Ukrainian filmmakers and producers, including Mstyslav Chernov, the Oscar-winning director of 20 Days In Mariupol, are attending Cannes in significant numbers despite the ongoing war in Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Against heavy odds, fictional films are being made in Ukraine. Evgeniy Drachov, head of Film.UA Distribution, is in Cannes pre-selling two new genre features: supernatural horror The Witch Revenge and thriller The Dam. Despite the war, the company is still trying to make “entertaining content” that will attract international buyers.
Alisa Kovalenko is presenting footage of her documentary project Frontline, about her experiences in the armed forces after the Russian invasion,...
Against heavy odds, fictional films are being made in Ukraine. Evgeniy Drachov, head of Film.UA Distribution, is in Cannes pre-selling two new genre features: supernatural horror The Witch Revenge and thriller The Dam. Despite the war, the company is still trying to make “entertaining content” that will attract international buyers.
Alisa Kovalenko is presenting footage of her documentary project Frontline, about her experiences in the armed forces after the Russian invasion,...
- 5/15/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Rough Cut Presentations section has expanded, including five additional projects from Ukraine.
IDFA Forum (November 12-15), the co-production and co-financing market of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), has selected its 2023 edition titles, with the likes of Aboozar Amini, Asmae El Moudir and Michael Madsen returning with their latest projects to Forum Pitch, while the Rough Cut Presentations section has expanded.
Afghanistan-born, Netherlands-based filmmaker Amini’s Kabul, City In The Wind screened at IDFA in 2018, and is now pitching Kabul, Year Zero, which threads together four vivid coming-of-age stories against the backdrop of war.
After presenting The Postcard at IDFA...
IDFA Forum (November 12-15), the co-production and co-financing market of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), has selected its 2023 edition titles, with the likes of Aboozar Amini, Asmae El Moudir and Michael Madsen returning with their latest projects to Forum Pitch, while the Rough Cut Presentations section has expanded.
Afghanistan-born, Netherlands-based filmmaker Amini’s Kabul, City In The Wind screened at IDFA in 2018, and is now pitching Kabul, Year Zero, which threads together four vivid coming-of-age stories against the backdrop of war.
After presenting The Postcard at IDFA...
- 10/5/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The European industry has created support initiatives, including for funding, co-production and raising awareness.
How do you keep an industry going when your cities are being bombed, some of your leading directors are fighting on the front line and your local sources of funding have dried up?
This is the question Ukrainian filmmakers have been asking themselves over the last 12 months, since the full-scale invasion by Russia on February 24th, 2022.
To the outside eye, it may seem the industry is doing remarkably well. From Pamfir and Butterfly Vision in Cannes last year to Iron Butterflies and 20 Days In Mariupol in Sundance,...
How do you keep an industry going when your cities are being bombed, some of your leading directors are fighting on the front line and your local sources of funding have dried up?
This is the question Ukrainian filmmakers have been asking themselves over the last 12 months, since the full-scale invasion by Russia on February 24th, 2022.
To the outside eye, it may seem the industry is doing remarkably well. From Pamfir and Butterfly Vision in Cannes last year to Iron Butterflies and 20 Days In Mariupol in Sundance,...
- 2/24/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
IDFA is one of many festivals to have strong Ukrainian line-up - but can this continue?
While hundreds of filmmakers, sales agents and distributors were descending on Amsterdam for IDFA’s industry event The Forum over the weekend, another documentary festival was taking place far away in war-torn Ukraine.
The Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival was held in Kyiv, lasting only from 11-13 November, with few international guests in attendance and no industry events.
Films screening included Oleksiy Radynski’s Infinity: According To Florian, Pawel Lozinski’s The Balcony and Theo Anthony’s All Light, Everywhere.
The...
While hundreds of filmmakers, sales agents and distributors were descending on Amsterdam for IDFA’s industry event The Forum over the weekend, another documentary festival was taking place far away in war-torn Ukraine.
The Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival was held in Kyiv, lasting only from 11-13 November, with few international guests in attendance and no industry events.
Films screening included Oleksiy Radynski’s Infinity: According To Florian, Pawel Lozinski’s The Balcony and Theo Anthony’s All Light, Everywhere.
The...
- 11/17/2022
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
60 projects selected for the 30th edition of the industry meet.
IDFA Forum, the co-production and co-financing market of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, has selected 60 projects for its 2022 edition, including The Eternal Memory, a new feature from The Mole Agent director Maite Alberdi.
Produced by Alberdi’s Chilean company Micromundo Producciones and Pablo Larrain’s Chilean firm Fabula, the film is described by IDFA as “an intimate meditation on love and memory that observes a couple dealing with Alzheimer’s over a four-year period”.
