Ukrainian film festival awards presented in Kyiv (06/03/01)

Ukrainian film festival awards presented in Kyiv

by Ihor Vynnychenko

KYIV - An unusual event in the cultural life of Kyiv took place in March in Kyiv's Turyst Hotel with the presentation of the laureates of last year's international cinema competition and festival "Our Blossom - Across the World".

The directors of three of the winning entries, Oleksii Naumenko who directed "Distant Native Land," Eduard Zaniuk, director of "Vision of Petro Jacyk," and Oleksander Mukhin, who made the animated piece, "Lira," were on hand to receive prizes and recognition for their works.

Another festival prize-winner, "The Never-Changing Face of Plast," by co-directors Zenia Brozyna, Adia Fedash and Xenia Piaseckyj, received a commemorative medal from the Association of Ukrainian Officers of Ukraine.

The audience also had a chance to view the winner of the festival's grand "Kuban Kozaks. Already 200 Years," by Valentyn Sperkach, and a runner-up, "Appia Antica," by Viktor Chernyshuk.

The head of the festival's organizing committee, Ivan Drach, who is also the director of the State Committee on Information, explained to the crowd the importance of such an annual festival not only for Ukraine but for the Ukrainian diaspora as well. He noted that in the process of nation-building the world community of Ukrainians needs to develop vehicles - and the festival is one such vehicle - that will bind them and clarify their unique common experience.

Last year's cinema contest drew 16 video film submissions. Four of the six prize-winners were films produced in Ukraine. This year already there are several submissions, among them pieces on Ukrainians in Poland, Israel and the United States, but all are domestic-made as well.

The non-participation of certain Ukrainians involved in cinema abroad is rather puzzling, reflected Mr. Drach, referring specifically to the work of the Canadian director Yuri Luhovy. The lack of projects by better-known Ukrainian directors of the diaspora is especially glaring, he noted, given that some of the submissions the festival organizing committee has received stand out only for their lack of production professionalism.

The festival's organizing committee has been forced to turn to the leading Ukrainian television companies and producers to request any available diaspora materials they could provide. Some already have agreed to submit packages.

For this year, the festival committee also is working in conjunction with the National Journalists Union to organize a parallel contest to determine the domestic publication that has best covered diaspora themes and to award a prize to an individual journalist for the most outstanding article with a diaspora theme. It is hoped that the winners will be announced in Kyiv during the Third World Forum of Ukrainians in August.

The "Our Blossom - Across the World" cinema awards for 2000 were financed by the festival's partners, the Svitlytsia Society, Intertrans State Co., Enran Trading House, Dobrynia Insurance Co., the Association of Cities of Ukraine and the Svitoch Candy Co.

The festival committee has asked the Self Reliance New York Federal Credit Union to open an account for charitable donations to help support future contests. Those donations can be specified as to purpose (e.g., the contests for journalists or newspapers).

For more information on the projects of the "Our Blossom - Across the World Festival" contact the organizing committee at: telephone, (044) 244-2911; fax, (044) 513-7132; e-mail; ukr-svit@iptelcom.net.ua; website, www.ukrsvit.kiev.ua.

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