The inaugural festival was held in 1994, at a time when Belarus had just gained independence and had fallen out of the world and post-Soviet film industry.
[1] The idea to create the festival belongs to Serhey Artimovich, at the time the director of Tele-ARS studio.
That year, films from Poland, Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, USA, Iran, China and Japan were screened at the Festival.
Since then Irina Demyanova[5] holds the position of Documentary Film program director of the Festival.
[3][4] In its most successful years, Listapad's line-up included up to 300 feature films[10] an reached the attendance of 40,000.
[1] The authorities liquidated the ART Corporation centre and entrusted the festival's management to Belarusfilm state studio.
As noted by the new director, after 2020 the festival spirit changed greatly and its program shifted from mainly auteur cinema to films that are in line with state ideology.
Special guests of the festival have included Fanny Ardant,[18] Alyona Babenko, Juozas Budraitis, Lyudmila Gurchenko, Krzysztof Zanussi, Claire Denis, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Emir Kusturica, Sergei Loznitsa, Brillante Mendoza, Kira Muratova, Ornella Muti and Alexander Sokurov.
Fiction, documentary and animated full-length and short films created by Belarusian authors in Belarus and abroad during the last two years can participate in the National Competition.
In 2013 Claire Denis (retrospective), Kira Muratova (Eternal Homecoming[19]), Brillante Mendoza ("Captive" and "Thy Womb") and Alexander Veledinsky ("The Geographer Drank His Globe Away") have presented and discussed their works in Minsk.
[9] International Jury of 3 people judges Children and Youth Films Competition "Listapadzik".
[20] Listapad Bronze Audience Award for best feature film is given according to the results of preference vote.