Cinema of Ukraine

Cinema of Ukraine
No. of screens2,332 (2011)[1]
 • Per capita5.6 per 100,000 (2011)[1]
Main distributorsB And H 20.0%
Gemini Film 11.0%
Kinomania 7.0%[2]
Produced feature films (2009)[3]
Fictional10
Animated2
Documentary7
Number of admissions (2018)[4]
Total14,995,200
National films448,400 (3.0%)
Gross box office (2011)[4]
Total₴345 million (~€10.6 million)
National films₴4.62 million (~€142,000) (1.3%)
Political map of Ukraine, with main cities

Ukrainian cinema comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of Ukraine and also by Ukrainian film makers abroad.

Despite a history of important and successful productions, the industry has often been characterized by a debate about its identity, the level of Russian and European influence.[5] Ukrainian producers are active in international co-productions, while Ukrainian actors, directors and crew feature regularly in Russian (and formerly Soviet) films. Successful films have been based on Ukrainian people, stories or events, including Battleship Potemkin, Man with a Movie Camera, and Everything Is Illuminated.

The Ukrainian State Film Agency owns National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Centre, film copying laboratory and archive, and takes part in hosting of the Odesa International Film Festival. Another festival, Molodist in Kyiv, is the only FIAPF accredited International Film Festival held in Ukraine; the competition program has sections for student films, first short films, and first full feature films from all over the world. It is held during the month of October every year.

Ukraine has had an influence on the history of the cinema. Ukrainian directors Alexander Dovzhenko, often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, as well as being a pioneer of Soviet montage theory, Dovzhenko Film Studios, and Sergei Parajanov, Armenian film director and artist who made significant contributions to Ukrainian, Armenian and Georgian cinema. He invented his own cinematic style, Ukrainian poetic cinema, which was totally out of step with the guiding principles of socialist realism.

Filmmaker Kira Muratova

Other important directors including Kira Muratova, Sergei Loznitsa, Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi, Larisa Shepitko, Sergei Bondarchuk, Leonid Bykov, Yuri Ilyenko, Leonid Osyka, Ihor Podolchak with his Delirium and Maryna Vroda. Many Ukrainian actors have achieved international fame and critical success, including: Vera Kholodnaya, Bohdan Stupka, Eugene Hütz, Milla Jovovich, Olga Kurylenko, Mila Kunis, Mark Ivanir.

On 10 March 2024, creators of a documentary film 20 Days in Mariupol were awarded with the Oscar in the category "Best Documentary Feature Film", the first Oscar in Ukraine's history.[6]

History of the cinema in Ukraine

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Main article: Ukrainian cinema since independence
The Ukrainian flag
Kyiv movie theatre.

On the territory of Odesa Film Studio, there is a Museum of the Cinema, in which you can discover many interesting facts on the history of the cinema in general and history of Ukrainian cinema as a part. Here you can find historic materials, from the invention of cinema, to the postmodern, digital and avant-garde.

Films of Ukrainian SSR by ticket sales

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Ukrainian title English title Year Tickets sold (millions)
НП – Надзвичайна пригода E.A. — Extraordinary Accident 1959 47.5
У бій ідуть лише «старі» Only Old Men Are Going to Battle 1973 44.3
Вдалечінь від батьківщини Far from the Motherland 1960 42.0
Доля Марини Marina's Destiny 1954 37.9
Подвиг розвідника Secret Agent 1947 22.73

Notable film directors and actors

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Prominent Ukrainian directors include Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Dziga Vertov and Serhiy Paradzhanov. Dovzhenko is often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers,[7][8] as well as being a pioneer of Soviet montage theory and founding Dovzhenko Film Studios. In 1927, Dziga Vertov moved from Moscow to Ukraine. At the film studio VUFKU he made several avant-garde documentaries, among them The Eleventh Year, Man with a Movie Camera and first Ukrainian documentary sound film Enthusiasm (Symphony of the Donbass). Paradzhanov was an Armenian film director and artist who made significant contributions to Ukrainian, Armenian and Georgian cinema; he invented his own cinematic style, Ukrainian poetic cinema,[8] which was totally out of step with the guiding principles of socialist realism. Many actors of Ukrainian origin have achieved international fame and critical success, including Vira Kholodna, Bohdan Stupka, Sergei Makovetsky, Mike Mazurki, Natalie Wood, Danny Kaye, Jack Palance, Milla Jovovich, Olga Kurylenko and Mila Kunis.

