The Odesa International Film Festival's Film Industry Office, which took place from 15-18 July, offered a wide array of interesting events, master classes, panel discussions and workshops.

The panel discussion “Casting Across Borders, Europe, Ukraine and the Future of Casting in an Uncertain Europe” took place as part of the Actor’s Workshop on 15 July, and was moderated by actor, director and Actor’s Workshop tutor Ivan Shvedoff. Also involved were casting directors Nancy Bishop and Beatrice Kruger. The panellists offered some useful tips on casting. “It often happens that Ukrainian or Russian characters are played by Polish actors or those from other Slavic countries," said Bishop. "But I think it is unacceptable when American or British actors play Slavic characters and speak with a heavy accent.” 

Kruger added: “We strive to introduce unified casting rules for all countries. In particular, we are talking about non-English-speaking countries. It is necessary because the actors often do not know how to present themselves at the casting or what exactly they are expected to do.” Bishop also had some advice for screenwriters: “You have to remember that [the screenplay] will be read by an agent, not by the actor. Because the more famous the star, the more screenplays they get.”

The second day started with the Cinema: Backstage Conference on Gender Equality – Myth and Reality, which was followed by a presentation on Eurimages, which Ukraine is expected to join, entitled “How Does It Work?”. The panel was moderated by Tamara Tatishvili. Pylyp Illenko, head of the Ukrainian State Film Agency, said: “It’s a great honour to get the official invitation to join Eurimages for Ukraine. And although we have to go through a series of procedures at the state level to make it work, Ukrainian producers are already quite experienced in cooperation, and Donbass [+lee también:
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entrevista: Sergei Loznitsa
ficha de la película] by Sergei Loznitsa is a great example of that.” Roberto Olla, executive director of Eurimages, gave some useful instructions to Ukrainian producers regarding the terms for securing the financial support that will be available after Ukraine provides the change in legislation.

The third day saw a presentation of the School of Film Agents (SOFA) programme, as well as the presentation of the European co-production platforms Berlinale Co-Production Market, Baltic Event, When East Meets West, Connecting Cottbus, the Balkan Film Market and MIDPOINT. The "Introduction to the Markets of Co-production - the Best Destinations for Cinema" programme was presented by Mira Staleva (Sofia Meetings), Andamion Murataj (producer-director, Albania) and Danijel Hočevar (producer, Slovenia).

At the end of the third day, participants heard about international standards for co-production and financing agreements, as presented by Igor Ostrovsky, co-chairman of Dentons, and Polish producer Ewa Puszczyńska, based on the case study of Cold War [+lee también:
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Q&A: Pawel Pawlikowski
ficha de la película].

French-Ukrainian filmmaker Igor Minaev held a master class on “Director as an Auteur”. As well as offering a number of other useful tips for young directors, he said: “If your DoP tells you that he knows better than you how and what to shoot, and if he insists on his vision of the film – then don’t hesitate to say goodbye to him.” 

Finally, at his “Low-Budget Filmmaking” master class, manager of the Israel Film Fund Katriel Shory dished out advice such as: “Right from the outset of making a low-budget film, you need to start thinking vertically; you need to understand that the story needs to be told with up to four characters, and you need to have two or three locations at most.”