My Unwanted Friends: Part I – The Last Air in Moscow Recognized as Winner of the 2025 Indie Film Site Network Advocate Award

      My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow Honors Recipient of the 2025 Indie Film Site Network Advocate Award

      Each year, the Indie Film Site Network (IFSN) proudly showcases independent films that shed light on humanitarian issues through unique artistic perspectives. This year, we are pleased to announce that Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow has been awarded the 2025 IFSN Advocate Award.

      The top honor comes with one million media impressions throughout the Indie Film Site Network, which includes The Film Stage, Hammer to Nail, IONCINEMA.com, Next Best Picture, RogerEbert.com, and Slant Magazine. Letterboxd is also adding to the recognition.

      Finalists for the 2025 IFSN Advocate Award include Sara Khaki and Mohammad Reza Eyni’s Cutting Through Rocks, Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch, Geeta Gandbhir’s The Perfect Neighbor, Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, and Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, all of which will receive 100K media impressions through IFSN.

      Soviet-born American filmmaker Julia Loktev (The Loneliest Planet, Day Night Day Night) traveled to Moscow in 2021 to create a film focusing on independent journalists labeled “foreign agents” by Putin’s regime—just four months before Russia launched a full-scale war in Ukraine. Together with her friend Anna Nemzer, a talk show host at TV Rain, Russia’s last independent news outlet, Loktev offers a glimpse into a community of courageous, witty young women who confront authority despite escalating dangers. She filmed in Moscow during the initial week of the invasion, showcasing how these journalists attempted to challenge Russian propaganda and report on the war, until all independent media were silenced and they were compelled to leave the country. Structured in five chapters, blending the essence of a Russian novel with elements of a reality show, Loktev’s film serves as a remarkable historical account of a nation edging towards fascism and provides an intimate view of the opposition within an authoritarian landscape, an increasingly relevant topic on a global scale.

      “This is a tremendous honor. The way audiences perceive this film has evolved significantly over recent months,” expressed Julia Loktev. “It transitioned from being a narrative about journalists confronting an authoritarian regime in a distant land to resonating closely with the situation in the U.S. Many viewers have told me that the film has assisted them in processing the current moment, which also serves as a form of advocacy—a reminder to heed warning signs and, hopefully, an encouragement to persist even when the struggle seems daunting.”

      Jordan Raup, co-founder of IFSN and editor-in-chief of The Film Stage, remarked, “As the crucial right to freedom of the press continues to be undermined globally, Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow vividly and thoroughly reflects the calculated dismantling of what should be a universal truth by the Putin regime. In presenting the IFSN Advocate Award to Loktev, we also want to recognize the bravery of the film’s subjects—Anna Nemzer, Ksenia Mironova, Sonya Groysman, Olga Churakova, Irina Dolinina, Alesya Marokhovskaya, and Elena Kostyuchenko—for their steadfast reporting in the face of imminent danger. We genuinely hope a U.S. distributor partners with us to share this vital documentary with a broader audience.”

      My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow premiered at the 2024 New York Film Festival and has since been featured at several prestigious events including the Berlin International Film Festival, IDFA Best of Fests, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Visions du Réel Film Festival, and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It had a U.S. qualifying run in August at Film Forum and is currently seeking distribution in the U.S.

      The IFSN Advocate Award, established by the network as part of its mission to celebrate and support independent cinema, is decided by a jury composed of writers and editors from IFSN platforms, with each site nominating a finalist and deliberating to select a winner. Previous recipients of the IFSN Advocate Award include Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor’s No Other Land, D. Smith’s Kokomo City, and Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes.

      About Indie Film Site Network

      The Indie Film Site Network (IFSN) is a collaboration among reputable media outlets that cover significant developments in independent and international cinema. Representing The Film Stage, Hammer to Nail, IONCINEMA.com, Next Best Picture, RogerEbert.com, and Slant Magazine, IFSN is dedicated to promoting film criticism and nurturing an ever-expanding community of indie film enthusiasts. For more