The Nika Award (sometimes styled NIKA Award) is the main annual national film award in Russia, presented by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Science, and seen as the national equivalent of the Oscars. History The award was established in 1987 in Moscow by Yuli Gusman, and ostensibly modelled on the Oscars. The Russian award takes its name from Nike, the goddess of victory. Accordingly, the prize is modelled after the sculpture of the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The oldest professional film award in Russia, the Nika Award was established during the final years of USSR by the influential Russian Union of Filmmakers. At first the awards were judged by all the members of the Union of Filmmakers. In the early 1990s, a special academy, consisting of over 500 academicians, was elected for distributing the awards, which recognise outstanding achievements in cinema (not television) produced in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. In 2002 Nikita Mikhalkov established the competing Golden Eagle Award, modelled on the Golden Globe Awards as it honours both film and television production of Russia. Description The award name is sometimes styled NIKA Awards. The Nika Awards ceremony is broadcast annually and attracts huge publicity across Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Soviet awards 1988 Georgia's Tengiz Abuladze won Best Picture and Best Director for Repentance. 1989 Russia's Aleksandr Proshkin won Best Picture for The Cold Summer of 1953, but other winners included films produced decades earlier and suppressed by Soviet censorship. For example, Alfred Schnittke won Best Music for the 1967 film Commissar, and Andron Konchalovsky was named Best Director for Asya Klyachina's Story, also filmed in 1967. 1990 Armenia's Sergei Parajanov took 4 awards including Best Picture and Best Director for his "Ashik Kerib". 1991 Ukraine's Kira Muratova won Best Picture for The Asthenic Syndrome, while Stanislav Govorukhin was named Best Director for We Can't Live Like This. Innokenty Smoktunovsky took the award as Best Actor. 1992 Eldar Ryazanov's Promised Heaven triumphed at the last all-Soviet ceremony, taking the awards for Best Picture and Best Directing. Oleg Yankovsky and Inna Churikova were named Best Actor and Best Actress. Russian awards 1993 Pyotr Todorovsky, a veteran filmmaker, won Best Picture for Encore, Once More Encore!. Nikita Mikhalkov was named Best Director for Urga (Close to Eden) and Mikhail Vartanov won the Best Documentary Film for Parajanov: The Last Spring. Vadim Yusov was named