03/03/2022 - The selection of a Ukrainian jury chair is an attempt to show support for the people of Ukraine and highlight their current plight

Ukrainian film producer Julia Sinkevych has been selected as the jury president for this year’s Series Mania Festival and its accompanying International Competition. The festival will take place from 18-25 March in Lille, France. Given that she is a Kyiv resident, Sinkevych’s presence in Lille is not guaranteed at this point. So, to play it safe, French writer-director Marc Dugain has been appointed as the vice-president of this year’s jury.

Rodolphe Belmer, president of Series Mania, stated that by “proposing this presidency to Julia Sinkevych, who is flying the colours of culture in a wounded country, we wish to show our support for the people of Ukraine and attest the importance of festivals in a world in crisis, as they create a place for people to come together to exchange ideas and celebrate our diversity”. This is in line with Series Mania’s mission to reflect the continuous and intimate dialogue between culture and society. “We have always said that series are the mirror to a period of time that resonate through their stories,” Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania, added.

Sinkevych is currently working as a film producer, and is a co-founder and member of the supervisory board of the Ukrainian Film Academy. She is also a member of the European Film Academy and a member of the Ukrainian Oscars committee. From 2010-2020, she worked as the general producer of the Odesa International Film Festival, one of the biggest audience-orientated film festivals in Eastern Europe (read our latest interview with her). Besides general management, programming and curating tasks, her prior work at distribution and production company Arthouse Traffic allowed her to promote and support Ukrainian artists and filmmakers on an international level.

Sinkevych stated that she was “deeply moved and honoured to be joining the jury of Series Mania, which is a very special event for me”. She identified culture as a powerful tool to stop aggression and to promote new talent to the world. Speaking about the situation in Ukraine, she added that her country “is part of world cinema and is now fighting against all the odds to demonstrate that it is the right of each human being to bring beauty, art, peace and novelty to this world”.

The International Competition jury will also include German actor Christian Berkel (Downfall [+see also:
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film profile], Valkyrie), Israeli actress Shira Haas (Unorthodox [+see also:
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