Scroll down for the full list of IDFA projects
It is one of 22 projects in the market’s flagship Forum Pitch category,...
IDFA Forum, the co-production and co-financing market of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, has selected 60 projects for its 2022 edition, including The Eternal Memory, a new feature from The Mole Agent director Maite Alberdi.
Produced by Alberdi’s Chilean company Micromundo Producciones and Pablo Larrain’s Chilean firm Fabula, the film is described by IDFA as “an intimate meditation on love and memory that observes a couple dealing with Alzheimer’s over a four-year period”.
Scroll down for the full list of IDFA projects
It is one of 22 projects in the market’s flagship Forum Pitch category,...
- 10/6/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
All films are essentially an act of interpretation. It’s a question of whether or not we decide to depict our strangest dreams and desires or to translate something that already exists in the real world. At the sixth edition of the Bolton Film Festival, running physically from 5th to 9th October with its online element taking place between the 12th and 23rd October, the programmers curate a strong, internationally-minded collection of shorts that straddle the line between the harshness of the kitchen sink and the pure possibilities of fantastical imagination — sometimes even within the same film! Featuring homegrown talent, Ukrainian entries, German sci-fi, American cowboys and Scandinavian absurdism, we are treated to the world as it is and the world at its most cartoonish and exaggerated. Straddling animation, documentary and traditional fiction, this programme was an absolute pleasure to dive into. Ahead of the festival’s opening tomorrow, here...
- 10/4/2022
- by Redmond Bacon
- Directors Notes
Event runs September 22-27 in Malmo, Sweden.
The Nordisk Panorama Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries, which runs September 22-27 in Malmo, Sweden, will welcome more than 800 industry delegates, including a special delegation of seven director/producer teams from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian teams will present works in progress on September 25 to an invited group of international producers and decision-makers.
Scroll down for list of projects
While some of the projects of course cover the war– such as Olha Zhurba’s Displaced, and a disabled activist’s displacement during the war in Listening To The World; some of the other films are...
The Nordisk Panorama Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries, which runs September 22-27 in Malmo, Sweden, will welcome more than 800 industry delegates, including a special delegation of seven director/producer teams from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian teams will present works in progress on September 25 to an invited group of international producers and decision-makers.
Scroll down for list of projects
While some of the projects of course cover the war– such as Olha Zhurba’s Displaced, and a disabled activist’s displacement during the war in Listening To The World; some of the other films are...
- 9/2/2022
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Deckert Distribution takes on sales for Venetian Nights title ‘Kristos - The Last Child’ (exclusive)
Doc is directed by French-Italian filmmaker Giulia Amati.
Leipzig-based documentary sales outfit Deckert Distribution has taken on world sales duties for Venetian Nights selection Kristos - The Last Child, directed by French-Italian filmmaker Giulia Amati.
The observational film is set on a remote island in Greece’s Dodecanese which has only 30 inhabitants including Kristos, its last remaining child. He is the one pupil at the local school and about to start his final year of elementary school. To finish compulsory education, he needs to leave Arki and move to a larger island. His family can’t afford the expense and...
Leipzig-based documentary sales outfit Deckert Distribution has taken on world sales duties for Venetian Nights selection Kristos - The Last Child, directed by French-Italian filmmaker Giulia Amati.
The observational film is set on a remote island in Greece’s Dodecanese which has only 30 inhabitants including Kristos, its last remaining child. He is the one pupil at the local school and about to start his final year of elementary school. To finish compulsory education, he needs to leave Arki and move to a larger island. His family can’t afford the expense and...
- 8/16/2022
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba and producer Darya Bassel are teaming up on a documentary about Ukraine’s refugee crisis after their last collaboration, “Outside,” premiered at Copenhagen’s Cph:dox festival this year.
The project, with a working title “Displaced,” is being produced by Bassel’s Kyiv-based Moon Man production outfit in co-production with Germany’s Koberstein Film and Denmark’s Final Cut for Real.
Zhurba began filming not long after the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, capturing footage of the thousands of Kyiv residents who had flocked to the capital’s railway station for safety. She’s now in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and the site of intense fighting in recent weeks. “The material is very strong. It’s just heartbreaking,” said Bassel. “Even I could not watch it more than one time.”
Bassel, who’s in Cannes as part of the Producers Network’s Ukrainian Producers Under the Spotlight initiative,...
The project, with a working title “Displaced,” is being produced by Bassel’s Kyiv-based Moon Man production outfit in co-production with Germany’s Koberstein Film and Denmark’s Final Cut for Real.
