The 55th “Molodist” features coming-of-age stories, family dramas, noir, and experimental films across its “Teen Screen” and non-competition programs. The selection includes Academy Award-winning films and titles recognized at festivals in Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, and Copenhagen.
Teen Screen
A competition of feature-length fiction films for children and teens ages 14 to 16. The winner is selected by a children’s jury, and screenings in this program are free.
The Newcomers, Rodrigo Plá, Mexico, Spain, 2026, 80 min
Mouse, Kelly O’Sullivan, Alex Thompson, USA, 2026, 120 min
Gugu’s World, Allan Deberton, Brazil, 2026, 93 min
The Crown Prince and the Return of the Tyrant, Tord Danielsson, Sweden, 2025, 87 min
Everyone’s Sorry Nowadays, Frederike Migom, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, 2026, 87 min
Out There, Simon Ryninks, United Kingdom, 2026, 90 min
Gugu, the boy at the center of Gugu’s World, dreams of becoming a soccer player and lives with his grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s disease. He keeps her condition a secret because he fears his father, who does not accept him, will take him away. At the Berlin International Film Festival, the film won the Crystal Bear from the Generation Kplus children’s jury and the Grand Prix from the Generation Kplus international jury. Brazil also selected it as its entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
In The Newcomers, three teenagers try to find out what is polluting the rivers in their town. The narrator’s brother, a refugee girl named Tiana, and her dog Nube join the investigation. The film received the Pardo for Change special mention at the Locarno Film Festival.
Set in 2002, Mouse follows Minnie and Callie as their friendship shifts in the year before graduation. As Minnie tries to find her own place, she grows closer to her friend’s mother. The film placed third in the Panorama section’s audience poll at the Berlin International Film Festival.
The Crown Prince and the Return of the Tyrant, directed by Tord Danielsson, continues the story of the Swedish film The Crown Prince Who Disappeared. A small kingdom is preparing for Queen Lovisa’s wedding when the celebration is interrupted by the former tyrant’s mother. She arrives with an army, determined to reclaim the throne. The film was nominated for a Swedish Guldbagge Award for Best Visual Effects.
Everyone’s Sorry Nowadays follows Bianca, who feels unheard in her family. One day, she meets her favorite actress, Billie King. The encounter helps Bianca understand herself better and find her place. In 2026, the film won Best Children’s and Youth Film at the German festival Filmkunstfest. It was also nominated for the Crystal Bear for Best Film in the Generation Kplus section at the Berlin International Film Festival and for Best Children’s Film at Amsterdam’s Cinekid Festival.
In Out There, a young astronomer spots a UFO over a seaside town in Wales and asks a skeptical friend and a UFO enthusiast to help investigate. Their search leads to discoveries they are not prepared for. The film was selected for the competition at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it competed for the Sean Connery Prize for Feature Film.
Stills: Google Drive folder
Scandinavian Panorama
A selection of contemporary cinema from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. This year’s program includes two films.
Adult Supervision, Alex Schulman, Sweden, 2026, 108 min
Low Expectations, Eivind Landsvik, Norway, Denmark, 2026, 105 min
In Adult Supervision, three parents travel to a remote island to accompany their teenage daughters on a school trip. Tension rises among the adults, old resentments return, and innocent games turn into a struggle for control.
In Low Expectations, a young musician named Maja faces a crisis and moves back in with her mother. She takes a part-time job at a school and tries to adjust to everyday life again. The film premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes.
Stills: Google Drive folder
Midnight Special
A selection of bold, vivid films, including folk horror, thrillers, black comedies, and eerie or eccentric documentaries and fiction films. The program was established in 2018. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, screenings really did start around midnight.
Moonglow, Isabel Sandoval, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, 2026, 108 min
Gothic Is Serenity, Natalia Ilchuk, Ukraine, 2026, 50 min
Moonglow is set in Manila in the late 1970s, during the rule of Ferdinand Marcos. Dalia, a police officer, steals money from her corrupt superior to help residents of a recently demolished neighborhood. When she is assigned to investigate the theft, her partner is the superior’s nephew, with whom she shares a past.
Gothic Is Serenity is a concert documentary by Natalia Ilchuk, a winner of the national competition at “Molodist,” about seven Ukrainian gothic bands. The film was edited from archival footage shot in 2005 and rediscovered in 2026. It will have its world premiere at “Molodist.”
Stills: Google Drive folder
FORMA
The FORMA program is dedicated to experimental cinema. Its films look at journeys, memory, and the process of making films.
Erratics, Thomas Woodroffe, Chile, France, Argentina, 2026, 92 min
Brother Verses Brother, Ari Gold, USA, 2025, 91 mi
Chronovisor, Jack Auen, Kevin Walker, USA, 2026, 99 mi
This Is Not a French Film, Tom Adjibi, Belgium, France, 2026, 80 min
Leleka, Harald Hutter, Canada, France, Spain, Ukraine, USA, 2025, 91 min
In Erratics, the ghost of a forgotten filmmaker escapes a century-long icy captivity and finds himself in a futuristic Patagonia, where technological progress has erased the past. The film was selected for the New Directors competition at the 2026 San Sebastián Film Festival.
Brother Verses Brother follows two musician brothers wandering through San Francisco at night in search of their missing father. Along the way, they visit places associated with the Beat Generation and uncover family secrets. Director Ari Gold made a film about his own family. He, his brother Ethan, and their father, writer Herbert Gold, play themselves. The scenes with their father were filmed just weeks before he died. In 2025, the film won Best Feature Film at the MOMO Film Festival. The entire film was shot in a single improvised take, in the style of live cinema. Francis Ford Coppola served as executive producer.
