Early acting career Mikhalkov studied acting at the children's studio of the
Moscow Art Theatre and later at the Shchukin School of the
Vakhtangov Theatre. While still a student, he appeared in
Georgiy Daneliya's film
Walking the Streets of Moscow (1964) and his brother Andrei Konchalovsky's film
Home of the Gentry (1969). He was soon on his way to becoming a star of the Soviet stage and cinema.
Directing While continuing to pursue his acting career, he entered
VGIK, the state film school in Moscow, where he studied directing under filmmaker
Mikhail Romm, teacher to his brother and
Andrei Tarkovsky. He directed his first short film in 1968, ''I'm Coming Home,
and another for his graduation, A Quiet Day at the End of the War'' in 1970. Mikhalkov had appeared in more than 20 films, including his brother's
Uncle Vanya (1972), before he co-wrote, directed and starred in his first feature,
At Home Among Strangers in 1974, an
Ostern set just after the 1920s civil war in
Russia. Mikhalkov established an international reputation with his second feature,
A Slave of Love (1976). Set in 1917, it followed the efforts of a film crew to make a silent
melodrama in a resort town while the
Revolution rages around them. The film, based upon the last days of
Vera Kholodnaya, was highly acclaimed upon its release in the U.S. Mikhalkov's next film,
An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (1977) was adapted by Mikhalkov from
Chekhov's early play,
Platonov, and won the first prize at the
San Sebastián International Film Festival. In 1978, while starring in his brother's epic film
Siberiade, Mikhalkov made
Five Evenings, a love story about a couple separated by
World War II, who meet again after eighteen years. Mikhalkov's next film,
A Few Days from the Life of I. I. Oblomov (1980), with
Oleg Tabakov in the title role, is based on
Ivan Goncharov's classic novel about a lazy young nobleman who refuses to leave his bed.
Family Relations (1981) is a
comedy about a provincial woman in Moscow dealing with the tangled relationships of her relatives.
Without Witness (1983) tracks a long night's conversation between a woman (
Irina Kupchenko) and her ex-husband (
Mikhail Ulyanov) when they are accidentally locked in a room. The film won the Prix
FIPRESCI at the
13th Moscow International Film Festival. In the early 1980s, Mikhalkov resumed his acting career, appearing in
Eldar Ryazanov's immensely popular
Station for Two (1982) and
A Cruel Romance (1984). At that period, he also played Henry Baskerville in the
Soviet screen version of
The Hound of the Baskervilles. He also starred in many of his own films, including
At Home Among Strangers, A Slave of Love, and
An Unfinished Piece for Player Piano.
International success Incorporating several short stories by Chekhov,
Dark Eyes (1987) stars
Marcello Mastroianni as an old man who tells a story of a romance he had when he was younger, a woman he has never been able to forget. The film was highly praised, and Mastroianni received the Best Actor Prize at the
1987 Cannes Film Festival and an
Academy Award nomination for his performance. Mikhalkov's next film,
Urga (1992, a.k.a.
Close to Eden), set in the little-known world of the
Mongols, received the
Golden Lion at the
Venice Film Festival and was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Mikhalkov's
Anna: 6–18 (1993) documents his daughter Anna as she grows from childhood to maturity. Mikhalkov's most famous production to date,
Burnt by the Sun (1994), was steeped in the paranoid atmosphere of
Joseph Stalin's
Great Terror. The film received the
Grand Prize at
Cannes and the
Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, among many other honors. To date,
Burnt by the Sun remains the highest-grossing film to come out of the former
Soviet Union. In 1996, he was the head of the jury at the
46th Berlin International Film Festival.
Recent career Mikhalkov used the critical and financial triumph of
Burnt by the Sun to raise $25 million for his most epic venture to date,
The Barber of Siberia (1998). The film, which was screened out of competition at the
1999 Cannes Film Festival, was designed as a patriotic extravaganza for domestic consumption. It featured
Julia Ormond and
Oleg Menshikov, who regularly appears in Mikhalkov's films, in the leading roles. The director himself appeared as Tsar
Alexander III of Russia. The film received the
Russian State Prize and spawned rumours about Mikhalkov's presidential ambitions. The director, however, chose to administer the Russian cinema industry. Despite much opposition from rival directors, he was elected the President of the Russian Society of Cinematographers and has managed the
Moscow Film Festival since 2000. He also set the Russian Academy
Golden Eagle Award in opposition to the traditional
Nika Award. In 2005, Mikhalkov resumed his acting career, starring in three brand-new movies –
The Councillor of State, a
Fandorin mystery film which broke the Russian box-office records, ''
Dead Man's Bluff'', a noir-drenched comedy about the
Russian Mafia, and
Krzysztof Zanussi's
Persona non grata. In 2007, Mikhalkov directed and starred in
12, a Russian adaptation of
Sidney Lumet's court drama
12 Angry Men. In September 2007,
12 received a special Golden Lion for the "consistent brilliance" of its work and was praised by many critics at the
Venice Film Festival. In 2008,
12 was named as a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film for the
80th Academy Awards. Commenting on the nomination, Mikhalkov said, "I am overjoyed that the movie has been noticed in the United States and, what's more, was included in the shortlist of five nominees. This is a significant event for me." He also served as the executive producer of an epic film
1612. Mikhalkov presented his "epic drama"
Burnt by the Sun 2 at the
2010 Cannes Film Festival, but did not receive any awards. The film was selected in 2011 as the Russian entry for the
Best International Feature Film at the
84th Academy Awards. In 2022, he proposed organizing the Eurasian Film Academy and the
Diamond Butterfly film award. ==Personal life==