Movies as a Sociocultural Indicator: Theoretical and Methodological Analysis of the Dynamics of Film Preferences of Russian Youth (2000–2020s)

Using the evolution of movie preferences as an example, the article develops the theoretical concept of cinema as a social mirror and clarifies the methodology of focus group analysis of cultural preferences. Based on a qualitative comparative analysis of two focus groups – modern youth aged 18–25 and representatives of the previous generation aged 40–50, whose youth fell on the 2000s – it is revealed that the first group prefers psy-chological thrillers and detectives, while the second – at one time focused on crime themes and action movies. The divergence in genre tastes reflects the sociocultural transformations of a transitional society: from the ro-manticization of power in the early 2000s to the demand for self-reflection and complex moral plots among youth. The results of the study confirm the effectiveness of combined qualitative techniques for studying value shifts between generations.