The Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival will present its national competition with Ukrainian short and feature-length films at FILMFEST HAMBURG. For the first time in Molodist history, the competition will include feature films.
30th FILMFEST HAMBURG, the largest festival in the region and one of the leading ones in Germany, will be held September 29 – October 8, 2022. Due to the current complicated situation caused by Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, organizers invited Molodist to present its national competition with its own jury on September 30 – October 5 in the Hanseatic sister city of Kyiv.
The national competition of Molodist will traditionally include short films, as well as, for the first time, full-length films. The competition includes 12 shorts and 7 features. All feature film participants are debut directors.
Ukrainian short and full-length films will be screened at the Alabama cinema, located on the premises of the Kampnagel cultural centre in Hamburg. The jury will determine the winner and hand out the prize accordingly.
“We will be happy to provide the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival with the use of our festival sites in Hamburg. We will show two or three films a day. Of course, a number of interesting guests are also expected,” the director of the German festival, Albert Wiederspiel, promised.
According to Cineuropa, the director of Molodist, Andriy Khalpakhchi, commented: “Despite the full-scale war in Ukraine, it is already necessary today to do everything we can in aid of the revival of Ukrainian culture. In this regard, international film festivals are significant events that testify to its undiluted existence and integration into the world film scene. That’s why we are very grateful to the directors of Filmfest Hamburg, and personally to Albert Wiederspiel, for the suggestion to hold the national competition of short and full-length Ukrainian films within this prestigious forum. The international jury consists of Ukrainian director Eva Neumann, Iranian producer Farzad Pak and German actress Fritzi Haberlandt, and they will determine the winners. The programme will feature 12 short films and seven full-length ones, as well as some titles out of competition – a batch of short Ukrainian films, prize-winners from the past editions of the Molodist Film Festival and Eva Neumann’s documentary Pryvoz. We hope that most of the directors of the competition films will be able to attend Filmfest Hamburg together with representatives of Molodist, which will enable communication with local audiences and convey the narratives of Ukraine’s struggle for its own freedom.”
Molodist at Filmfest Hamburg