The fifth annual awards ceremony took place just days after a Russian airstrike in Kyiv.
Just two days after a Russian airstrike in Kyiv killed three citizens, damaged a power plant and caused major power outages, the National Circle of Ukrainian Film Critics held its annual awards ceremony.
Known as Kinokolo, the ceremony took place in an underground bunker in Kyiv on Thursday, with the national television channel Suspilne Kultura broadcasting the event live. Established in 2018, Kinokolo recognizes the best of Ukrainian national cinema and is held on the first day of the annual Kyiv Critics’ Week. This year, Critics’ Week runs until October 26.
‘Pamfir’, which screened in this year’s Directors’ Fortnight section of Cannes, was the big winner of the evening, winning Best Feature. Director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, who made his film debut with the drama about a man who returns to his small town and is sucked into his criminal past, was voted best director, best screenplay and discovery of the year during the ceremony. . Oleksandr Yatsentyuk, who plays the film’s main character, won the Kinokolo Best Actor award.
Other winning films include “Are you Ok?” by Natalka Vorozhbyt, who won Best Short Film; “Wir, Europa” by Maryna Stepanska and Anna Dudko, which won the prize for best animated film; and “Infinity: According to Florian” by Oleksii Radinsky, a portrait of Kyiv architect Florian Yuriev, which won the Best Documentary award. Oksana Cherkashina won her second Best Actress Kinokolo for “Klondike,” director Maryna Er Gorbach’s timely film about a pregnant woman living on the border between Russia and Ukraine in 2014, when the tensions that led to that year’s invasion began. The film premiered at Sundance in January, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Competition’s Directing Award.
“Klondike” was billed as Ukraine’s entry in this year’s International Feature Film category at the Oscars.
In addition to the main prizes, Kinokolo also presented a special achievement award to film archivists Stanislav Bytiutskyi, Alyona Penziy and Oleksandr Teliuk for “Strange Whimsical, Fantastic”, a cycle of screenings of rare Ukrainian films which took place this year at the Dovzhenko Center state film archive.
The ceremony also paid special honors to Mantas Kvedaravičius, a Lithuanian director captured and killed by Russian forces this year while filming his feature film “Mariupolis 2”. The footage he shot would later be smuggled out of the country, finished and screened in Cannes.
Dmytro Kozatskyi, a Ukrainian photographer currently serving in the country’s National Guard, also received honors for his work capturing images of the Mariupol Azovstal Steel Plant before it was destroyed in the invasion, which will next developed into a five-minute short film “Fortress Mariupol. The last day in Azovstal.
Read the full list of Kinokolo winners below.
Best Feature Film
“Pamfir” – Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk (Ukraine/France/Poland/Chile/Luxembourg/Germany)
Best Short Fiction Film
“Are you OK?” – Natalka Vorozhbyt (Ukraine)
Best Documentary
“Infinity: According to Florian” – Oleksii Radinsky (Ukraine)
Best Animated Film
“Wir, Europe” – Maryna Stepanska, Anna Dudko (Ukraine)
discovery of the year
“Pamfir” – Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
Best Director
Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk – “Pamfir”
Best actor
Oleksandr Yatsentyuk – “Pamfir”
Best Actress
Oksana Cherkashina – “Klondike”
Best Film Script (Feature or Short Fiction)
Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk – “Pamfir”
Excellence Award
Stanislav Bytiutskyi, Alyona Penziy, Oleksandr Teliuk – “Strange, Whimsical, Fantastic” (Ukraine)
Special Honors
Dmytro Kozatskyi
Mantas Kvedaravicius
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