Krugovaya Kinopanorama

Krugovaya Kinopanorama, also described in English as Circular Kinopanorama, is a panoramic cinema attraction and film-presentation format in Moscow, Russia. Its defining feature is a circular projection screen that surrounds the audience with a horizontal 360-degree view. The name is also associated with the building and operating cinema at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre, now known as VDNH, where audiences can watch films made for this specialized presentation system. The format belongs to the wider history of panoramic and immersive cinema. A related early experiment was Raoul Grimoin-Sanson's Cinéorama, demonstrated in 1896 with multiple projectors aimed at a circular screen. Krugovaya Kinopanorama should not be confused with Cinerama or Kinopanorama in the narrower sense: those names generally refer to systems using several projectors on a curved, rather than fully circular, screen. The Moscow system is also distinct from Walt Disney's Circarama, later called Circle-Vision 360°, although all of these formats sought to expand cinema beyond the conventional forward-facing image. The Soviet development of the Moscow attraction required specialized camera and projection engineering. Circular films cannot be produced effectively with ordinary single-camera equipment because the image must cover a complete horizontal panorama while maintaining synchronized exposure, geometry, and a continuous visual relationship around the audience. Technical work therefore included purpose-built movie-camera systems and mechanisms designed to reduce vibration during filming. In 1959, designers at the Yakovlev design bureau developed a suspension device that allowed a circular-kinopanorama camera system to be used from a Yak-24 helicopter. The work addressed both panoramic cinematography and the practical problem of transporting equipment with reduced vibration. The attraction operated at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre as an example of Soviet panoramic-film technology. After a closure or interruption lasting more than ten years, it reopened to the public in 2006. The reopening restored the venue's role as a working demonstration of circular cinema rather than leaving the system solely as a historical exhibit. Its appeal is based on the unusual relationship between film, architecture, and spectatorship: instead of looking toward one screen, visitors occupy the center of a projected environment and experience movement, landscape, and travel imagery across the full circumference. Krugovaya Kinopanorama is best understood as a specialized cultural and technological brand rather than a conventional commercial film studio or consumer product company. Its principal offering is the venue and the immersive screening method, supported by films produced for circular projection. Public information identifies the Moscow site as the operating example of the technology, but does not establish a broad international chain, a listed corporate owner, or a separate commercial portfolio. The venue's continued presence at VDNH gives it significance as a surviving example of Soviet exhibition engineering and as a destination for audiences interested in historic large-format and panoramic cinema.

Krugovaya Kinopanorama is a Moscow cinema and panoramic presentation system built around the idea of projecting moving images onto a circular screen. The audience is positioned within the screen's circumference, producing a horizontal field of view of approximately 360 degrees. This arrangement makes the venue both a cinema and a piece of exhibition technology: the architecture, camera systems, projection equipment, and specially produced films all form part of the experience. The concept belongs to a long line of attempts to create an enveloping image. In 1896, French engineer Raoul Grimoin-Sanson demonstrated Cinéorama, an early system that used ten projectors directed toward a circular screen. Although the historical technologies are not identical, this experiment established a conceptual precedent for panoramic cinema. Krugovaya Kinopanorama also has to be distinguished from Cinerama and Kinopanorama as those terms are commonly used for multi-projector systems presenting images on an arched screen. Walt Disney later developed another related but separate process, Circarama, introduced in 1955 and renamed Circle-Vision 360° from 1967. The Soviet/Moscow system required technical solutions beyond those used for ordinary filmmaking. A circular film must maintain a coherent panoramic image across the entire circumference, which creates demanding requirements for camera alignment, synchronization, lens arrangement, image geometry, and projection. Special movie cameras were developed for the production of films intended for the attraction. The engineering program also extended to aerial filming. In 1959, designers at the Yakovlev design bureau developed a suspension device for shooting circular-kinopanorama films from a Yak-24 helicopter. The apparatus was intended to limit vibration and also contributed to solving a broader equipment-carriage problem. The completed attraction was established on the grounds of the All-Russia Exhibition Centre in Moscow, the exhibition complex now known as VDNH. It served as a working example of circular-kinopanorama technology and gave visitors access to films designed for the format. Rather than functioning as a conventional cinema with a broad release schedule, it operated as a specialized destination in which the presentation system itself was a central part of the attraction. The venue later experienced a closure or interruption of more than a decade. It reopened to the public in 2006, bringing the panoramic system back into operation and preserving it as a functioning cultural and technological exhibit. The reopening was important because it maintained the distinction between a preserved historical object and an operating immersive cinema. The VDNH site remains associated with the attraction and its public-facing identity. Krugovaya Kinopanorama's historical importance lies in the convergence of Soviet engineering, exhibition culture, aerial cinematography, and experiments in immersive spectatorship. It is not documented here as a mass-market consumer brand, a multinational cinema chain, or a publicly traded company. Its recognizable offering is instead the Moscow venue, the circular screen, and the body of films and technical practices developed to make a complete panoramic view possible.

