Director Oleg Sentsov selected as Honorary Chairman of the jury at Stockholm International Film Festival!

On November 18th last year, it was clear that the Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov's film »Rhino« (2021) was the big winner at the Stockholm Film Festival 2021. Since then, he has put down the camera and took up arms to defend his country. As previously announced, Ukraine is the focus country of the year at the Stockholm International Film Festival 2022

The decision to appoint an Honorary Chairman of the jury is to show support for Oleg Sentsov and all other filmmakers who are facing severe risk from carrying out their profession. Sentsov has become a symbol of resistance for political prisoners in Russia, as well as in the rest of the world. The Stockholm International Film Festival assigns Oleg Senstov the role of Honorary Chairman of the Jury.

- "It’s not only about Ukranian culture, it’s also about our identity and how our nation will develop in the future. During the war we can’t await big cultural bursts, it will now mostly focus on documentaries and capturing realism. I’m hopeful and expect a Ukrainian cultural wave after the war where Ukranian culture will bloom and redefine its meaning", says Oleg Sentsov.

Ukraine is not only a country with a rich film history, the country has achieved great international success in recent years and has become one of Europe's most prominent film nations. Therefore, this year we can present with great honor an extensive program with focus on Ukraine.

The festival program includes a total of six Ukrainian films, digital interviews with Ukrainian filmmakers, Work in Progress and a panel discussion. The Stockholm International Film Festival has also developed a distribution fund for Swedish distributors who promote Ukrainian film.

Within the framework of Works in Progress, a collaboration with the Odesa International Film Festival has begun, where 100,000 SEK will be awarded to a winner. The basic idea of the collaboration is to create a platform for Ukrainian filmmakers to present their ongoing projects to the Nordic Film industry.

Among the Ukrainian films that the festival highlights are a spectrum of themes, but perhaps the most eminent are the brutal documentary films.

»A Rising Fury« by Ruslan Batytskyi, Lesya Kalynska (2022) provides a personal overview of the years since the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine in 2013.

»Freedom On Fire« by Evgeny Afineevsky (2022) is probably the most comprehensive visual representation of the invasion.

The films consistently shows the short distance between the camera and the war they depict, for instance Mantas Kvedaravičius film »Mariupolis 2« (2022), who was tragically killed in April during the production of the film.

We also present the brilliant »Klondike« (2022) by Maryna Er Gorbachs, which was awarded at both this year's Sundance Festival and Berlinale and has been chosen as Ukraine's Academy Awards entry this year.

The festival will also show other award-winning and critically acclaimed Ukrainian films:
»The Kyiv Trial« (2022) by Sergey Loznitsa
»How Is Katia?« (2022) by Christina Tynkevych
»Butterfly vision« (2022) by Maksym Nakonechnyi

This year’s focus on Ukraine is made possible with the support of Swedish Institute. We are happy to collaborate with The Ukrainian State Film Agency, Odesa International Film Festival, Ukrainian Film Academy, The Embassy of Ukraine and The Organization of Ukrainian Producers (OUP) as well as Media Resources Management, whom we hereby thank.