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ODESA 2020

Odesa focuses on Ukrainian films and introduces its Visions programme

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- The 11th edition of the leading Ukrainian gathering will feature seven national titles, while films with a distinctive visual narrative are being selected for the new section

Odesa focuses on Ukrainian films and introduces its Visions programme
Viktor_Robot by Anatoliy Lavrenyshyn

The 11th edition of the Odesa International Film Festival (OIFF) will run digitally from 25 September-3 October. The titles in the International Competition and the European Documentary Competition have already been confirmed (see the news).

In the National Competition, seven features and 11 shorts will be vying for awards. In the section for features, five of them will enjoy their world premieres: My Sweet Home by first-time director Serhiy Storozhev (Ukraine), Ursus. Caucasian Brown Bear by Georgian filmmaker Otar Shamatava (Ukraine/Georgia/Germany/Bulgaria) and the animated fantasy film Viktor_Robot by Anatoliy Lavrenyshyn (Ukraine), along with the documentaries Between the Frames by Anastasiia Tykha (Ukraine) and Demon by Egor Troyanovskyi (Ukraine). They will be joined by the comedy-drama A Family by Jayden Stevens (Australia/Ukraine) and the documentary Everything Will Not Be Fine [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Helena Maksyom
film profile
]
by Adrian Pîrvu and Helena Maksyom (Romania/Ukraine).

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The members of the National Competition jury are Ukrainian director (and award winner at the tenth OIFF) Nariman Aliev, Catalan director Carla Simón, General Delegate of the Venice International Film Critics’ Week Giona Nazzaro and head of IFFR Pro Marit van den Elshout.

Furthermore, a new, non-competitive programme is being introduced at the 11th OIFF, the Visions section, which presents films with a distinctive visual narrative and an original cinematic approach. As the festival’s programme director, Anthelme Vidaud, noted: “Visions gathers films that entail a strong auteur personality, and which offer a new vision of the world. The originality and the audacity of their visual decisions come together with a bold comprehension of the world and the society we live in. It is composed of films that refuse to follow the rules of academism and classicism – they take us to other places, and they open doors and minds."

The programme includes nine titles: Entwined [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Minos Nikolakakis
film profile
]
by Minos Nikolakakis (Greece/UK), Isaac [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jurgis Matulevičius
film profile
]
by Jurgis Matulevičius (Lithuania), Tlamess [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ala Eddine Slim
film profile
]
by Ala Eddine Slim (Tunisia/France), The Trouble with Being Born [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sandra Wollner
film profile
]
by Sandra Wollner (Austria/Germany), Twelve Thousand [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Nadège Trebal (France), A Yellow Animal [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Felipe Bragança (Brazil/Portugal/Mozambique), and all the films in the “Love Trilogy” by Yaron Shani, Stripped [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Yaron Shani
film profile
]
, Chained [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Yaron Shani
film profile
]
and Reborn [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(Israel/Germany).

Swedish master Roy Andersson and Ukrainian director, screenwriter and film producer Roman Balaian will be honoured at the 11th OIFF, receiving the Golden Duke for Lifetime Achievement for their exceptional contributions to film art. In the Special Screenings programme, the first Ukrainian film to be made without the physical presence of one of its authors, Numbers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Oleg Sentsov
film profile
]
by Oleh Sentsov and Akhtem Seitablaev, will be screened, along with the documentary Kubrick by Kubrick [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Gregory Monroe and the historical drama Last Picture Show in Bucharest by Ludi Boeken.

In addition, the National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Centre will host its fifth national retrospective, “Free in Odesa: Independent Cinema of the 1990s”. It will showcase five prominent films, mostly debuts, by independent directors from Odesa who, amongst the turbulence and existential uncertainty of the early 1990s, were creating post-perestroika cinema. The screenings will take place at Stage 6@ of the Dovzhenko Centre in Kyiv between 26 September and 7 October. Another retrospective, “Women Pioneers of Cinema”, organised by OIFF, will include six films that were directed by, or pay tribute to, female filmmakers, including the first woman director, Alice Guy.

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