Films by Ukrainian directors Kateryna Gornostai and Nikon Romachenko were the two national competition prize-winners at this year’s Kyiv’s Molodist International Film Festival.
Due to the war in Ukraine, Molodist was held as “festival within a festival” at Filmfest Hamburg from September 30 to October 5.
Gornostai’s Stop-Zemlia named best feature film at an awards ceremony on Wednesday evening, winning the Scythian Deer Statuette and a cash prize of $3,000.
A coming-of-age drama, Stop-Zemlia had its world premiere at last year’s Berlinale where it won the Crystal Bear in the Generation section.
Stop-Zemlia, which has also been screening at the Filmfest’s Michel sidebar for children and young people this week, will be released in German cinemas by Peter Stockhaus’ Hamburg-based déjà vu Film on February 9, 2023.
Meanwhile, Romanchenko’s short Leopolis Night, which won the Golden Duke for Best Director at the 2021 Odesa International Film Festival, was named best short film among the 12 titles selected for this year’s competition.
The jury also gave special mentions to Dmytro Sukholytkiy-Sobchuk’s Pamfir and Clemens Poole’s Dima, Dmitry, Dmytro. Glory To The Heroes.
International competition in Kyiv
Speaking exclusively to Screen, Molodist’s artistic director Khalpakhchi said that there are now plans to stage the festival’s International Competition over three days in Kyiv from 28 to 30 October.
“We hope to do this but, as you can understand, the situation at the moment can change from one day to the next,” he said. “However, we have received permission from the President [Zelensky] to hold the event, and the members of the international jury could either come to Kyiv or take part online.”
“We would have an opening ceremony on the first day, followed by special screenings the next day, and the closing ceremony on the third day. But then we would have three days to show the films to the general public in Kyiv.”
These extra three days - from October 31 to November 2 - would also be an opportunity to present the films which had been shown in Hamburg in Molodist’s National Competition line-up as well as Ukrainian premieres of other titles that had not featured in the International Competition.
Ukrainian talent in Hamburg
Khalpakhchi has also been serving at the Filmfest on the jury for the NDR Young Talent Award for first or second works. He was joined in Hamburg this week by other members of the young Molodist programming team Bohdan Zhuk, Viktor Hlon, Igor Shestopalov and Iryna Chykolovets as well as several of the filmmakers whose films were screening in the National Competition.
They included debutants Marian Bushan (Sniper: The White Raven), Andrii Kokura (Pokut), short filmmaker Olena Podolianko (It’s Quiet Here), actresses Solimiya Tomaschchuk (Between Us/Pamfir) and Rita Burkovska (Butterfly Vision) and producer Phylyp Ilienko (Slovo House Unfinished Novel) as well as directors Gornostai and Sukholytkiy-Sobchuk.
Meanwhile, all eyes will already be on Kyiv on October 20 for the ceremony during the sixth Kyiv Critics Week (October 20-26) when the winners of the Ukrainian film critics’ fifth edition of their “Kinokolo” national award will be revealed.
Dmytro Sukholytkiy-Sobchuk’s Pamfir is leading the field with six nominations including in the categories for best feature film, best actor and actress, and best director and best opening of the year, followed by five nominations each for Maryna Er Horbach’s Klondike and Maksym Nakonechnyi’s Butterfly Vision, and four nominations for Valentin Vasyanovych’s Reflection.
No comments yet