First Ukrainian films win awards at the Berlin Film Festival
19 February 11:49
Two Ukrainian films were recognized at the Berlinale Co-Production Market at the Berlin Film Festival as “promising feature films”. This was reported by Detector Media with reference to information from the festival organizers, according to
The Ukrainian project 30 Days of Summer, produced by Oleksandra Kostina (Bosonfilm), won the first-ever Gen Z Audience Award of 5 thousand euros. Sponsored by the Franco-German Youth Bureau, the prize was awarded to a feature film project that particularly appeals to young moviegoers aged 20 to 28.
A special Eurimages award for co-production development in the amount of 20 thousand euros to support a “particularly promising Ukrainian project” was given to the Ukrainian company Tabor, represented by producer Daria Zakharova, for the project directed by Maksym Nakonechnyi, The Earth Is Flat – I Flew Around and Saw.
In total, five cash prizes and one in-kind award were presented at the Berlinale Co-Production Market, which runs from February 15 to 19.
The main awards of the festival are still waiting for their winners
For the first time in 25 years, a Ukrainian film has been included in the festival’s main competition program and will compete for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Bear. It is “The Tape of Time” by Kateryna Hornostai, a documentary about teachers and students who continue to teach and study during the war, in particular in the de-occupied and frontline territories. The filmmaker shows how living under constant threat affects the daily lives of students and teachers.
Two films are presented in the Forum program. These are the film When Lightning Flashes Over the Sea by Eva Naimann, which tells about the everyday resilience of Odesa residents through the personal stories of citizens, from sailors to artists. Vitaliy Mansky’s documentary Time of Approach is about Lviv, the director’s native city, which is fighting for a peaceful life interrupted by the arrival of enemy missiles. The Forum Expanded program features the documentary Special Operation, based on the CCTV footage of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, which was seized and turned into a military base for Russian troops in February 2022. It was directed by Kyiv-based filmmaker Oleksiy Radynsky.
