Each year, Ukraine’s Kinokolo film critics award get bigger and more prestigious. But it’s still small enough to take place offline in the time of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
In Kinokolo’s third year, the Film Critics Union of Ukraine presented awards to the country’s filmmakers for their 2020 achievements on Oct. 22 in Kyiv. The event is held within the annual film festival Kyiv Critics Week.
The best picture prize went to “Atlantis,” a post-war drama about a veteran trying to rebuild his life in near-future Ukraine after it came victorious in Russia’s war. But the land in the film is devastated, and so is the hero, who suffers from the post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Atlantis” previously collected multiple international awards, including the best film prizes at the Venice Film Festival’s second most important Horizons section and the Odesa International Film Festival’s international competition. The film is Ukraine’s contender for the 93rd U.S. Academy Awards.
The critics also awarded “Atlantis” for best directing by Valentyn Vasyanovych, who is the film’s writer, cinematographer, editor, director and co-producer.
“This is very important for us because we understand that our film is made not only for the wide audience, but first of all, for the critics and people who value auteur cinema,” Vasyanovych said in a pre-recorded acceptance speech from the shooting location of his next film.
Another Ukrainian favorite at international festivals, “The Earth Is Blue As an Orange,” won Kinokolo’s best documentary prize. The story about a mother and her kids making their own film in the Donbas region on the frontline of Russia’s war has previously received numerous awards, including the best directing prize at the World Cinema section of the U.S. Sundance Film Festival.
The biggest winner by award count was “Bad Roads,” a film that tells five stories about Ukrainian soldiers and Donbas residents whose lives run on both sides of the frontline. The film’s actors Oksana Cherkashyna and Yuri Kulinich have been recognized as best actress and best actor, respectively.
The film’s director and writer Natalya Vorozhbit received a prize as the discovery of the year. Vorozhbit is an acclaimed Ukrainian screenwriter for theater, film and TV, but “Bad Roads” was her directorial debut.
“I’m afraid of critics and don’t like criticism like all normal people,” Vorozhbit said, as she accepted the award. “But human nature is strange: to those who scare you, you’re most grateful afterward. So I’m very grateful to our critics.”
Animator Anatoliy Lavrenishyn took the prize for best animated film for “Victor_Robot” that takes the viewer on an adventure with a robot in a technologically advanced future.
The prize for the best short film went to historical horror “Intolerance,” a debut by Stanislav Bytiutskiy, a film critic himself.
Ukraine’s national Kinokolo film critics award was given in eight categories this year. The jury consists of 44 members of the Film Critics Union of Ukraine, which includes critics and journalists.
In the previous years, the best picture winners were “Homeward” by Nariman Aliev (2019) and “Donbas” by Sergei Loznitsa (2018).
