The 36th Molodist International Film Festival ended at Ukraine Palace with the awards ceremony and screening of Guillermo del Toro’s The Faun’s Labyrinth on Sunday.
Some of the winners are already well known. The main FIRRESCI prize went to Ivan Vyrypaiev’s Euphoria (Russia). The jury of the international film club association FICC a warded a prize to Don Quixote, a film that im pressed everyone. Awards also went to Geli Babluani’s 13 (Georgia/France), Peter Volkart’s Terra Incognita in the short films nomination, and Kim Hio-Jeong’s Rabbits and Bears (Korea) in the student films standing. The jury of ecumenical organizations awarded a prize to Mohammad Ahmadi’s Poet of the Garbage Heap (Iran).
Roman Bondarchuk and Oleh Skrypka’s joint production Kateryna was recognized as the best in the Ukrainian Cinema Panorama no mination. During the ceremony Skrypka sang and played on the button accordion, accompanied by a small group consisting of a violinist and two singers, who performed a few songs, two in Ukrainian and one in French, all in very unusual interpretations.
Finally, Oleksandra Khrebtova’s Velvet Season was recognized as the best Ukrainian film submitted to Molodist. The director received a diploma and a modest monetary award from Odesa Studios. Most importantly, however, she was formally invited to make her first full-length picture at the studios.
The Scythian Deer, the prize Molodist ha s been awarding for significant contributions to cinematography for the past several years, went to Anatolii Kokush, head of Filmotekhnik Studios for his special effects. His equipment is being used in Hollywood’s best blockbusters. Even though the master has two technical Oscars, this recognition in his homeland is especially dear to him.
Talia Lavi’s Successor (Israel) was recognized as the best student production. Russian director Ivan Vyrypaiev’s Euphoria was the top film in the feature film nomination, but Romania was the all-round winner. Cristian Nemescu’s Marilena from Block P7 won Madalina Ghitescu the Yves Montand Prize for best acting, and the film was noted as one of the best shorts submitted to the jury. The festival’s Grand Prix, the Golden Scythian Deer, and $10,000 went to Corneliu Porumboiu’s tragicomedy 12:08 East of Bucharest (Camera d’Or, Cannes 2006).
One must admit that the jury’s decisions were fair in most cases. However, tyhere is a very big likelihood that the 36th festival Molodist was the last one in its usual and universally accepted format. The festival’s chief organizer, Andrii Khalpakhchi, the man who had made Molodist an international reality, told a press conference, even as the festival was in progress, that he was retiring, he was too tired of fighting the red tape and ruthless bureaucratic indifference; also of fighting constant lack of funds and the disastrous situation in the book-publishing sphere. Mr. Khalpakhchi had made similar statements previously, but this time he really meant business.
Will Molodist be the same as we all have come to love it? Will it continue to exist? Unfortunately, there are no answers to these questions.