Government and civil bodies concerned

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This sphere is administrated by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Association of Cinematographers.

The central executive body of cinematography in Ukraine is the Ukrainian State Film Agency (USFA). Together with the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, it is the largest investor in Ukrainian cinema and as of 2019 each of these institutions is investing about ₴500 million in Ukrainian film production.

Film studios

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Central entrance to Dovzhenko Film Studios.
Exterior of the Odesa Film Studio

State owned

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Privately owned

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  • Animagrad (Kyiv)
  • Film Service Illuminator
  • Film.UA[10] (Kyiv)
  • Fresh Production
  • Halychyna-Film Film Studio (Lviv)
  • Interfilm Production Studio
  • Kinofabryka
  • Odesa Animation Studio (Odesa)
  • Panama Grand Prix (Kyiv)
  • Patriot Film
  • Pronto Film (Kyiv)
  • TUARON[11][12]
  • Star Media
  • Studio KAPI[13]
  • Yalta-Film Film Studio[14] (Yalta)

Film distribution

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B&H Film Distribution Company is a major Ukrainian film distributor; it is the local distributor of films by Walt Disney Pictures, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment (Columbia Pictures).[15]

Ukrainian Film Distribution (formerly Gemini Ukraine) is the local distributor of films by 20th Century Fox (Fox Searchlight Pictures, Blue Sky Studios).[15]

VLG.FILM (formerly Volga Ukraine) is the local distributor of films by Miramax, StudioCanal, STX Entertainment, A24, Lionsgate, Focus Features International, EuropaCorp, Pathé Exchange, Kinology, Affinity Equity Partners, Exclusive Media Group, TF1 and others.

Kinomania is the local distributor of films by Warner Brothers (New Line Cinema).[15]

Short films, festival winners and art house are mostly distributed by Arthouse traffic.[16]

The newest website database system for the artists is the Ukrainian Film Industry Foundation

Festivals

[edit]
Odesa Film Festival Grand Prix

Awards

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Current awards

[edit]
The Shevchenko National Prize for performing acts

In 1987, Ukrainian engineer and animator Eugene Mamut together with three colleagues won the Oscar (Scientific and Engineering Award) for the design and development of RGA / Oxberry Compu-Quad Special Effects Optical Printer for the movie Predator.

In 2006, Ukrainian engineer and inventor Anatoliy Kokush was awarded two Oscars for the concept and development of the Ukrainian Arm gyro-stabilized camera crane and the Flight Head.

Former awards

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Notable films

[edit]
Main article: List of Ukrainian films

Top awards

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Award Category Film title Year Director
Oscar Best Documentary Feature Film 20 Days in Mariupol 2024 Mstyslav Chernov
Palme d'Or Short Film The Cross (Cross-country) 2011 Maryna Vroda
Palme d'Or Short Film Podorozhni (Wayfarers) 2005 Ihor Strembitskyi
Jury Prize Silver Bear at Berlinale Short Film Ishov tramvai N°9 (The Tram Was Going, Number Nine) 2003 Stepan Koval
Panorama Award of the NYFA at Berlinale Short Film Tyr (Shooting Gallery) 2001 Taras Tomenko
FIPRESCI Prize FIPRESCI Award Lebedyne Ozero - Zona (Swan Lake. The Zone) 1990 Yuriy Illienko
Award of the Youth at Cannes Film Festival Foreign Film Lebedyne Ozero - Zona (Swan Lake. The Zone) 1990 Yuriy Illienko

Film dubbing or subtitling in Ukrainian

[edit]

Film dubbing or subtitling in Ukrainian refers to the dubbing or subtitles of video products (movies, TV series, video games, etc.) in Ukrainian.