Zhurba began filming not long after the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, capturing footage of the thousands of Kyiv residents who had flocked to the capital’s railway station for safety. She’s now in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and the site of intense fighting in recent weeks. “The material is very strong. It’s just heartbreaking,” said Bassel. “Even I could not watch it more than one time.”
Bassel, who’s in Cannes as part of the Producers Network’s Ukrainian Producers Under the Spotlight initiative,...
- 5/19/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
While her first feature-length doc “Outside” is having its world premiere in the main competition at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox), Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba will be back home. The young filmmaker has decided to stay in her country to document the evacuation of refugees fleeing the war brought on by Vladimir Putin.
“I’m Ukrainian and I need to film this for my nation,” she told Variety over the phone. “We will need to reflect on what is happening to us in the future to cope with the trauma of this tragedy. I believe that films and art are part of this recovery that we will need on a psychological and mental level, and these films will be important in this process,” said Zhurba, who is best known for her fiction short “Dad’s Sneakers.”
She said that on February 24, when the Russian invasion started, she was...
“I’m Ukrainian and I need to film this for my nation,” she told Variety over the phone. “We will need to reflect on what is happening to us in the future to cope with the trauma of this tragedy. I believe that films and art are part of this recovery that we will need on a psychological and mental level, and these films will be important in this process,” said Zhurba, who is best known for her fiction short “Dad’s Sneakers.”
She said that on February 24, when the Russian invasion started, she was...
- 3/24/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Organizers at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox), which is going ahead in-person for the first time in three years, are taking a stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine with a dedicated program of seven specially curated films.
Spirits may be high in the Danish capital at the prospect of finally having a live event after two editions that were pushed online due to the Covid-19 pandemic but, as the fest’s artistic director Niklas Engstrøm stressed, “All our thoughts go to Ukraine and the many refugees who are currently being forced to leave their homeland.”
As the event’s programmer, Mads Mikkelsen, explained to Variety, organizers had already put together a selection of films from or about Ukraine when they closed the program in late January. “But, of course, everything changed on February 24 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Up to the last minute, we added more films...
Spirits may be high in the Danish capital at the prospect of finally having a live event after two editions that were pushed online due to the Covid-19 pandemic but, as the fest’s artistic director Niklas Engstrøm stressed, “All our thoughts go to Ukraine and the many refugees who are currently being forced to leave their homeland.”
As the event’s programmer, Mads Mikkelsen, explained to Variety, organizers had already put together a selection of films from or about Ukraine when they closed the program in late January. “But, of course, everything changed on February 24 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Up to the last minute, we added more films...
- 3/22/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Documentary festival expands programme in solidary with war-torn country.
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) has made three late additions of Ukrainian films to its line-up, as a mark of solidarity with the war-torn nation.
Sergei Loznitsa’s Maidan, Iryna Tsilyk’s The Earth Is Blue As An Orange and Alina Gorlova’s This Rain Will Never Stop have been added to the programme of the festival, which will return as an in-person event from March 23 to April 3.
It brings Cph:dox’s dedicated programme of films that focus on Ukraine to seven, having previously selected Olha Zhurba’s Outside, Simon Lereng Wilmont...
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) has made three late additions of Ukrainian films to its line-up, as a mark of solidarity with the war-torn nation.
Sergei Loznitsa’s Maidan, Iryna Tsilyk’s The Earth Is Blue As An Orange and Alina Gorlova’s This Rain Will Never Stop have been added to the programme of the festival, which will return as an in-person event from March 23 to April 3.
It brings Cph:dox’s dedicated programme of films that focus on Ukraine to seven, having previously selected Olha Zhurba’s Outside, Simon Lereng Wilmont...
- 3/16/2022
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Feature-length documentary “Outside,” directed by the Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba, has debuted its trailer, ahead of its premiere in the main competition section of the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (Cph:Dox).
The film tells the story of the turbulent youth of Roma, a 13-year-old street boy neglected by his family and the state, who becomes a poster boy for the Ukrainian Revolution in 2014. His story traverses the years he spent on the streets of Kyiv and after his release from the orphanage, left to face the outside world with nothing. As Roma sets out to build an adult life, it seems that his future has already been decided. Through a series of phone calls with the film’s director he reflects on the question: Can you ever escape your childhood?
“Outside” is produced by Darya Bassel and Viktoria Khomenko, and co-produced by Anne Köhncke and Monica Hellström, and Willem Baptist and Nienke Korthof.
