Oscar-winning Russian director offers $1mn diamond prize at Moscow film awards
Russia’s Oscar-winning film director Nikita Mikhalkov has chosen Moscow to host his Diamond Butterfly film awards for a second year despite several other countries looking to stage the ceremony.
The ceremony will take place at Mikhalkov’s Workshop 12 theater in Moscow on November 12, he announced on Thursday.
“This year, as last year, the awards ceremony will take place in Moscow, in our theater,” Mikhalkov said. “I am convinced that the mechanism for holding the ‘Diamond Butterfly’ needs to be refined where it was born.”
“Despite the fact that many countries would like to host the ceremony, we decided that this one and possibly the next one will be held in Russia,” he added.
The Diamond Butterfly is the main prize of the Eurasian Film Academy, an initiative founded by Mikhalkov to promote filmmaking and cultural exchange among participating countries. The award is organized by the Russian Culture Foundation with support from the Culture Ministry.
Films entered for the prize have been screened in Russia and abroad over the past year. Mikhalkov said that the screenings had introduced audiences to movies which previously received little attention internationally.
“The principles by which films are selected for the ‘Diamond Butterfly’, its key meanings and values, are attracting more and more attention to the film award today,” he said.
The Diamond Butterfly is billed as an alternative to mainstream Western film awards, placing emphasis on traditional values.
The inaugural ceremony was held in Moscow in November 2025, with an expert jury judging 34 films from 17 countries. Prizes were awarded in 12 categories.
Winners receive a Diamond Butterfly statuette designed by Russian artist Yuri Kuper and decorated with nearly 5,000 lab-grown diamonds. The Best Film winner also receives the ten-carat Yakut diamond worth $1 million.
Winners in other categories, including Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress, receive five-carat Yakut diamonds valued at $250,000 each.
