Russian film and television before and since the invasion of Ukraine

After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, five Hollywood giants — Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Sony Pictures, and Paramount — all stopped releasing new films in Russia. Netflix, which was producing multiple shows in Russia for the domestic market, has also suspended all service there. Amazon Prime has halted streaming in Russia, too. All this comes just as the entertainment industry was hoping to rebound from two years of pandemic shutdowns and concerns. Russian movie theaters are now on the verge of collapse, and the country’s streaming services — seemingly poised for a major expansion before the war — are scrambling to keep subscribers by restocking their catalogues and hoping for success with original programming.

To find out where Russians will find their future entertainment, Meduza turned to three experts in the nation’s television and film industries.

Timestamps for this episode:

• (2:48) AR Content Creative Executive Ivan Philippov breaks down what trends in Russian entertainment
• (9:01) Kinopoisk podcast host and former editor-in-chief Lisa Surganova explains the current state of Russia’s streaming services
• (16:00) Filmmaker and film and television researcher Egor Isaev weighs the loss of coproduction deals with Hollywood studios and U.S. streaming services
• (23:02) Surganova explains how TV and cinema funding work in Russia
• (29:14) Philippov looks at the struggling movie business from the Kremlin’s perspective