Critical reaction to the film was mixed . Among reviews , Derek Elley of '' Variety '' noted , " There are no new revelations in this portrayal of an arrogant madman and his sycophants , and though impressive at first , Sokurov 's glacial treatment , with its deliberately soft-focus look , pales after a while . " More enthusiastically , Jim Hoberman of '' The Village Voice '' wrote , " '' Moloch '' is lurid without being commercial . Evoking the German romantic landscape he synthesized for Mother and Son , Sokurov places his characteristic understatement at the service of borderline kitsch . " Likewise , Jason Anderson of '' Eye Weekly '' gave the film a five-star rating , commenting , " Though he hopes to extract the man from the mythology , he does n't merely humanize a figure in any conventional sense , as '' Downfall '' did to Hitler with troubling results . " The film won four awards at the 1999 Russian Guild of Film Critics Awards , including ; Best Actor , Best Actress , Best Cinematography and Best Script . At the 1999 Cannes Film Festival , the film won the Best Screenplay Award . It was also chosen as Russia 's official Best Foreign Language Film submission at the 72nd Academy Awards , but did not manage to receive a nomination
1999 Cannes Film Festival
1999 Cannes Film Festival
Moloch (film)