It is the third time that Odesa, flabby from the July heat, is receiving the international film festival, making the local residents and the guests of the city live in a harsh festival rhythm. The audiences in many halls which held screenings have essentially increased; there were many full-houses.
The excitement of the red carpet, which leads to the famous opera house, where the opening ceremony was held, was followed by no less exciting festival routine. The festival palace located in the premises of the Vodiany Theater of Music Comedy, held competition screenings from early in the morning, whereas press conferences were held in a tent nearby, and the numerous branches of famous Odesa coffee-houses and restorations, which were represented in the square in front of the theater, held business and friendly meetings, as well as heated debates.
The Batkivshchyna Theater screened for the special jury and the audience who takes interest in the development of the national cinema the films presented in the Ukrainian competition, and every screening was a full-house. The jury of the Ukrainian Competition Program recognized Akhtem Seitablaiev’s movie Champions from the Back Street as the best film of the Ukrainian National Competition. Besides, the jury awarded three participants with special diplomas. A special award was given to Oleg Sentsov’s full-length movie Gamer, which is a winner of the FIPRESCI diploma as well. Among the Ukrainian short films, the diplomas went to Antonina Noiabriova’s Independence Day and A Beautiful Woman by Olena Alimova. The jury’s decisions went beyond discussion. Probably, as there is no high-quality cinema, there is a sense in encouraging those who dare to shoot films. This year’s Don Quixote Award from the International Federation of Cinema Clubs (FICC), whose jury assesses the international competition program of the festival, went to Ukrainian movie Ordinary Case by Valentyn Vasianovych.
The Odesa Film Studio also held master classes for the Summer Cinema School students, presentations of Ukrainian movie projects which are underway, pitches, and discussions concerning the possibility of cooperation between the moviemaking and television industries in Ukraine. Oleh Sentsov with the project of a criminal drama A Rhino won the festival’s pitch with the cash prize of 25,000 hryvnias from the UDP developing company. Besides, the pitch commission decided to give an honors diploma to Heorhii Deliiev’s project A Hostage.
In the third year of existence the Odesa International Film Festival is still looking for its face and it is quite natural. The festival has moved from humor in all manifestations, its first-year concept, to this season’s art-mainstream. One should pay its due to the festival team headed by president Viktoria Tihipko, as well as to director-general Denys Ivanov, and program director Oleksandr Shpyliuk, who makes up with love and good taste the competition and extra competition programs, as they attend numerous festivals on a regular basis and try to implement the best things they have seen in the Odesa forum. The Summer School, which was born in Karlovy Vary, enjoys indisputable success and recognition. The Berlinale gave an idea of holding pitches. The idea of grand prix, awarded based on the results of the audience’s voting, came from Toronto. This undertaking raises certain doubts. In Toronto the award seems to be quite logical, as the festival is non-competition, there is no professional jury, hence no possibility to choose the best among the presented movies. As a result of the difference in views between the festival’s professional jury headed by the renowned movie critic Andrii Plakhov and the audience’s voting, for ordinary consumers it is hard to make up their mind as to who is the best. The jury opines that the best movie of the Odesa festival in 2012 is Serhii Loznytsia’s movie based on Vasyl Bykov’s novel In the Mist. This wonderful, intelligent and complicated movie was a subject of a separate interview with the director, which is soon to be published in one of the coming issues of The Day. And the Grand Prix, a Golden Duke statuette and cash prize totaling 15,000 dollars went to British director Rufus Norris’s movie Broken (Great Britain, 2012). The legitimacy of the audience’s voting was confirmed by the Deloitte international auditor company.
Without doubt, the open-air events remain an adornment of the festival. There were three of them. On the festival’s opening day, the ever-young movie star Claudia Cardinale presented in Lanzheronovsky uzviz the eternal classic 8 1/2 by Fellini, thus multiplying the number of her admirers.
Next day the Potemkin Stairs was overcrowded: charming Geraldine Chaplin was presenting Charlie Chaplin’s famous City Lights to the accompaniment of a symphony orchestra.
After the awarding ceremony of the Ukrainian movies, which again gathered the audience in Lanzheron, the head of the Agency for Moviemaking Kateryna Kopylova and Deputy Director General of the Dovzhenko Foundation Ivan Kozlenko presented one more memorable festival event – screening of the restored movie Land by Oleksandr Dovzhenko to the sound of music specially created for the event and performed by DakhaBrakha. The movie looked in a totally new way, charged with the unique energy of Vladyslav Troitsky’s ethno-rock band. The screening confirmed once again that the project of restoring old national movies and presenting them with new sound tracks is quite viable.
Owing to the support of the state and faithful sponsors, the Odesa International Film Festival has entered a new period of preparation for the next festival, which will offer new surprises in 2013.