In 2010, one third of all films in Ukraine were Russian language subbed.[39] In 2019, a law was passed by the Ukrainian parliament assuring that all movies have dubbing or subtitles in the Ukrainian language.[40][41] In 2021, Netflix released their first feature film with Ukrainian dubbing.[42][43] Only 11% of Ukrainians oppose dubbing in films.[44]

Ukrainian dubbing actors

[edit]

Since the founding of a Ukrainian dubbing in 2006 there was many recognizable voice actors dubbing Ukrainian, among which the most famous are Eugene Maluha (known as the voice of the Ukrainian Alfa from the same cult series) and Yuri Kovalenko (known as Ukrainian cheesecakes voice in the movie Cars - first full-length animated film-blockbuster, which was shown in Ukrainian cinemas with Ukrainian dubbing).

Ukrainian show business stars are also actively involved in dubbing in Ukrainian. A number of famous singers, including Oleg Skrypka and Ani Lorak, took part in the dubbing of the animated film Carlson, who lives on the roof (2002) . A number of celebrities worked on the cartoon Terkel and Khalepa (2004): Potap, Oleg Skrypka, Fagot and Fozzy (TNMK band), Foma (Mandry band), Vadim Krasnooky (Mad Heads band), Katya Chilly, Vitaliy Kozlovsky, Lilu, Vasya Gontarsky ("Vasya Club"), DJ Romeo and Stepan Kazanin (Quarter-95). In the cartoon Horton (2008) you can hear the voices of showmen Pavel Shilko (DJ Pasha) and Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Quarter-9); Zelenskyy himself contributed to the Ukrainian dubs of Paddington and Paddington 2 among other acting appearances prior to his presidential career.[45] The main characters of the film "13th District: Ultimatum" (2009) in the Ukrainian box office spoke in the voices of Yevhen Koshov (Quarter-95) and Andriy Khlyvnyuk (soloist of the group "Boombox").

Actors

[edit]
World famous actors and actresses related to Ukrainians or Ukraine

Ukrainian actors

[edit]

Ukrainian diaspora actors

[edit]

Immigrants from Ukraine were the parents or grandparents of Serge Gainsbourg, Leonard Nimoy, Vera Farmiga, Taissa Farmiga, Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, Sylvester Stallone, Kirk Douglas, Leonardo DiCaprio, Winona Ryder, Whoopi Goldberg, Edward Dmytryk, Lenny Kravitz and Zoë Kravitz, illusionist David Copperfield, animator Bill Tytla.

Directors

[edit]
Serhii Bondarchuk, Kira Muratova, Anatole Litvak, Alexander Dovzhenko, Dziga Vertov, Sergei Parajanov, Ihor Podolchak, Yuri Ilyenko, Mykhailo Ilyenko

Ukrainian directors

[edit]

Non-Ukrainian origin directors

[edit]

Further reading

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  • Joshua First: Ukrainian Cinema: Belonging and Identity during the Soviet Thaw (KINO - The Russian and Soviet Cinema), London: Bloomsbury Academic 2023

See also

[edit]
Part of a series on
Ukrainians
Culture
Languages and dialects
Religion
Sub-national groups
Closely-related peoples

