive mystery dramaEvgenia Markova, CEO of Roskino, which promotes Russian film and TV worldwide, says the streaming boom has made Russian productions more interesting for global buyers.
“Russia never provided special subsidies for theatrical releases of Russian titles and its marketing campaign abroad, unlike European countries — Germany or France, for example — so the release of Russian films was always an investment risk for global distributors,” Markova says. “But now, due to global streamers, the problem disappeared.”