Guests and audiences gathered in the Red Hall of theHouse of Cinema for the opening of theMolodist Kyiv International Film Festival. This year marks the festival’s 55th anniversary. The programme features 158 films from 59 countries presented across 11 sections. In addition, numerous industry events will take place throughout the festival.
The opening film was The Apartment (1960) by Billy Wilder, screened to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Oscar-winning actor Jack Lemmon, who played one of the leading roles in the film.
The opening ceremony of the 54th edition of the festival was hosted by Kateryna Olos and Mark Kutsevalov — presenters of the new TET TV project Mission: Cope.
The event began with words of gratitude to Ukrainian filmmakers currently defending the country on the frontline and with a tribute to those who gave their lives for Ukraine’s freedom.
Andrii Osipov, Head of the Ukrainian State Film Agency, delivered a speech and presented, on behalf of Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, an official token of appreciation to film and TV producer Serhii Lavreniuk.
“I want to thank you, Andrii Khalpakhchi, and your entire team for continuing this challenging work in such difficult times. I can see how much effort and emotional strength you dedicate to this great cause. On behalf of the Ukrainian State Film Agency, I want to say that we recognize this work and consider it extremely important. Please, keep going,” said Andrii Osipov, Head of the Ukrainian State Film Agency.
General Director of the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival Andrii Khalpakhchi, presented the honorary Scythian Deer award to Serhii Mishchenko — President and CEO of ILTA Company.
Among the guests were: Clodoaldo Lamcha, First Secretary and Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of the Republic of Albania in Ukraine; Antonio Santamaría Pargada, Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Ukraine; Francesco Pesce, Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of the Italian Republic in Ukraine; Mothusi Choeyuni, Deputy Head of Mission / Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in Ukraine; Andrii Khalpakhchi, General Director of Molodist; Bohdan Zhuk, Programmer and Director of the SUNNY BUNNY Film Festival; Andrii Osipov, Head of the Ukrainian State Film Agency; actress Rimma Ziubina; Joanna Lapinska, Head of the International Jury; Antoine Arjakovsky, member of the International Jury; Valeriia Sochyvets, producer and member of the International Competition Jury; Luka Chikovani, member of the International Competition Jury; Liubov Yakymchuk, screenwriter, playwright and member of the International Jury; Tor Fosse, programmer and member of the Documentary Competition Jury; Donatas Butkus, Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Lithuania in Ukraine; director and producer Oleksa Hladushevskyi; Serhii Bordeniuk, Head of the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine; director and cinematographer Yurii Dunai; director and screenwriter Solomiia Tomashchuk, among others.
General Director of the Molodist Film Festival Andrii Khalpakhchi said: “I feel that we have truly revived the spirit of the 1970 Molodist Film Festival. I am happy that for the second year in a row, the festival has returned to the House of Cinema of the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine — a place once so crowded that people stormed the windows to see films banned for years. I want to thank the jury members and our international and Ukrainian participants. And, above all, our viewers — when we meet you and see your eyes as we present the films, we understand that our work matters, and we do it for you.”
As in previous years, the festival features the initiative Letters to Free Crimeaby the Representation of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, PEN Ukraine, and the ZMINA Human Rights Center, joined by Crimea Daily media initiative, NGOs CrimeaSOS and Crimean Process. Within this campaign, everyone can write letters to unlawfully imprisoned Ukrainian citizens who are being held in Crimea or were illegally transferred from occupied Crimea to the territory of the Russian Federation.
Currently, at least 222 people are illegally held in the temporarily occupied Crimea and in the Russian Federation, including 133 Crimean Tatars. They are persecuted for their ethnic, political, or religious identity, accused of “separatism” or “terrorism,” subjected to torture, fabricated charges, and sentenced to decades in prison.
Jury of the 54th Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival
International Competition Jury
Joanna Łapińska
Member of the European Film Academy. Artistic Director of the FPFF in Gdynia
Poland
Member of the European Film Academy and Artistic Director of the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. A graduate of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Warsaw and an experienced cultural manager.
From 2002 to 2016, she was associated with the New Horizons Festival, serving as its Artistic Director from 2007. She initiated Studio Nowe Horyzonty and Polish Days. Between 2016 and 2020, she was the Programme Director of the Transatlantyk Festival and also created the professional event Lodołamacz.
Before assuming the position of Artistic Director in Gdynia, she headed Gdynia Industry. She is also an expert for the Polish Film Institute (PISF), the Łódź Film Council, and the Mazovia and Warsaw Film Funds.
Luca Chikovani
Songwriter and Actor
Georgia, Italy
Luca Chikovani was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. Due to the post-war situation and civil conflict, he emigrated with his mother to Rome, Italy.
