The Moscow International Film Festival is held since 1959 and has since become one of the most representative and prestigious film events in the world. In 1972 the MIFF was registered by the International Association of Film Producers (FIAPF) as a "class A festival" alongside forums in Berlin, the Cannes, San-Sebastian, Karlovy Vary and Venice.

The constitutor of the Moscow International Film Festival is the Government of Russia.

Among the winners of the Moscow Film Festival in different years were many famous directors of world cinema: Sergei Bondarchuk (SUDBA CHELOVEKA / Destiny of a Man) in 1959, Grigory Chukhraj (CHISTOYE NEBO / Clear Heaven) and Kaneto Shindo (HADAKA NO SHIMA / Naked Island) in 1961, Federico Fellini (8 1/2) in 1963, Sergei Bondarchuk (VOJNA I MIR / War And Peace) in 1965, Sergei Gerasimov (ZHURNALIST / The Journalist) in 1967, Vitautas Zhalakiavichus (ETO SLADKOYE SLOVO - SVOBODA! / That Sweet Word - Liberty!) in 1973, Andrzej Waida (ZIEMIA OBIECANA / Promised Land) and Akira Kurosawa (DERSU UZALA) in 1975, Zoltan Fabri (AZ OTODIK PECSET / The Fifth Seal) in 1977, Elem Klimov (IDI I SMOTRI / Come And See) in 1985, Federico Fellini (INTERVISTA / Interview) in 1987, Karen Gevorkian (PEGIJ PYOS BEGUSHCHIJ KRAYEM MORYA / Spotted Dog Running At The Edge Of The Sea) in 1991, Iolanda Zoberman (MOI IVAN, TOI ABRAHAM / Ivan And Abraham) in 1993, Jerry Zaks (MARVIN'S ROOM) in 1997, Kaneto Shindo (IKITAI / Will To Live) in 1999, Krzysztof Zanussi (ZYCIE JAKO SMIERTELNA CHOROBA PRZENOSZONA DROGA PLCIOWA / Life Is a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease) in 2000.

Among the guests, who attended the festival in different years, were many famous actors, directors and producers: Sophia Loren, Carlo Ponti, Michelangelo Antonioni, Claudia Cardinale, Vanessa Redgrave, Isabelle Huppert, Akira Kurosawa, Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Guilietta Masina, Elisabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Francis Ford Coppola, Monica Vitti, Nino Manfredi, Nastassja Kinski, Milos Forman, Robert de Niro, Michele Placido, Alberto Sordi, Catherine Deneuve, Jacqueline Bisset, Alain Delon, Martin Landau, Pierre Richard, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Franco Nero, Michael York, Jack Nicholson, Sandrin Bonnaire, Tilda Swinton, Shean Penn, Woody Harrelson and many others.

Among the festival jury members were in different years Marina Vladi, Beata Tyszkiewicz, Gina Lollobrigida, Komaki Kurihara, Robert de Niro, Alberto Sordi, Richard Gere, Barbara Brylska, Robert Young, Conrad Hall, Jerome Hellman, Andrzej Wajda, Oleg Menshikov, Fernando Solanas, Florestano Vancini, Valery Todorovsky, Theo Angelopoulos.

As part of the Moscow International Film Festival press screenings and retrospective screenings of works by the best representatives of world cinema are held as well as Memorial dates, round table discussions, scientific seminars, conferences, symposia. Since 1997 there is the Forum of Young Filmmakers as well.

The Foreign Press Association honored the General Management of International Film Festivals INTERFEST with a diploma "for the organization of the best film forum of 1995" for the organization of the XIX Moscow International Film Festival.