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Table 8: Cinema Infrastructure - Capacity". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  2. ^ "Table 6: Share of Top 3 distributors (Excel)". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 17 January 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  3. ^ "Table 1: Feature Film Production - Genre/Method of Shooting". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  4. ^ a b "Table 11: Exhibition - Admissions & Gross Box Office (GBO)". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  5. ^ Shevchuk, Yuri (2014). Linguistic Strategies of Imperial Appropriation: Why Ukraine is absent from world film history. Ch. 22 of Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, ed. Larissa M. L. Zaleska Onyshkevych & Maria G. Rewakowicz. Routledge. pp. 359–374. ISBN 9781317473787.
  6. ^ "'20 Days in Mariupol' wins best documentary Oscar, a first for AP and PBS' 'Frontline'". AP News. 11 March 2024.
  7. ^ Ivan Katchanovski; Zenon E. Kohut; Bohdan Y. Nebesio; Myroslav Yurkevich (2013). "Film" entry in Historical Dictionary of Ukraine. Scarecrow Press. p. 174. ISBN 9780810878471.
  8. ^ a b "Capturing the Marvelous: Ukrainian poetic cinema". Film Society of Lincoln Center. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  9. ^ Website of Yalta Film Studio (in Russian)
  10. ^ Website of Film.UA Archived 2011-12-24 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Замок, Високий (2023-08-31). ""Фільмів не знімаємо, конкурсів не проводимо. Ми шукаємо таланти і ведемо їх на Олімп" — Високий Замок". wz.lviv.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2023-12-08.
  12. ^ Замок, Високий (2023-08-11). "Кіновиробник Туарон здобули премію за кращий ігровий короткометражний фільм "Бог простить" — Високий Замок". wz.lviv.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2023-12-08.
  13. ^ "About Us". kapianimation.com. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  14. ^ Website of Yalta-Film Archived 2010-08-03 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)
  15. ^ a b c Film distribution: who brings movies to Ukraine Archived 2011-08-29 at the Wayback Machine (in Ukrainian)
  16. ^ About Arthouse Traffic
  17. ^ "50th Molodist KIFF | Київський міжнародний кінофестиваль". Кінофестиваль Молодість (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  18. ^ "KIFF official website". Archived from the original on 2011-11-28. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
  19. ^ KISFF official website
  20. ^ Official website
  21. ^ "МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ФЕСТИВАЛЬ АНИМАЦИОННЫХ ФИЛЬМОВ КРОК". www.krokfestival.com. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  22. ^ Pokrov film festival official website Archived 2011-12-08 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ [1] Archived 2008-07-15 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ "Харьковская сирень". sirenfest.net.ua. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  25. ^ Wiz Art Archived 2011-09-05 at the Wayback Machine
  26. ^ "vaufest.com.ua". vaufest.com.ua. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  27. ^ Kinofront Archived 2011-12-14 at the Wayback Machine
  28. ^ Docudays UA Archived 2011-11-25 at the Wayback Machine
  29. ^ "Компания "BMKF.Service". Ремонт компрессоров, комплектующие, расходные | Производство. Технологии. Инновации" (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  30. ^ "Ирпенский кинофестиваль". www.g-2b.com. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  31. ^ Golden Pektorale Archived 2011-12-04 at the Wayback Machine
  32. ^ "Crown of Carpathians". Archived from the original on 2018-09-04. Retrieved 2016-01-02.
  33. ^ Encyclopedia of Homeland Cinema Archived 2011-01-07 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)
  34. ^ "Stozhary film festival official page". Archived from the original on 2020-11-26. Retrieved 2016-01-02.
  35. ^ Sebastopol film festival official website Archived 2012-04-09 at the Wayback Machine
  36. ^ Regulations for Molodist festival Archived 2010-08-24 at the Wayback Machine (in Ukrainian)
  37. ^ Awards and Jury of OIFF (in English)
  38. ^ Dovgan, Ulyana (2017-05-05). "The First Annual Golden Dziga". Odessa Review. Retrieved 2021-02-28.
  39. ^ "Сьогодні кожний третій фільм йде російською. Азаров вимагає негайно покінчити з україномовним дубляжем". Українська правда - Блоги. Retrieved 2021-02-28.
  40. ^ "Ukraine's New Language Law, Explained". en.hromadske.ua. Retrieved 2022-01-15.
  41. ^ "Term On Broadcasting Movies In Ukrainian Language Takes Effect". ukranews_com. 2021-07-16. Retrieved 2022-01-15.
  42. ^ "Netflix releases first feature film with Ukrainian dubbing - KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice". KyivPost. 2021-01-20. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
  43. ^ "Dubbing in Ukrainian to become available to Netflix users". www.unian.info. Retrieved 2022-01-15.
  44. ^ "Лише 11% українців проти дублювання фільмів українською мовою » Новини шоу-бізнесу » Новинар". 2009-08-02. Archived from the original on 2 August 2009. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  45. ^ Trepany, Charles (4 March 2022). ""Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy won 'DWTS,' voiced 'Paddington' before becoming president"". USA Today. Archived from the original on 25 March 2022.
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