The video essay contest "Dreams of the Future" to become an annual event

The All-Russian video essay contest "Dreams of the Future" will be held annually. This was announced by Natalia Virtuozova, Director General of the National Centre RUSSIA, during the award ceremony for the winners, which took place on June 1 at the National Centre RUSSIA.

"'Dreams of the Future' will become an annual contest. This decision was made thanks to the tremendous interest shown by young participants, teachers, parents, and our partners. We will continue to develop this initiative, involve more regions, expand the list of categories, and support talented youth. Thank you to everyone who made this contest possible," said Natalia Virtuozova.

The "Dreams of the Future" contest has become part of a large-scale initiative to engage young people in reflecting on the future and to promote science fiction as a form of creative thinking.

More than 4,000 teenagers from all regions of Russia took part in the creative competition. School and university students aged 14 to 18 submitted video essays in which they reflected on the future through the lens of both classical and contemporary works of science fiction. The recommended reading list for the contest was compiled by the Russian State Library for Young Adults and the Council for Science Fiction and Adventure Literature of the Union of Writers of Russia, with the participation of the Eksmo-AST publishing group.

The jury selected 20 finalists — teams of participants from every federal district of the country. Experts noted the participants’ original approaches, as well as the depth and creativity of their ideas.

The most frequently referenced works in the video essays were by Alexander Belyaev (31%), the Strugatsky brothers (20%), and Ivan Yefremov (13%). Among the most quoted were "The Amphibian Man" (14%), "Roadside Picnic" (9%), and "Andromeda Nebula" (8%).

"I wrote the script for our team and spent a long time gathering my thoughts — deciding which text should I start from. As soon as I saw the recommended reading list, I knew I would choose "Humans Like Gods" by Sergei Snegov. It’s one of those works I’ve known since childhood. I’ve listened to the audiobook so many times it’s worn out. I was sure about the book, but I couldn’t immediately decide which moment or sci-fi element to use. I had to recall everything, even re-listen to some parts, to make a choice. Eventually, a complete picture came together for us," said Ilya Stoykov, a participant from the "Utopian Sci-Fi Writers" team from the Republic of Crimea.

Analysts from VCIOM identified five common models of the future reflected in the entries. The most popular were technocratic (43%) and communitarian (25%) scenarios. The former are based on faith in scientific and technological progress, while the latter focus on humanistic values. Also present were individualistic models (17%), where technology supports personal development, and ecocentric ones (14%) with an emphasis on environmental balance.

The contest is held as part of the Decade of Science and Technology with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Movement of the First, and other partners. The organisers also included a series of workshops from the National Centre RUSSIA, which are available to everyone on the website dream.russia.ru.