• 2006

  Moscow venue reopens

  [1]Krugovaya Kinopanoramaen.wikipedia.org

  After a recess of more than ten years, the Circular Kinopanorama at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre reopened to audiences.

• 1967

  Circarama becomes Circle-Vision 360°

  [1]Krugovaya Kinopanoramaen.wikipedia.org

  Disney's related but distinct Circarama process adopted the Circle-Vision 360° name, further marking the international development of circular-screen cinema.

• 1959

  Yakovlev bureau develops aerial camera suspension

  [1]Krugovaya Kinopanoramaen.wikipedia.org

  Designers at the Yakovlev design bureau created a suspension device for filming circular-kinopanorama material from a Yak-24 helicopter, addressing vibration and equipment-handling challenges.

• 1955

  Disney introduces Circarama

  [1]Krugovaya Kinopanoramaen.wikipedia.org

  Walt Disney introduced Circarama, a separate circular-screen process that provides a useful contemporary comparison in the history of immersive cinema.

• 1896

  Cinéorama establishes an early circular-cinema precedent

  [1]Krugovaya Kinopanoramaen.wikipedia.org

  Raoul Grimoin-Sanson demonstrated an early panoramic system using ten projectors directed at a circular screen. It was a historical precursor to later 360-degree cinema, although it was not the same system as Krugovaya Kinopanorama.

A historic Russian immersive-cinema attraction combining specialized panoramic filmmaking, circular projection, and cultural exhibition.

• Cinema venue

  Circular Kinopanorama cinema

  The principal public-facing offering is the Moscow cinema at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre, now VDNH. Its circular screen surrounds viewers and presents films across a horizontal 360-degree field of view. The venue functions as an attraction and as an operating demonstration of a specialized panoramic-cinema system.

• Panoramic film format

  Krugorama films

  Krugorama refers to films made for circular panoramic presentation. Such productions require specialized camera arrangements and projection methods so that imagery can be displayed continuously around the audience. The format is particularly suited to travel, landscape, aerial, and spectacle-oriented subjects, although the available reference material does not identify a complete film catalogue.

• Cinema technology · 1959

  Panoramic cinematography equipment

  The system depends on purpose-built filming and projection equipment. Its technical history includes work on camera suspension for helicopter filming, developed to reduce vibration and make panoramic image capture practical in demanding environments. The equipment is an enabling technology for the cinema rather than a separately marketed consumer product.

• 2006

  Resume operation as a public panoramic-cinema attractionStrategy

  Background

  The venue had been unavailable to audiences for more than ten years, creating a choice between leaving the technology as a static historical artifact and restoring its public exhibition role.

  Action taken

  Krugovaya Kinopanorama reopened to visitors, returning the circular projection system to active public use at the Moscow exhibition site.

  Aftermath

  The reopening preserved the attraction as a working example of circular cinema and re-established its role within the visitor experience at the exhibition centre.

  Source

1. 1Krugovaya Kinopanoramaen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Circular Panorama cinema at VDNHvdnh.ru
3. 3Krugovaya Kinopanorama websitekrugorama.narod.ru
4. 4Circular Kinopanorama pavilion at VDNHcinemaofrepeatfilm.ru
5. 5Circular cinema and panoramic film historyin70mm.com