The 4th Open Russian Festival of Animated Film was held in from Feb. 4-8 in 1999 at a boarding house called "Birch Grove" two kilometres from the town of Tarusa, Russia. Animated works from the past three years from the Russian Federation were accepted. Along with auteur films, commercial reels, video clips, music videos, television bumpers and one animated series were in competition. Coming the year after the 1998 Russian financial crisis, there were fewer films than usual.