Odessa festival turns to crowdfunding in difficult year

The Odessa International Film Festival (OIFF) is running a crowdfunding campaign with a goal to raise $25,0000 to support its national competition and the festival’s organisation. The campaign is live on indiegogo through June 12 and can be found here.

It marks the first time OIFF has asked for public support to help sustain the festival, due to political instability and the economic crisis in Ukraine.

“The team of Odessa Film Festival will do everything possible to support Ukrainian cinema by holding the National Competition this year. But we need your support to cover technical equipement, accommodation, venues and other organisational expenses,” the team said.

The fifth-annual OIFF is slated to run July 11-19 with a line-up including an international competition, national competition, open-air screenings, film industry office, summer film school, retrospectives and special events.

The team behind the event includes Julia Sinkevych, Anthelme Vidaud and Marcin Sobczak.