1994-2009 The inaugural festival was held in 1994, at a time when Belarus had just gained independence and had fallen out of the world and post-
Soviet film industry.
Listapad aimed to unite the best films of
post-Soviet states and bring them to the screens in Minsk. In its first year, the festival was called
Post-Soviet Film Festival Listapad, though films by Russian directors prevailed in the line-up. Later works of Ukrainian, Kazakh and Azerbaijani directors joined the program. holds the position of Documentary Film program director of the Festival. The Children and Youth Films Competition "Listapadzik" became the main novelty of the festival in 2008. In 2009,
Listapad was accredited by the
International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) as a competitive film festival specialized on films from Baltic countries, as well as countries of Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe. Since 2010, the winners have been selected by an official jury. In its most successful years, ''Listapad's'' line-up included up to 300 feature films{{cite web In 2019, ''Listapad's'' program included 150 films from 50 countries. In 2020, the festival was canceled by the authorities one day before its start.{{cite web In 2022, the number of submissions reached 1360.{{cite web ==Description==