The Silver Skates (film)

For the 1943 American musical, see Silver Skates.

The Silver Skates
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Lockshin
Written byRoman Kantor
Based onHans Brinker, or The Silver Skates
by Mary Mapes Dodge
Produced by
  • Petr Anurov (ru)
  • Leonid Vereshchagin (ru)
  • Anton Zlatopolskiy (ru)
  • Rafael Minasbekyan
  • Nikita Mikhalkov
  • Grigoriy Stoyalov
Starring
CinematographyIgor Grinyakin
Edited by
  • Maria Likhacheva
  • Dmitry Slobtsov
Music byGuy Farley
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • October 1, 2020 (2020-10-01) (Moscow Film Festival)
  • December 10, 2020 (2020-12-10) (Russia)
Running time
136 minutes
CountryRussia
LanguagesRussian, English, French
Budget₽500 million
Box office
  • ₽490.1 million in Russia[1][2]
  • $7.6 million (total amount)[3][4]
  • $7.7 million (outside the CIS)[5]

The Silver Skates (Russian: Сере́бряные коньки́, romanized: Serebryanye konki, also in some languages known as City of Ice) is a 2020 Russian epic period romantic adventure film directed by Michael Lockshin in his feature directorial debut, with a screenplay written by Roman Kantor, and produced by Petr Anurov. The film is based on the American novel Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge.

The story is mainly set in 1899 and New Year 1900 in Saint Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire. The city's ice-covered rivers and canals act as broad avenues, traversed on ice-skates and sleds, with markets and winter festivals on the ice. Social classes mix in this winter wonderland, and the courier Matvey crosses paths with the aristocrat Alisa, who is an intellectual girl from a noble family. The film stars Fedor Fedotov and Sonya Priss,[6] alongside Kirill Zaytsev, Yuri Borisov, Aleksei Guskov, Severija Janusauskaite, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Timofey Tribuntsev, and Alexandra Revenko in supporting roles. Also it includes the Irish actress Cathy Belton and French actor Denis Lavant.[7] Principal photography lasted from January to May 2019.[8]

The Silver Skates was chosen as the opening film of the 42nd Moscow International Film Festival, where it premiered on October 1, 2020. A limited theatrical release (due to the covid pandemic) was scheduled for December 10, 2020.[9][10] The film was also shown in IMAX cinemas.[11] The film collected more than 100 million rubles for the highest-grossing opening weekend of its film screening and brought the total amount of 490.1 million rubles to the show times, despite the covid epidemic quarantine in Russia, compared to a production budget of 500 million rubles.[2]

The global rights to the film were acquired by Netflix. The Silver Skates is the first Russian film to be released on the platform in the Netflix Originals category.[12][13][14] The film was No. 1 in many territories, and in the top-10 in Europe and the US.

The film won Best Picture awards at both the Golden Eagle Awards and Producer's Guild awards (2020).

  1. ^ Box Office Archived August 26, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Russian Cinema Fund's Analytics (RCFA)
  2. ^ a b "Серебряные коньки / The Silver Skates (2020)". KinoBusiness (in Russian). Archived from the original on October 1, 2022. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  3. ^ "The Silver Skates (2020)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on April 22, 2023. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  4. ^ "The Silver Skates (2020)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  5. ^ "Серебряные коньки (2020) – кассовые сборы" [The Silver Skates (2020) – Box Office Gross]. KinoPoisk (in Russian). Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  6. ^ Fedina, Anna (December 9, 2020). "Фильм "Серебряные коньки" — главная новогодняя сказка этой зимы" [Film The Silver Skates – the main New Year's fairy tale of this winter]. Vogue (in Russian). Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  7. ^ "Главные роли в фильме "Серебряные коньки" достались дебютантам" [The main roles in the film The Silver Skates went to debutants]. Kino-teatr.ru (in Russian). February 4, 2019. Archived from the original on June 20, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  8. ^ Aaqib Beg, Mirza (June 16, 2021). "Where Was Silver Skates Filmed?". The Cinemaholic. Archived from the original on June 22, 2021. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
  9. ^ Arnoldova, Yelena (September 29, 2020). "Фильм "Серебряные коньки" получил дату премьеры в прокате" [The film The Silver Skates was the premiere date in theaters]. Gazeta.Ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  10. ^ Nekhaeva, Anna (October 1, 2020). "Главные премьеры Московского кинофестиваля" [Main premieres of the Moscow Film Festival]. RIA Novosti (in Russian). Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  11. ^ "Российские зрители смогут увидеть новогоднее романтическое приключение "Серебряные коньки" на больших экранах IMAX" [Russian viewers will be able to see the New Year's romantic adventure The Silver Skates on large IMAX screens]. Echo of Moscow (in Russian). November 20, 2020. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  12. ^ Morg, M. (March 27, 2021). "The Silver Skates will be the first Russian film in the Netflix Originals lineup". FREEMMORPG.TOP. Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved May 8, 2021.
  13. ^ Ryabikova, Victoria (May 6, 2021). "5 reasons to watch 'Silver Skates' on Netflix". Russia Beyond. Archived from the original on May 7, 2021. Retrieved May 8, 2021.
  14. ^ Donaldson, Kayleigh (June 16, 2021). "Now On Netflix: Want to see a Russian 'Titanic' on Ice? 'Silver Skates' Has Got You Covered". Pajiba.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2021. Retrieved June 16, 2021.