He first gained fame as one of Italy’s early YouTube stars, earning millions of views for his song covers. Later, he signed with Universal Music and released his successful debut EP Start, which reached the Top 3 in Italy. He was discovered by filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher and made his film debut in Happy as Lazzaro, which received critical acclaim and numerous international awards.
In recent years, Luca has been actively involved in humanitarian work in conflict zones. After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, he organized humanitarian missions—first independently, and later in collaboration with large organizations such as Hope Ukraine, the International Red Cross, and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The deteriorating political situation in Georgia led him to activism. He now engages in socio-political initiatives aimed at supporting the younger generation in Georgia and across Europe.
Valeriia Sochyvets
Film Producer and Director. Co-founder of Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema (CUC). Member of the European Film Academy and the Board of the Ukrainian Film Academy
Ukraine
Valeriia Sochyvets is a Ukrainian film producer, director, and co-founder of Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema (CUC). Her films have been screened at international festivals in Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand, Sarajevo, Vilnius, San Sebastián, Palm Springs, and have won over 30 awards. Her key works include La Palisiada (Ukraine’s Oscar submission for 2024), Zarvanytsia, The Glass House, and Blindfold. A graduate of the Karpenko-Karyi National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television, she is an alumna of Berlinale Talents and Sarajevo Talents, and a member of both the Ukrainian and European Film Academies. Valeriia actively supports emerging voices in Ukrainian cinema and develops international co-productions. As a director, she is currently working on her feature debut The Curtain.
Antoine Arjakovsky
Historian. Director of Research at the Collège des Bernardins
France
Antoine Arjakovsky is a French historian and Director of Research at the Collège des Bernardins in Paris. He previously headed the French Institute in Ukraine and served as a cultural attaché for cinema at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He is the author of about twenty books, some translated into Ukrainian, including Ukraine’s Split with Russia (Kharkiv: Vivat, 2022). From 2002 to 2011, he was the founder and director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.
Liubov Yakymchuk
Screenwriter, Poet, and Playwright. Winner of numerous national and international awards
Ukraine
Author of the screenplay for the feature film Slovo House. Unfinished Novel and the documentary Slovo House (co-written with director Taras Tomenko). She is also the author of the poetry collections Apricots of Donbas and Like Fashion, as well as the plays The Wall, written for the Ivan Franko National Drama Theatre in Kyiv, and Schrödinger’s Cat, staged at Vienna’s Volkstheater.
Her performances and collaborations have taken place across Ukraine, the EU, the USA, and India. Her work has been covered by The New York Times, BBC, CBC, and CNN. In 2025, Liubov Yakymchuk received the Ukrainian Film Academy’s Golden Dzyga Award for Best Screenplay, among other distinctions in film and literature.
Documentary Competition Jury
Tor Fosse
Festival Director and Programme Coordinator
Norway
Best known as the Director and Programme Head of the Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF), which he led from its founding in 2000 until stepping down after 24 years of dedicated service. He co-founded the distribution company Arthaus and the Tromsø International Film Festival and has been a key figure in Norway’s film club movement.
In 2019, he received the prestigious Film Club Award from the Norwegian Federation of Film Societies for his commitment to film culture and his outstanding contribution to its development.
Volodymyr Mula
Honored Artist of Ukraine, Emmy Award winner, Film Director, Producer
Ukraine
Volodymyr Mula is a Ukrainian film director and producer from Ivano-Frankivsk region, founder of the production company TeleProstir Studio. He first gained recognition as a sports journalist, covering the FIFA World Cup (2014), the Olympic Games (2016, 2018), and UEFA Euro 2016 for leading Ukrainian and international media outlets such as BBC Ukraine, 1+1, ICTV, and Hromadske TV.
Since 2015, he has focused on documentary filmmaking. He directed American Dream (2016) and American Dream. In Search of Truth (2017). His film UKE (2020), about Ukrainian Stanley Cup champions, became the highest-grossing documentary in Ukraine. He also directed The Nation of Football (2021), dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s national football team.
In 2022, he co-directed the international documentary project Football Must Go On, which won an Emmy Award in 2024.
Yolande Zauberman
Film Director and Screenwriter
France
Born in Paris, Yolande Zauberman began her career in cinema under the mentorship of director Amos Gitai. In 1987, she made her first documentary, Classified People, about apartheid in South Africa, which won numerous awards, including the Grand Prix at the Paris Film Festival. In 1993, she directed her first feature film in Yiddish, I Am Ivan, You Are Abraham, which received several international awards, including the Youth Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Her documentary The Beauty from Gaza was presented in the Panorama section of the SUNNY BUNNY Queer Film Festival 2025 in Kyiv.
