Ukrainian animated film ‘Foxter and Max’ wins award

The Ukrainian animated film “Foxter and Max,” directed by Anatoliy Mateshko, has won the Grand Prix of this year’s Children Kino Fest, the festival’s website announced on June 7.

The Ukrainian family sci-fi film, which mixes 3D special effects and live actors, tells the story of a boy and his superhero dog.

Schoolboy Max draws an image of a dog on a wall after finding a spray can of nano paint. Suddenly, his graffiti comes to life and transforms into a nanorobot dog with superpowers.

The trailer of the movie, released in September 2019, can be seen here.

Due to quarantine restrictions, the 7th edition of the festival, which ran from May 29 to June 7, took place online, gathering over 20,000 viewers who chose “Foxter and Max” as the winner. The Ukrainian animated short beat out an Australian and a German film.

This is the third year in a row that a Ukrainian-made movie has won the competition.

Last year, the Ukrainian 3D film “Stolen Princess,” directed by Oleg Malamuzh, won the festival’s Grand Prix.

The annual festival, organized by Kyiv-based film distribution company Arthouse Traffic, was founded in 2014. It  aims to promote Ukrainian films and introduce children’s movies from all over Europe to Ukrainian children and teenagers.

In cooperation with foreign embassies and cultural centers, Arthouse Traffic also organizes a number of annual film festivals in Kyiv, including “Evenings of French Cinema” and “Manhattan Short Film Festival.”

The firm is also behind the “Ukraine on Film” event in Brussels, Belgium and “Ukrainian Film Days” in Toronto, Canada.

Since its founding in 2003, Arthouse Traffic has also produced and released the critically acclaimed films “Tribe” by Myroslav Slaboshpytsky and “Donbass” by Serhiy Loznytsia. Both features made it to the Cannes Film Festival in France in 2018.