Director Kateryna Gornostai said she felt uncomfortable taking the stage four times at the Ukrainian Kinokolo film critics awards on Oct. 21, presented to Ukraine’s filmmakers for their achievements in 2021.
Her feature film debut “Stop-Zemlia” took the best feature film prize, but the young director also received prizes for the best screenplay, the discovery of the year and the best director.
“In our project, every creator was the director of their part. And it’s the coolest way to collaborate and direct: to bring together people who can direct their own parts and have mutual trust to create something which I believe is real,” Gornostai said at the ceremony.
“Stop-Zemlia” is a sensitive coming-of-age drama about a young woman in Ukraine. Maria Fedorechenko, another debutant who played the lead role, was recognized as the best actress.
“Stop-Zemlia” premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in March, receiving the Crystal Bear best film award in the 14-plus section of the Generation Competition for films aimed at youth. In Ukraine, the film premiered at the Odesa International Film Festival, taking the Grand Prix in the international competition, the best picture and best acting prizes in the national competition.
The film is screened today, Oct. 22, at the Zhovten cinema as part of the Kyiv Critics Week festival that hosts the Kinokolo award. Its wide theatrical release is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2022 in Ukraine.
The best actor prize went to Vitaliy Saliy for his lead role in “I Work at the Cemetery,” a tragicomedy about a man trying to escape life’s worries on a quiet job.
A film by Alina Gorlova, “This Rain Will Never Stop,” won Kinokolo’s best documentary prize. It chronicles the life of a young Kurdish man who flees to Ukraine from war-torn Syria, but later chooses to become a Red Cross volunteer at the frontlines of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The film won numerous awards worldwide, including at the largest International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Read more: Film critic – War is elemental in award-winning ‘This Rain Will Never Stop’
“Dad’s Sneakers,” a story by Olha Zhurba about a Ukrainian boy adopted by American parents, took the best short fiction film prize. At the Odesa film festival, it also received the best short film prizes in the national completion and from the International Federation of Film Critics.
The best animated film prize went to “Unnecessary Things,” a short film based on a short story by U.S. author Robert Sheckley about a relationship between a robot and a man.
The prize for achievement awarded for the first time this year went to Denys Budanov, a film critic who digitally chronicles the Ukrainian cinema process, presenting Ukrainian films, festivals and criticism at online databases, such as IMDb and Letterbox.
Ukraine’s national Kinokolo film critics awards were presented for the fourth time since 2018, given this year in ten categories. The jury consists of 45 Ukrainian critics who are members of the International Federation of Film Critics.
In the previous years, the best picture winners were “Atlantis” by director Valentyn Vasyanovych, “Homeward” by Nariman Aliev (2019) and “Donbas” by Sergei Loznitsa (2018).