The film tells the story of the turbulent youth of Roma, a 13-year-old street boy neglected by his family and the state, who becomes a poster boy for the Ukrainian Revolution in 2014. His story traverses the years he spent on the streets of Kyiv and after his release from the orphanage, left to face the outside world with nothing. As Roma sets out to build an adult life, it seems that his future has already been decided. Through a series of phone calls with the film’s director he reflects on the question: Can you ever escape your childhood?
“Outside” is produced by Darya Bassel and Viktoria Khomenko, and co-produced by Anne Köhncke and Monica Hellström, and Willem Baptist and Nienke Korthof.
- 3/10/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Deckert Distribution has announced that it has picked up world rights for feature-length documentary “Outside,” directed by the Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba. The film will premiere in the main competition section of the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (Cph:Dox), which runs March 23-April 3.
Zhurba’s short fiction film “Dad’s Sneakers” had its premiere in the short competition at Locarno Film Festival last year, and later won the Ukrainian Short and Fipresci awards at Odessa Film Festival, and the National Film Critics Award, Kinokolo. “Outside” is Zhurba’s first feature-length documentary.
The film tells the story of the turbulent youth of Roma, a 13-year-old street boy neglected by his family and the state, who becomes a poster boy for the Ukrainian Revolution in 2014. His story traverses the years he spent on the streets of Kyiv and after his release from the orphanage, left to face the outside world with nothing.
Zhurba’s short fiction film “Dad’s Sneakers” had its premiere in the short competition at Locarno Film Festival last year, and later won the Ukrainian Short and Fipresci awards at Odessa Film Festival, and the National Film Critics Award, Kinokolo. “Outside” is Zhurba’s first feature-length documentary.
The film tells the story of the turbulent youth of Roma, a 13-year-old street boy neglected by his family and the state, who becomes a poster boy for the Ukrainian Revolution in 2014. His story traverses the years he spent on the streets of Kyiv and after his release from the orphanage, left to face the outside world with nothing.
- 3/4/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The festival has five competition sections.
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) has revealed the full film programme for its 2022 edition, including a focus on Russia and Ukraine.
Three films that consider one or both of Russia and the Ukraine will compete for the main Dox:Award competition of the festival, which will return as an in-person event from March 23 to April 3, after two years impacted by the pandemic.
Scroll down for the full list of Dox:Award titles
The films are Antoine Cattin’s Swiss title Holidays, about Russia’s large number of national holidays; Daniel Roher’s US doc Navalny,...
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) has revealed the full film programme for its 2022 edition, including a focus on Russia and Ukraine.
Three films that consider one or both of Russia and the Ukraine will compete for the main Dox:Award competition of the festival, which will return as an in-person event from March 23 to April 3, after two years impacted by the pandemic.
Scroll down for the full list of Dox:Award titles
The films are Antoine Cattin’s Swiss title Holidays, about Russia’s large number of national holidays; Daniel Roher’s US doc Navalny,...
- 3/1/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The festival has five competition sections.
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) has revealed the full film programme for its 2022 edition, including a focus on Russia and Ukraine.
Three films that consider one or both of Russia and the Ukraine will compete for the main Dox:Award competition of the festival, which will return as an in-person event from March 23 to April 3, after two years impacted by the pandemic.
Scroll down for the full list of Dox:Award titles
The films are Antoine Cattin’s Swiss title Holidays, about Russia’s large number of national holidays; Daniel Roher’s US doc Navalny,...
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) has revealed the full film programme for its 2022 edition, including a focus on Russia and Ukraine.
Three films that consider one or both of Russia and the Ukraine will compete for the main Dox:Award competition of the festival, which will return as an in-person event from March 23 to April 3, after two years impacted by the pandemic.
Scroll down for the full list of Dox:Award titles
The films are Antoine Cattin’s Swiss title Holidays, about Russia’s large number of national holidays; Daniel Roher’s US doc Navalny,...
- 3/1/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Directed by Olga Zhurba, the project won the East Doc Platform Award, along with the Sunny Side of the Doc, DocsBarcelona and Ex Oriente Fine Cut Awards. The ninth edition of East Doc Platform (Edp), the largest industry platform for Central and Eastern European documentaries, organised by the Institute of Documentary Film, welcomed industry professionals to Prague from 7-13 March. This year, the event had to modify some of its schedule owing to the Covid-19 outbreak. One part of the event’s meetings was held online, while the pitching session of the East Doc Forum was also streamed for those guests who could not be present. Before that, the One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, which the Edp is an integral part of, was forced to bring its screenings and events to a halt on 10 March. The Edp announced its awards online, and Ukrainian filmmaker Olga Zhurba’s project.
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.