Giuseppe Garau
Screenwriter, Director
Italy
Giuseppe Garau is an Italian film director fascinated by the “grammar” of cinema. His artistic voice, shaped by the raw energy of hardcore punk, is marked by audacity and a fearless experimental approach. The international premiere of his debut feature took place at the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival in 2023. The following year, the film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Slamdance Film Festival (2024), affirming him as one of the most distinctive new voices in independent cinema.
H. D. Fernández Molero
Director, Screenwriter, Editor, Producer
Peru
Juan Daniel Fernández Molero (b. 1987) is a Peruvian director, producer, and film editor. He gained recognition for his experimental documentary Reminiscencias (2010), screened at FIDMarseille and in MoMA’s Modern Mondays avant-garde series, and for his post-internet film Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) (2015), which won the Tiger Award at the 44th Rotterdam International Film Festival and was Peru’s official submission for the 89th Academy Awards.
His second feature, The Gate (2025), a hybrid fiction film, premiered in the Forum section of the 75th Berlinale, won the Grand Prix at the 25th New Horizons IFF (Wrocław), and Best Feature Film at the 15th Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival (BIEFF).
As a film editor, he worked on Alba (2016), The Lost Inca Cat (2019), and Wakero (2024); for the latter, he received the Artistic Achievement Award (Best Editing) at the 19th Belo Horizonte International Film Festival.
National Competition Jury
Hala Koziutynska
Director, Film Editor
Ukraine
Hala Koziutynska’s debut documentary Storks Always Return Home received top awards at Ukrainian film festivals Molodist and Wiz-Art, and was screened at numerous international festivals, including Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, Brussels Short Film Festival, and Interfilm ISFF Berlin.
She is the Creative Director of What if creative studio and the founder of the Attic Residency named after Viktor Petrov. She lives in Lviv.
H. D. Fernández Molero
Director, Screenwriter, Editor, Producer
Peru
Juan Daniel Fernández Molero (b. 1987) is a Peruvian director, producer, and film editor. He gained recognition for his experimental documentary Reminiscencias (2010), screened at FIDMarseille and in MoMA’s Modern Mondays avant-garde series, and for his post-internet film Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) (2015), which won the Tiger Award at the 44th Rotterdam International Film Festival and was Peru’s official submission for the 89th Academy Awards.
His second feature, The Gate (2025), a hybrid fiction film, premiered in the Forum section of the 75th Berlinale, won the Grand Prix at the 25th New Horizons IFF (Wrocław), and Best Feature Film at the 15th Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival (BIEFF).
As a film editor, he worked on Alba (2016), The Lost Inca Cat (2019), and Wakero (2024); for the latter, he received the Artistic Achievement Award (Best Editing) at the 19th Belo Horizonte International Film Festival.
Giuseppe Garau
Screenwriter, Director
Italy
Giuseppe Garau is an Italian film director fascinated by the “grammar” of cinema. His artistic voice, shaped by the raw energy of hardcore punk, is marked by audacity and a fearless experimental approach. The international premiere of his debut feature took place at the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival in 2023. The following year, the film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Slamdance Film Festival (2024), affirming him as one of the most distinctive new voices in independent cinema.
The festival is held with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency and theNational Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine.
General Media Partner: 1+1 mediaCoffee Partner: L’or — Infinite Coffee Art
General Technological Partner: Hisense
Lottery Partner: Loto-Zabava, operatorated by M.S.L.
International Institute of Depth Psychology
Film and TV platformKyivstar TV
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Embassies:
Embassy of the Italian Republic
Italian Institute of Culture in Ukraine
Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark
Embassy of Argentina
Embassy of Spain
Embassy of the Hellenic Republic
Embassy of Switzerland
Embassy of Brazil
Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Ukraine
Embassy of Flanders
Polish Institute
Embassy of Sweden
Embassy of Germany
Main Partners:
Goethe-Institute in Ukraine
ILTA Car Center Pechersk
Piraeus Bank
Ukrainian-Danish Youth House
TET TV Channel
Ukrainian natural cosmetics brand Mr. SCRUBBER
Ukrainian Railways
RadioPyatnytsya
Hospitality Partners:
Restaurant of Crimean Tatar cuisine Musafir — a slice of Crimea in the capital
Halushka — network of modern Ukrainian restaurants and cultural centers
Tisto — café and bakery in Podil
Art-gastronomic space at Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Ostannia Barykada
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Hotel Partner: Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv Podil City Centre
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Suspilne Movlennia, Suspilne Kultura, TyKyiv, Focus, LB.ua, hromadske, Espresso, #ProShoKino, Zahin Kinomaniv, DTF Magazine.
