Ukrainian Works in Progress, Scheduled for Odessa Fest, Premiere at Karlovy Vary

Typically one year, Eastern European film fans, after enjoying the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in early July, take a two-hour flight to Odessa, Ukraine for the annual Odessa International Film Festival No. of Ukrainian cinema. .

2022, of course, is far from typical. Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine made the OIFF a failure this year, but festivals across the region show cross-border solidarity with Ukrainian filmmakers and the country’s affected local industry. PriFest in Kosovo (26-31 July) has agreed to work with the OIFF on a special screening of feature and short films by Ukrainian first-time directors, while the Warsaw Film Festival in Poland will host a screening of the entire competition program. of the OIFF. At their event, which will take place from October 14th to 23rd.

Meanwhile, in Karlovy Vary, the festival is dedicating part of its industry program to showcasing the work in progress of the OIFF, Ukrainian films seeking funding or sales assistance to cross the line.

Eight feature film projects, all in final stage or post-production, and all produced in Ukraine or in Ukrainian co-production, will be presented with potential partners in the KVIFF OIFF Works in Progress program on 5 July. The aim of the OIFF WIP department is to popularize Ukrainian cinema with international distributors and producers.

“We were thinking about how to help filmmakers and the film industry in Ukraine, and this is the right path for us,” said Christoph Mucha, CEO of Karlovy Vary. “We didn’t just want to make a gesture, but we found a way to help Ukrainian filmmakers especially.

The 2022 election seems to have something for everyone:

steel companyFrom Yulia Hontaruk, who seeks funding for the production of Defects, as well as a worldwide sales agent and international festival premieres, is a headline-grabbing drama about three veterans of the 2014 war in eastern Ukraine who are wounded again in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine. Ukraine. Russian invasion in 2022.

Denis Tarasov’s directorial debut Diagnosis: Different OpinionSeeking to close a $67,000 (€64,000) budget deficit to complete post-production is a 1977 psychopolitical drama that centers on a rock band accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and institutionalized only to discover that the KGB uses psychology as a medium. forcing psychiatric treatment of politically undesirable people.

Pavlo Ostrikov, whose 2018 Vypusk’97 Nominated for the European Film Award, it is his second feature film you are the universe, a sci-fi comedy about a space truck transporting radioactive waste to the other side of Jupiter, witnessing the Earth explode, leaving him the last man in the universe. But not the last man: a Frenchwoman who lives on a scientific station near Saturn gives hope for human contact.

glass HouseFrom the third resource blindfolded Director Tara Drone, Looking for Pre-Sales and International Sales Agent, is a Ukrainian-Romanian drama about a mother who, after her daughter disappears with an older boyfriend, begins to suspect her daughter may be involved with drugs. . exchange.

Simon Mozgov chrysanthemum dayThe North Macedonian joint production is a high-concept drama about a traditional healer who mysteriously escaped a nuclear blast but completely loses his memory. The young doctor tries to help, but the recovered memories become unbearable and bring the woman closer to death. The project is seeking funding for editing, sound mixing, color correction, music and visual effects, as well as an international sales agent.

Anna Buryachkova’s directorial debut when we were 15The Search for Additional Funding, an International Sales Agent and Festival Venues is a personal drama about a girl struggling with her sexuality and past violence as she tries to find her place in the adult world.

DevilsDirected by Natalka Vorozhbit, whose bad ways There was an official Oscar in Ukraine this year, inspired by the writings of the grotesque Russian master Nikolai Gogol, a fairytale Russian homeless man who befriends a Ukrainian woman to survive the winter, only to earn more than he bargains for. . The project is seeking additional funding to complete filming, as well as post-production support.

And directed by Tonia Noyabrova (the hero of my time) Seeks post-production funding to complete color correction and sound mixing Love me?The arrival of a 16-year-old girl to adulthood in Soviet Ukraine in the 1990s, whose personal development reflects her soon-to-be-independent country.

The Best Works in Progress project, according to an international industry jury, will receive an award of $10,500 (€10,000) from Barrandov Studios in Prague.