In Chronovisor, New York philosopher Beatrice Kurt searches through libraries and comes across a reference to a chronovisor, a device said to photograph the past. Her research becomes an obsession, and the film unfolds through books, magazines, cassettes, and VHS tapes. Shot on 16mm in the style of 1970s noir, the film won Best Film at the 2026 Jeonju International Film Festival and shared the Best Feature Film award at the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival.
This Is Not a French Film centers on a young director trying to make his debut feature. His attempt becomes a political documentary satire about identity and representation. In 2026, the film received a special jury mention in the NEXT competition at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.
In Leleka, Sasha, a Ukrainian displaced person living in Paris, travels across Europe with her friend Margo, a filmmaker. They head to a Ukrainian village to honor Sasha’s grandmother. The film was selected for the Rebels with a Cause competition at the 2025 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Harald Hutter’s previous film, Up the River with Acid, won the Grand Prix at Cinéma du Réel.
Stills: Google Drive folder
Special Events
Orange Flavored Wedding, Christophe Honoré, France, 2026, 115 min
Seven Circles of Hell, Andrzej Klamt, Frank Amann, Germany, 2026, 94 min
Rehearsals for a Revolution, Pegah Ahangarani, Czechia, Spain, Iran, 2026, 101 min
Roya, Mahnāz Mohammadī, Germany, Luxembourg, Czechia, Iran, 2026, 93 min
Let Us Through Dear Ancestors, Lav Diaz, Philippines, 2026, 151 min
A Well for the Thirsty, Yuriy Illienko, Ukraine (USSR), 1987, 73 min
Association “Debut”, Oleh Chornyi, Andriy Donchyk, Serhii Lysenko, Ukraine, 1988–1993, 101 min
Music with Images or Films Without Words, Natalia Ilchuk, Ukraine, 2004–2021, 85 min
Christophe Honoré’s Orange Flavored Wedding is set in 1978. Jacques and Martine are getting married. Their relationship is rooted in love, but can love heal the wounds of childhood? The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Seven Circles of Hell will have its world premiere in the Special Events section. The documentary tells the story of the Russian-Ukrainian war. A Ukrainian servicewoman and five fellow soldiers recall the hell of the front lines and describe the difficult path back to civilian life.
In Rehearsals for a Revolution, director Pegah Ahangarani looks back on her own life through portraits of five relatives and mentors. Drawing on personal archives, home videos, footage of protests, and newspaper clippings, she traces more than 40 years of Iranian history, from 1979 to 2026. Ahangarani received the Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival.
Another Iranian film in the program is Roya, directed by Mahnāz Mohammadī, a member of the festival’s international jury. The film was made without official approval from the authorities. Roya, an Iranian teacher, has been imprisoned for her political views. She now faces a difficult choice: record a forced confession for television or remain in her cell.
Let Us Through Dear Ancestors is one of renowned director Lav Diaz’s shortest films, at 151 minutes. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it received the Premio Brian award. The film is set in the Philippine Islands in 1617. Father Enciso, a Spanish monk who oversees one of the islands, rules the local population with an iron fist and has only one goal: to “tame the savages.”
In collaboration with the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Center, “Molodist” will screen a specially restored print of Yuriy Illienko’s A Well for the Thirsty, one of the key films of Ukrainian poetic cinema. At the center of this parable is Levko Serdiuk, an old man who tends the village well, remembers the past, and waits for his sons to return. When his family finally comes back, Levko symbolically rises from his coffin. Meanwhile, electric poles, an iron windmill, and a plane in the sky begin to change the village’s familiar way of life. The screenplay was written by Ivan Drach, a famous Ukrainian dissident, poet, and screenwriter.
Association “Debut” brings together three first films by well-known Ukrainian filmmakers: The Death of the Gods (1988) by Andriy Donchyk, director and head of the Dovzhenko Film Studio; Withered Cherry in My Garden, You Pass Me By Again (1993) by Oleh Chornyi; and The Border Is Locked (1988) by Serhii Lysenko.
Music with Images or Films Without Words is a selection of music videos Natalia Ilchuk made between 2004 and 2021.
Stills: Google Drive folder
The festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Ukrainian State Film Agency, and the State Agency of Ukraine for Arts and Art Education.
Embassies and government institutions
Embassy of the Italian Republic in Ukraine
Italian Cultural Institute in Kyiv
Goethe-Institut Ukraine
Embassy of Spain in Ukraine
Embassy of France in Ukraine
French Institute in Ukraine
Embassy of Belgium in Ukraine
Embassy of Spain in Ukraine
Embassy of Poland in Ukraine
Polish Institute in Kyiv
Embassy of the Czech Republic in Ukraine
Embassy of Mexico in Ukraine
Embassy of Argentina in Ukraine
Ukrainian-Danish Youth House
German Films
Creative Europe Desk Ukraine
Sponsors and partners
State lottery operator M.S.L. and Loto-Zabava
Main media partner, 1+1 media
Film and television platform, Kyivstar TV
Creative partner, advertising agency McCANN Kyiv
ILTA Auto Center in Pechersk
Musafir, a Crimean Tatar restaurant bringing a taste of Crimea to the capital
Festival hotel partner, Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv Podil, City Centre
House of Cinema
Cinecitta Restaurant
Media partners
Suspilne
Suspilne Kultura
NV.ua
hromadske
#ProShoKino
Vechirniy Kyiv
