Valentin Chernykh

Valentin Konstantinovich Chernykh was a Soviet screenwriter, VGIK lecturer, producer, and film director. He was born on 12 March 1935 in Pskov. He lived in Moscow.

He graduated from a factory vocational school, worked as an assembler at a shipbuilding plant, and as a literary staff writer for various newspapers; in 1967 he graduated from the screenplay department of VGIK. His first produced screenplay was Land Without God (1963, TV). He made his film debut with the screenplay for The Man in His Place (1972, directed by Aleksey Sakharov).

He was a VGIK teacher and head of a screenwriting workshop. In 1987, together with screenwriters E. Volodarsky and V. Frid, he founded the Slovo studio at Mosfilm, becoming its president. Since 1981, he had been secretary of the board of the USSR Cinematographers’ Union.

He died on 6 August 2012 in Moscow. He was buried at the Vagankovsky Cemetery in the capital. Since March 2014, the annual screenwriting prize “Slovo” named after Valentin Chernykh has been awarded, aimed at supporting young authors and strengthening the prestige of the profession. The founder of the foundation and president of the “Slovo” prize is Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Kozhinova, Valentin Chernykh’s widow, film critic, professor at the VGIK Department of Screenwriting, and deputy chair of the board of the Screenwriters Guild of the Russian Cinematographers’ Union.