The XXIV festival "Orthodoxy and Mass Media" was held in the cities of Tyumen and Tobolsk from June 3 to 5, 2026. The festival was timed to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the canonization of St. John of Tobolsk and the 440th anniversary of the city of Tyumen.
On June 3, the festival participants visited the Holy Trinity Monastery and the Historical Square in Tyumen, got acquainted with the history of the first Russian city in Siberia, which this year marks 440 years.
On June 4, according to pious tradition, the work of the festival began with a prayer service in the ancient Sofia-Assumption Cathedral of the Tobolsk Kremlin. Before that, Metropolitan Dimitri of Tobolsk and Tyumen addressed the journalists and representatives of the media editorial offices.
This year, the competition, which takes place within the framework of the festival, received more than 200 works from all over Russia. The geography of the participants is from Lugansk to Khabarovsk, from Yamal to Moscow. The most numerous nomination was "Printed publications". More than 60 people were able to come to Tobolsk for personal participation.
For the first time, young journalists from the You're in the Frame! studio from Tyumen participated in the festival with a report on "The Last Confessor of the Last Tsar." The jury evaluated the work of the juniors on an equal basis with the adults.
An excursion was held in the Kremlin for the guests of Tobolsk, a tea party was organized in the Sofia Courtyard, and a bell ringing festival was also held.
Then, in the conference hall of the Vicar's Palace, the opening of the main program of the festival "Orthodoxy and Mass Media" and an interview meeting with Metropolitan Dimitri - "35 years at the Tobolsk Department" took place. The meeting was held by the chairman of the publishing and Information Department of the Tobolsk Archdiocese, Archpriest Grigory Mansurov. The archpastor recalled the first services, the first trips to the Tyumen north, and how people greeted him, noting that Siberians differ from residents of central Russia in their greater directness in communication. Over the 35 years under the leadership of Metropolitan Dimitry, 740 people graduated from Tobolsk Theological Seminary, most of them became clergymen, including hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Next, a panel discussion was held on "The role of the media in preserving historical truth and traditional spiritual values. AI and other challenges." The invited panelists were: Ekaterina Dmitrievna Golovnya, member of the Russian Guild of Film Directors, lecturer at VGIK (Moscow); Vakhtang Vladimirovich Kipshidze, Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations and the Media (Moscow); Pavel Sergeevich Kovalenko, Director of the Museum of the History of the Altai Ecclesiastical Mission (Barnaul); Alexey Pavlovich Salmin, deputy of the Tyumen Regional Duma, co-chairman of the Tyumen regional branch of the World Russian People's Council.
Then the opening of the photo exhibition "Shukshin. Altai. Russia" and a closed screening of E.D. Golovni's documentary "I Promise to return alive."
On June 5, the participants of the festival were offered an excursion program to the St. Sophia Assumption Cathedral.
At the end of the forum, an award ceremony was held for the winners and prize-winners of the XXIV Orthodoxy and Media Festival in the St. Sophia and Assumption Cathedral of the Tobolsk Kremlin.