Just like most other mass events this year, Odesa International Film Festival, Ukraine’s most influential cinematic event, had to move its screenings online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 11th edition of the annual festival was held on Sept. 25–Oct. 3, featuring over 100 pictures in both competition and non-competition programs and wrapping up with an online awards ceremony.
The festival will hold additional online screenings with English subtitles until Oct. 11 at oiff.online. The viewers can either purchase a festival pass for Hr 500 ($17) or pay separately for watching different movies.
Aside from celebrating cinema by bringing together international filmmakers and screening pictures that don’t have a wide distribution in Ukraine, Odesa International Film Festival has been the main platform for Ukrainian films to premiere. Holding pitches and networking industry events, the festival has also served as a launching ground for a number of local hit films.
The main prize of the festival — the Grand Prix in the international competition of the festival — went to U.S. dark comedy “Dinner in America.” The film portrays a punk rock singer and his female fan going on a trip through America’s crumbling suburbs.
One of Ukraine’s most acclaimed pictures of the recent years, post-war drama “Atlantis,” won an award for Best Film in the international competition. A fantasy on what the devastated Donbas would be like after Ukraine wins Russia’s war in 2025, the drama has been recently selected to represent Ukraine at the 93rd Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category.
The Best Director award of the international competition went to Belgian filmmaker Fabrice du Welz for his work on thriller “Adoration.” The cast of Argentinian-Italian feature “Maternal” received a prize for Best Acting in the same category.
The Grand Prix of the national competition went to “Viktor_Robot,” an animated fantasy feature film that takes the audience into the distant high-technology future.
“Everything Will Not Be Fine,” a Ukrainian-Romanian documentary following the life of a half-blind filmmaker whose illness might have been caused by the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, won an award for Best Feature Film. The picture’s Romanian directors, Adrian Pirvu and Helena Maksyom, also received the Best Director prize.
The Best Short Film of the national competition went to “Goodbye Golovin,” a Canadian-Ukrainian co-production directed by Canadian filmmaker Mathieu Grimard.
The festival also presented its award for contributions to cinematography, the Golden Duke, to Ukrainian-Armenian director and screenwriter Roman Balayan and Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson.
