ODESA – Hundreds of filmmakers and movie lovers flocked to Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater on July 22 to learn the names of the winners of 8th Odesa International Film Festival that’s been taking place on July 14-22.
The festival’s closing ceremony started with a red carpet where festival’s participants and guests had a chance to show off their evening gowns and pose for the cameras, while the city’s residents and tourists surrounded the theater to watch the ceremony.
Among the stars that walked the red carpet were Sibel Kekilli who played Shae in the fantasy television drama series “Game of Thrones,” Irish actor Aidan Turner, famous for playing Kili the Dwarf in Peter Jackson’s trilogy “The Hobbit,” Polish Oscar-nominated director Agnieszka Holland and German Golden Bear-awarded director Christian Petzold.
But the loudest applause went to Soviet and Russian actress Liya Akhedzhakova, 79, who played a role in the movie “A Gentle Creature” by Ukrainian film director Sergiy Loznitsa.
The festival’s main surprise was the arrival of French actress Isabelle Huppert, who wasn’t announced on the festival program and missed the red carpet but turned up at the award ceremony on July 22 to get the Lifetime Achievement award. The second Lifetime Achievement award went to Polish director Holland.
“I always felt very special about Ukraine,” Huppert said in Russian during the awarding ceremony, adding that she’d already been to Odesa during the shooting for the film “The Flood” (1994) by Russian director Igor Minaev.
French actress Isabelle Huppert poses to press after receiving the Lifetime Achievement award of the Odesa International Film Festival on July 22 in Odesa. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
“I want to come back here and make my own film once,” Huppert said.
Huppert, 64, appeared in more than 110 films since her debut in 1971. She is the most nominated actress for the César Award, with 16 nominations. In 2016, she received a Golden Globe for the role in Paul Verhoeven’s film “Elle” (“She”).
“The red carpet is probably the brightest event during the festival,” said one of the festival’s guests, Nikita Mitrofanov, a dancer and a finalist of the Ukrainian version of “So You Think You Can Dance,” who lives in Odesa, adding that he is excited and a bit nervous to walk the red carpet.
He said that he was attending the festival for the second time and that was very proud that it had been taking place in his city. Mitrophanov said he usually brings his mother to the festival events and screenings.
For the red carpet he wore a trendy pink shirt and gray trousers, and put his dreadlocked hair in a knot.
“Simply watching those people on the carpet and enjoying their stunning outfits is a pleasure,” said Mitrophanov.
Winners announced
During the festival, 35 movies competed for the main prize, the Grand Prix Golden Duke, which is awarded based on the audience votes. This year’s Grand Prix went to the Belgian film “King of the Belgians” by Peter Brosens and Jessica Hope Woodworth.
The jury’s award for the Best International Feature Film went to Catalan director Carla Simon’s biographical piece “Summer 1993,” about an orphaned girl’s troubled life with her new family.
The jury of the national contest picked a documentary “Dixie Land” by Roman Bondarchuk as Best Ukrainian Feature Film. The film follows for seven years a kids jazz band in Kherson Oblast called Dixie Land. One of the main characters, a 16-year-old girl named Polina, went on stage to pick up the prize.
After the award ceremony, Bondarchuk told the journalists that he was upset that some good feature films didn’t get an award, because his documentary was competing in the same section. He said he wished that more Ukrainian documentaries compete in a contest to form a separate section.
Another documentary, Serhiy Bukovsky’s “Main Role” about director’s mother, an actress Nina Antonova, and their complicated relationship became the Best European Documentary. Antonova picked up the prize with her son, the director.
Bukovsky told that at first his mother had doubts about being the main heroine in his film, saying that she is too small to be noticed.
“Small but strong,” the director told her.
The Best Director award went to Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß, the authors of the film “My Happy Family.” The film tells about a middle-aged woman from Georgia who separates from her husband and has to withstand pressure from her family. The cast of the film, including actors Ia Shugliashvili and Tsisia Qumsishvili, received the Best Acting award.
The Best Ukrainian Short Film award went to “Graduation 97” by Pavlo Ostrikov. “The Strayed” by Arkadii Nepytaliuk and a short film “Lilac” by Kateryna Gornostai received The Special Mention award in the national section.
The jurors of the international contest, including German director Petzold and “Game of Thrones” star Kekilli said that Ukrainian films, which participated in the section, were on the same level with other contestants. However, they also said that sometimes directors focused more on new means to tell stories instead of the story itself.
For the full list of winners of 2017 Odesa International Film Festival, follow the link.
Better year by year
“I am happy that Ukrainian films become better every year,” said festival’s president and organizer Viktoriya Tigipko, wife of politician and businessman Serhiy Tigipko, on the red carpet. She also said that this year the organizers got 911 films sent to them, but only 41 of them made it to the contest.
This year the festival had two new locations – “Cinema City” movie theater and “Green Theater,” an outdoor movie theater in Taras Shevchenko Park in the center of Odesa. Festival’s organizer Tigipko also said that next year the organizers plan to expand the cinema school during the festival and bring even more prominent filmmakers and producers.
French actress Huppert said that she didn’t have a chance to see all the Ukrainian movies presented during the festival, but was impressed by how many of them are being produced now.
“I’ve seen that there is a huge variety of Ukrainian films, they are very perspective, and I truly think that there are many people (In Ukraine) who I can work with,” she said.
