‘Minotaur’ Clip: Russian Director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s International Oscar Hopeful

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a clip from Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s French-produced political thriller Minotaur.

Minotaur premiered at Cannes, where it won the Grand Prix, and has since been selected for Telluride, Toronto, New York, and the BFI London Film Festival.

The film taps into the mood in Zvyagintsev’s native Russia in 2022 as businessmen in a provincial city get to grips with the implications of their country’s invasion of Ukraine as workers are drafted into the army and they are asked to contribute financially to the war effort.

Dmitriy Mazurov plays successful company director Gleb, whose seemingly perfect life starts to unravel, not due to the conflict, however, but rather his suspicions that his wife (Iris Lebedeva) is having an affair.

It is Zvyagintsev’s first film since Loveless in 2017, which won the Jury Prize in Cannes and went on to be nominated for an Oscar.

The film is produced by Paris-based CG Cinéma and mk2 Productions as well as Latvia’s Forma Pro Films and Germany’s Razor Film. It is distributed in France by Films du Losange, and has received support from ARTE France Cinéma. International sales are handled by mk2.

Zvyagintsev co-wrote Minotaur with Semen Liashenko. It is his sixth feature and continues his collaborations with cinematographer Mikhail Krichman, sound designer Andrey Dergachev, and production designer Andrey Ponkratov.

Mubi will release the film in U.S. theaters on November 20, 2026. France has submitted the film as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category of the 99th Academy Awards.