Director Kateryna Gornostai said she felt uncomfortable taking the stage four times during the Ukrainian Film Critics’ Awards Kinokolo on October 21, given to Ukrainian filmmakers for their achievements in 2021.
Her first feature film “Stop-Zemlia” won the award for best feature film, but the young director also received awards for best screenplay, discovery of the year and best director.
“In our project, each creator was the director on his part. And that’s the coolest way to collaborate and lead: bringing together people who can lead their own parties and have mutual trust to create something that I believe is real, ”Gornostai said at the ceremony.
“Stop-Zemlia” is a sensitive drama about the coming of age of a young woman in Ukraine. Another debutante who played the main role, Maria Fedorechenko, was recognized as the best actress.
“Stop-Zemlia” premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in March, receiving the Crystal Bear Award for Best Film in the 14 and over section of the Generation competition for films aimed at young people. In Ukraine, the film premiered at the Odessa International Film Festival, winning the Grand Prize in the International Competition, the Best Film and Best Actor Awards in the National Competition.
The film is screened today, October 22, at the Zhovten Cinema as part of the Kiev Critics’ Week festival which hosts the Kinokolo Prize. Its wide theatrical release is scheduled for February 3, 2022 in Ukraine.
The award for best actor went to Vitaliy Saliy for his lead role in “I Work at the Cemetery”, a tragicomedy about a man trying to escape the worries of life through a quiet job.
An Alina Gorlova film, “This Rain Will Never Stop” won the award for best documentary by Kinokolo. It tells the story of a young Kurdish man who flees war-torn Syria in Ukraine, but later chooses to become a Red Cross volunteer on the front lines of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The film has won numerous awards around the world, including at the largest international documentary film festival in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Read more: Movie Review – War Is At The Heart Of Award Winning “This Rain Will Never Stop”
“Dad’s Sneakers”, a story by Olha Zhurba about a Ukrainian boy adopted by American parents, won the award for best short fiction film. At the Odessa Film Festival, he also received the awards for the best short film from the national finish and from the International Federation of Film Critics.
The award for best animated film went to “Unnecessary Things”, a short film based on a short story by American author Robert Sheckley on the relationship between a robot and a man.
This year’s first achievement award went to Denys Budanov, a film critic who chronicles the Ukrainian film process digitally, showcasing Ukrainian films, festivals and reviews on online databases , such as IMDb and Letterbox.
The Ukrainian National Film Critics’ Awards Kinokolo has been awarded for the fourth time since 2018, awarded this year in ten categories. The jury is made up of 45 Ukrainian critics who are members of the International Federation of Film Critics.
In previous years, the winners for best films were “Atlantis” by director Valentyn Vasyanovych, “Homeward” by Nariman Aliev (2019) and “Donbas” by Sergei Loznitsa (2018).
