The International Competition Program of the 10th OIFF has been announced at the press conferences, that took place on June 18 in Kyiv (at “Oskar” cinema) and on June 19 in Odesa (the Londonskaya Hotel)

The President Viktoriya Tigipko, General Producer Julia Sinkevych, Program Director Anthelme Vidaud, Program Consultant Alik Shpyliuk, along with the Head of the Ukrainian State Film Agency Pylyp Illenko, the Chairman of the Board of JSC TASKOMBANK Andriy Komarist, and the Director of the Channel “Ukraine” Viktoriya Korogod attended the press conference in Kyiv. While in Odesa, the advisor to city’s mayor Olena Pavlova, joined the press conference.

This year a total of 1110 films were submitted to participate at all the competition programs of the 10th OIFF. For the International Competition, the selection committee has picked 12 feature films that are hailing from 18 countries (including those of co-production), namely: Ukraine, Colombia, Argentina, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Uruguay, Lithuania, United States of America, Great Britain, Italy, Albania, China, Luxembourg, Belgium, Israel, France and Georgia. The selected films will compete for the Grand Prix of OIFF – the Golden Duke – and the other awards of the International Competition.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION:

• And Then We Danced by Levan Akin is about the life of a young dancer from the National Georgian ensemble Merab who changes radically when he falls in love with his ambitious rival.
• The debut feature film Evge / Homeward by Ukrainian director Nariman Aliyev premiered this year at the Cannes Film Festival’s programme “Un Certain Regard”. The story follows Mustafa, who lost his eldest son during the conflicts in Eastern Ukraine, and who decides to bury him at his home in Crimea. Along with his younger son, they are set out on a journey that will profoundly mark their relationship.
• Monos, a co-production between Colombia, Argentina, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, by Alejandro Landes. The film follows eight kids with guns who watch over a hostage and a conscripted milk cow. Landes observes the chaos and turmoil of war from the unique perspective of adolescence.
• Queen of Hearts / Dronningen - is a Danish-Swedish co-production, directed by May el-Toukhy. The drama follows a happy woman, who seemingly has everything in her life including family and career. This will be ruined when the son of her husband’s first marriage appears. Her, not maternal, love towards him will complicate their lives.
• Social drama Sasha Was Here / Čia buvo Saša by Lithuanian director Ernestas Jankauskas explores the story of a childless couple, who decide to adopt a six-year-old girl, but by mistake they are getting a rebel boy, named Sasha. The couple agrees to keep Sasha for one day until the mistake is corrected, but this decision will change their lives forever.
• Tel Aviv On Fire by Israeli-Palestinian director Sameh Zoabi is a dramedy that follows Salam - an inexperienced Palestinian guy who out of accident, becomes the screenwriter of a popular TV soap opera. After meeting an Israeli soldier, he begins to climb the career ladder rapidly.
• Italian comedy The Man Who Bought The Moon / L'uomo Che Comprò La Luna by director Paolo Zucca focuses on a Sardinian fisherman, who is ready to do anything for the woman he is in love with, even to promise her the moon. And Sardinian men always keep their promises.
• American-British drama The Souvenir by Joanna Hogg is about a young student filmmaker Julia, who embarks into a relationship with a charismatic, but unreliable man, Anthony. This will create conflicts with her mother, who is against their relationship.
• Chinese comedy Uncle And House / He Qun Lu by Luo Hanxing tells the story of a guy who returns to China after studying abroad and, together with his two friends, they start a debt collection business.
• The Orphanage / Parwareshgah by Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat is about teenager Qodrat, who speculates on cinema tickets until he is taken to the orphanage by the Soviet police in the late 1980s.
• Keep An Eye Out / Au Poste by French film director Quentin Dupieux follows Fugain, who finds the corpse on the porch of his house and he does the right thing by turning to the police. He doesn’t know though that now, he must spend the whole night at the police department and a rough and strange interrogation by chief Buron is expecting him.
• Initials S.G. by directorial duo Rania Attieh and Daniel García. The film is telling the story of Argentinian Sergio Garces, who’s in his 50’s, but he thinks he is still 35. He lives in Buenos Aires, drinks a lot, and smokes a ton of weed. His friends call him “Frances” because when he was younger, he recorded an album of Spanish language covers of Serge Gainsbourg songs, and ultimately believes himself to possess a certain French quality. He scrapes by in life by getting odd acting jobs here and there, mostly as an extra in films that shoot around town. But his real passion, his dream, is to become an actor, a real artist.

The competition films will be judged by the International Jury, which includes Belgian director Peter Brosens, Ukrainian Hollywood actress Ivanna Sakhno, director of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and member of the European Film Academy Karel Och, Irish actor Barry Ward, and Georgian writer, director and producer Nana Ekvtimishvili.