Russian Film Week is an annual film festival in London founded in 2016 by Filip Perkon. From 2017 the festival was supported by the Russian Ministry of Culture[1] to promote Russian film to international audiences and build cultural links between Russia and the UK.
The festival screens Russian and co-produced films and concludes with the Golden Unicorn Awards ceremony.[2]
Controversy and investigation (2025)
In December 2025, journalist Brian Krebs published an investigation revealing connections between Russian Film Week, its founder Filip Perkon, influence operations by the Russian government and drone production for Russia's war against Ukraine.[3]
According to the investigation, Perkon held director positions in several U.K. subsidiaries of Synergy University, Russia's largest private education provider with over 35,000 students. Synergy's president is Vadim Lobov. Lobov served as a sponsor and co-producer of Russian Film Week alongside Filip Perkon.[4]
The investigation revealed that Synergy University, which sponsored Russian Film Week, operates a division (bpla.synergy.bot) actively developing combat drones for Russian forces in Ukraine. The company's website explicitly states its involvement in building armed drones and efforts to evade international sanctions on high-tech products.[5]
The investigation also noted that around 2015, Filip Perkon developed a social media propaganda tool called the Russian Diplomatic Online Club, which he described as intended to "turbo-charge" Russian propaganda online. The tool included a Twitter app called Tweetsquad that would automatically retweet Kremlin messaging. During the Brexit vote, the Russian embassy in London utilized this tool to amplify the Russian ambassador's posts from supporters' accounts.[6] This occurred during a period when researchers identified approximately 150,000 Russian-linked accounts tweeting about Brexit, prompting calls for the UK intelligence watchdog to investigate Russian influence on the referendum vote.[7]
The full list of winners of 2017 Russian Film Week 2017
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