The name of Andrei Tarkovsky closely relates to Ivanovo region and the town of Yuryevets. Tarkovsky was born not far from this town and spent his childhood in this place, the filmmaker called this town his "the native place of his childhood". Yuryevets is the place where Andrei Tarkovsky's archives are stored, which Lars von Trier dreamt of acquiring for his collection. Since 2018 the inaugural opening of the Festival has taken place here in accordance with the decision of the Governor of Ivanovo Region. Yuryevets is the oldest town of Ivanovo Region. In 2025, it will celebrate its 800^th anniversary.
The main events of the Zerkalo Film Festival are hosted in Ivanovo, Yuryevets and small towns of Ivanovo region. The program includes over 100 films and 50 thematic events (workshops, lectures, concerts). The Zerkalo is a festival for spectators visited by over 10 thousand spectators every year.
In different years, among the Festival's honored guests were Rife Fiennes and Jos Stelling, Theo Angelopoulos and Krzysztof Zanussi, Giuseppe Lanci and Kim Dong-ho, Emmanuel Carrère and Amat Escalante. Inna Churikova was the first President of the Festival, with Pavel Lungin taking the baton since 2010 and followed by Sergei Bodrov Sr. since 2019. Tarkovsky's name unites the masters of Russian auteur cinema: Oleg Yankovsky, Sergey Soloviev, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Andrey Konchalovsky, Yuri Norshtein, Alla Demidova, and Alexander Sokurov were just some of the Festival's renowned participants.

The Zerkalo offers a platform for premieres of auteur cinema. Dedicated to Andrei Tarkovsky, the Festival was the place where Russian premieres of many landmark films took place. For example, back in 2012 the Zerkalo featured the first screenings of Alps by Yorgos Lanthimos. The recent years' premieres included Burning (Lee Chang-dong, 2018), Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019), Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, 2023). Ivanovo railway station, a masterpiece of Avant-garde architecture, offered a unique art venue hosting the world premiere of the renewed director's cut of Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Passion in 2022.
The Festival positions itself as "a space of experiments". In 2020, the Zerkalo was one of the pioneering online festivals. Kseniya Rappoport, Yury Kolokolnikov and other actors hosted broadcasts from the Festival's studio in Yuryevets embracing a global audience of 100,000 spectators. Social projects occupy a special place in the program of the Festival, with Festival workshops offered since 2018: young boys and girls from Ivanovo had a chance to learn how to make cartoons, documentaries and know more about modern art and poetry.
Every two years the Zerkalo features an international conference on Andrei Tarkovsky's creative work, which brings together researchers from Russia, Italy, France, USA and other countries.