The 12th Odesa International Film Festival, which will take place in Odesa 14-21 August, will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence with a focus on national cinema.
The renewed festival will have only one competition programme - the National Competition (both feature length and short films). The winners will be awarded Best film, Best director and Best acting awards. The Gala Premiere programme will traditionally consist of world art hits. The festival will also feature non-competitive sections "Festival of Festivals" and a series of retrospective screenings as well as Film Industry Office section and Summer Film School educational programme.
Arthouse Traffic, headed by Denis Ivanov, will act as the programme department of the 12th OIFF.
"In recent years, Ukrainian cinema has become a powerful and distinctive phenomenon. Ukrainian films take part in major world festivals and have significantly increased their audience in Ukraine and abroad. The Odesa Film Festival, which traditionally premieres major Ukrainian films, also cannot stand aside from these important changes. It is a great honor for our team to join the implementation of the renewed concept of the OIFF, where the national film competition will become the main one, and international festival hits will get the best place for their Ukrainian premiere", Denis Ivanov said.
The OIFF Supervisory Board has also been established, which is responsible for coordinating the festival's strategy and identifying vectors of development as well as resolving strategic issues. The Supervisory Board includes OIFF President Viktoriya Tigipko, Executive Director Anna Machukh, Programme Consultant Alik Shpyliuk, Arthouse Traffic CEO and producer Denis Ivanov. Deputy Ukrainian National representative to Eurimages and Deputy Head of the Council for State Support of Cinema Serhiy Zlenko will join the Supervisory Board as external independent expert.
Call for submissions for the 12th OIFF National Competition programme will open in late February.