Anna Machukh, CEO, Odesa International Film Festival, has revealed further details of why, in 2024, the 15th edition of the event will be held in Kyiv. The dates of next year’s edition have also now been set, July 12-20 2024.
The 15th edition of Ukraine’s Odesa International Film Festival (OIFF) will take place in Kyiv, from July 12 to 20, 2024, festival CEO Anna Machukh has confirmed.
The coastal city of Odesa remains unsafe due to Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country.
Safety is the paramount consideration, said festival CEO Anna Machukh. “In Kyiv, we have this air defence system. It is more powerful than in other cities,” she said. “There is no safe place now in Ukraine but Kyiv has more safety for people, for audiences. Especially for international guests, it [Kyiv] will be more comfortable.”
Machukh said she hopes to attract “many international journalists, and many international guests and volunteers, also festival managers, programmers, sales directors and distribution companies will come.
There are still direct trains to Kyiv from Warsaw.
The 2023 edition of the festival was held in Chernivtsi. “There were not too many people from abroad,” said Machukh. ”We used to have up to 600 international guests [in Odesa]. Last year [the 2023 edition] in Chernivtsi, we had maybe 40 or 50 international guests.”
Keeping OIFF afloat financially has been a struggle due to the war effort. “Last year, we had almost zero funding from the state,” Machukh said.
However, Creative Europe Media is supporting the event and the festival has secured support from international sponsors including Mastercard, Samsung and Pernod Ricard.
“But of course, the budget is very limited,” said Machukh. “It is not the same budget as we used to have before the full-scale invasion.”
The festival has two main strands: the national competition programme for full-length Ukrainian films of all genres, including fiction, non-fiction, animation, and experimental films, and its international and European competition programme for full-length European films, also of all genres, including fiction, non-fiction, animation, and experimental film.
Odesa has received support from other international events. For example, in 2022, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival hosted Odesa’s work-in-progress programme while OIFF project pitches took place at the Berlinale’s European Film Market as an “associated guest programme.” Further European festivals including Gdynia, which hosted the Documentary Industry Days of OIFF, have also supported Odesa.
Ukrainian documentary films have been thriving since the full -scale invasion (with 20 Days In Mariupol a leading Oscar contender) but Machukh acknowledged fictional films aren’t faring so well - and that it isn’t always easy to find dramatic titles for the national competition.
“It was very difficult last year but last year were half some films finished before the big war…this year, I hope we will have at least six Ukrainian fiction films but not many films are now in production.”
Machukh also hopes to screen festival favourites from the year to date to local audiences.
Applications for the national and international competition programmes are open from December 19, 2023, to May 1, 2024.
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