Two Movies Win the Ukraїna! Film Festival in Poland
The main winners of the Ukraїna! film festival, which ended on 27 October in Warsaw, were two Ukrainian feature films: ‘Stepne' by Maryna Vroda and 'The Editorial Office' by Roman Bondarchuk.
This was reported on the festival's Facebook page.
The documentary film competition was won by Taras Tomenko's Sentimental Journey to the Planet Parajanov, and the short film competition by Maciej Kundera's Clear Sky, Ukrinform reports, citing the director of the Ukraїna! Film Festival director Beata Beronska-Lyakh. She noted that the jury's results came as a surprise to her.
‘The jury, which consisted of both Poles and Ukrainians, evaluated the films very well. Even for me, it was a surprise that the jury divided the main award between two films, although we expected one winner in each category,’ said Beronska-Lyakh.
She pointed out that although feature films were much more popular, the festival screened many documentaries and short films. Their advantage, she said, is that they are created much faster and react more quickly to current events.
The director of the film festival said that it also showed Polish films about Ukraine and Ukrainians, such as Under the Volcano by Damian Kocur, which is nominated for an Oscar from Poland. However, according to her, the festival jury concluded that Polish films about Ukrainians are not comparable to Ukrainian films ‘that tell the authentic truth’.
‘The conclusion was that we should let Ukrainians make films about Ukraine themselves,’ stated Beronska-Lyakh.
The director of the film festival noted that after this year's festival in Warsaw, preparations for the anniversary, Xth edition of Ukraїna! next year will begin immediately.
‘We are already thinking about whether we will be able to create a programme of new feature films, because there are much fewer of them being made during the war. Perhaps the programme of feature films will be shorter, or we will retrospectively show films that have already been screened at the festival in previous years,’ Beronska-Lyakh shared her plans.
According to the organisers of the film festival, the audience voted Lessons of Tolerance by Arkady Nepytalyuk as the best feature film at the festival, and Cypress by Mykola Nosko as the best documentary.
By December, the winning films will be screened in 12 other Polish cities, including Krakow, Wroclaw, Poznan, Gdynia and others.
From 1 to 17 November, the Ukraina! film festival will also continue in an online format. On the Megogo.pl platform, viewers from all over Poland will be able to watch selected Ukrainian films screened during this year's film festival.
In total, more than 60 different films were screened at this year's Ukraїna! film festival in three cinemas in the Polish capital over the course of a week. This year's festival included three main competition sections: documentary (11 films), fiction (12 films) and short films (20 films).