KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV

Russia’s Bolshoi Theater has removed a ballet dedicated to dancer Rudolf Nureyev from its repertoire, citing a new Russian law that expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting LGBT rights.

The war in Ukraine took a starring role on the opening night of the 75th Cannes Film Festival and it has rarely been far out of frame since.

The Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, one of the few Russian filmmakers at this year's Cannes Film Festival, says “art is always against war."

With tensions around the war in Ukraine as a backdrop, the Cannes Film Festival plans to host some 35,000 people as the movie industry looks to reclaim its pre-pandemic glamour.

The cultural backlash against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is intensifying.

Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov is banned from leaving his home country but phoned into his Cannes Film Festival premiere by FaceTime and spoke to the media by Zoom.

Russian film and theater director Kirill Serebrennikov wearing a protective face mask sits prior to his court hearing at the Meshchansky court in Moscow, Russia, Friday, June 26, 2020. A court in Moscow is expected to deliver a verdict on Friday to the acclaimed theater director accused of embezzling state funds, in a case widely seen as politically motivated. (AP Photo)MOSCOW A Moscow judge convicted an acclaimed Russian theater director of embezzling state funds and imposed a three-year suspended sentence Friday in a case widely seen as politically motivated. Serebrennikov had rejected the accusations as absurd; many in Russia saw the charges as punishment for his anti-establishment views. The director spent almost two years under house arrest between August 2017 and April 2019.