Location Odessa (Ukraine) | Founded 2010 | |
 | ||
Opening film "The Artist" (Dir. Michel Hazanavicius), France Closing film "Brothel Lights" (Dir.Aleksandr Gordon), Russia Awards Grand Prix "The Golden Duke" - "Tomboy" (Dir. Céline Sciamma), France No. of films 14 (in Competition), 57 (out of competition) | ||
The second Odessa International Film Festival (Ukrainian: Одеський міжнародний кінофестиваль) took place in Odessa (Ukraine) from 15 to 23 July 2011.
Contents
71 films were screened at the festival, and the total number of audience members was tallied at over 70 thousand. Over 5 thousand guests were accredited at the festival along with over 450 journalists and other members of the press from Ukraine, Russia, Germany, the United States, Romania, Italy and other countries. A total of 175 hotel rooms were reserved for the guests of the festival in 5 central Odessa hotels. The opening ceremonies, which were broadcast live by the Ukrainian TV channel “Inter”, were watched by over 2 million viewers. In addition, nearly 7 thousand followed the online broadcasts of the festival through the official Festival site.
14 new films from France, the UK, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Italy, Bulgaria, Russia, Israel, and Uruguay were part of the competition. The international film Jury was headed by the well-known Polish actor and rector of the Kraków Film Academy Jerzy Stuhr, who has a bond with Odessa with his role in Juliusz Machulski’s film “Dejа Vu” filmed in 1988.
A list of guests of the festival included Hollywood star John Malkovich, directors Nikita Mihalkov, Otar Iosseliani, Vadim Perelman, Sergei Solovyov, Nana Jorjadze, Yuri Kara, Alexander Mitta, Valery Todorovsky, Fyodor Bondarchuk, actors Bogdan Stupka, Maria de Medeiros, Ada Rogovtseva, Gosha Kutsenko, Dmitriy Dyuzhev, and others. At the Opening ceremony in the Odessa Opera Theater, an honored guest of the festival – John Malkovich, awarded a special prize, the “Crystal Crystal” to his Russian colleague Nikita Mihalkov. This prize was awarded for input into the cinematographic development of Odessa. Weeks earlier, Mihakov presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Malkovich at the Moscow Film Festival.
The opening film of the Festival was Michel Hazanavicius’s “The Artist” which received the award for the best male role at Cannes Film Festival-2011. The closing ceremony served as the venue for the world premiere of Alexander Gordon’s Russian film “Brothel Lights.” This film was filmed in Odessa.
The festival employed three main screening venues. “Rodina” movie theater served as the festival center and two more theaters were added for afternoon and evening screenings – “Cinema City” and “U-cinema.” The “Cinema-City” venue also became the place for the “film-market.” At the other end of the downtown area, “U-cinema” theatre at the Odessa Film Studio once again served as the central location for the “Summer Film School.” Master classes this year were taught by many guests of the festival including John Malkovich, Otar Iosseliani, Vadim Perelman, Sergei Solovyov, Nana Jorjadze, Alexander Mitta, Valeriy Todorovskiy, Jerzy Stuhr, Maria de Medeiros, American screen-writing and directing consultant Mark Travis, and others. In the second year of the festival, a project called “Screen-writers Workshop” was added to the Summer Film School. This project included intensive and highly personalized seminars for a select group of screenwriters whose works were selected in a screen-play contest. The second Odessa Film Festival also included two new professionally geared events – The Film-market and the pitching of film projects.
The Grand Prix of the festival went to the French Film -"Tomboy" written and directed by Celine Sciamma. At the closing ceremony, The Golden Duke statue was accepted on behalf of the filmmaker by Sophie Cattani who played one of the lead roles in the film.
On the very last day of the festival it received the great honor of being recognized by a well-known, international journalistic association – the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) who are responsible for awarding the Golden Globes. Hollywood Foreign Press member Gabriel Lerman presented the festival with a sign of this recognition.
Jury
Main Jury of the Odessa Film Festival:
Jerzy Stuhr – Jury chairman, actor, director, Poland
Maria de Medeiros – actress, director, singer, Portugal
Ada Rogovtseva - actress, Ukraine
Valery Todorovsky – Director, producer, Russia
Klaus Eder – Film critic, Germany
International Federation of Film societes Jury:
Andrey Alferov, Ukraine
João Paulo Macedo, Portugal
Raivo Olmet, Estonia
Ukrainian Laboratory Jury:
Nana Dzhordzhadze, director, Georgia
Virginie Devesa, producer, France
Sergey Chliyants, producer, Russia
Dmytro Sholudko, Head of Board of Directors, Odessa Cognac Factory (Shustov TM), Ukraine
Jury of Ukrainian critics:
Alex Pershko - editor in chief of cinema portal kino-teatr.ua, Ukraine;
Irina Gordeychuk - film critic and television presenter, Ukraine;
Valery Baranovsky - film expert, member of the Odessa branch of the National Union of Cinematographers, Ukraine.
Jury of projects pitching:
Katerina Kopylova – The head of the state film agency, Ukraine
Vadim Perelman - film director, US
Vladimir Voitenko - film critic and broadcaster, Ukraine
Simone Baumann - film expert from German Films agency, German
Vlad Ryashin - producer, Ukraine
Waldemar Dziki - producer, Poland
Valery Kodetsky - CEO of UDP company, Ukraine
Competitive Program
Competition program Odessa IFF 2011
Non-competitive program
The non-competitive program included a line-up of favorites from the year’s world festival circuit – the Festival of festivals, a retrospective of Monty Python, two retrospectives – “Made in Odessa” and “Ukrainian Comedies” as well as two national programs – “The French Panorama” and “New Russian cinema.”
Special Screenings included the CIS premiere of Sebastian Dehnhardt’s documentary film “Klitschko,” Lars Von Trier’s “Melancholia”, Wim Wenders’s “Pina,” and Tom Hanks’s “Larry Crown”. Ukrainian premieres included "Le Havre" (Dir.Aki Kaurismaki), "Three"(Dir.Tom Tykwer), "Life in a Day" (Dir.Kevin Macdonald), "Habemus Papam" (Dir.Nanni Moretti), "Distant Neighbourhood" (Dir.Sam Garbarski)
Special Events
For the first time, the festival program was enriched with a new event called “KINO_LIVE,” - a series of film-concerts held in an outdoor venue. In this new screening space – the steps of the Langeronovskiy Descent, masterworks of film were presented with live musical accompaniment. Such works included the films of Georges Melies, which were presented to the audiences by the filmmaker’s great granddaughter and great great grandson. Esteban Sapir’s Avant-garde Argentinean film “Antenna” was screened accompanied by the Ukrainian rock group – “Еsthetic Education”.
As it was with the first Odessa Film Festival, one of the most awe-inspiring events of the week was the outdoor screening on the Potemkin Stairs. On the 16th of July, this famous staircase became a theater for over two thousand viewers who gathered together to watch Fritz Lang’s 1927 classic “Metropolis” with the accompaniment of a full symphonic orchestra.
Winners
Winners of the 2nd Odessa International Film Festival-2010
On 23 July 2011, at the closing ceremony in the Opera House, the jury announced the winners of the 2nd Odessa International Film Festival:
Grand Prix of the Festival - Best film - "Tomboy" (Dir. Céline Sciamma, France);
Best Director - Olias Barco, author of the film "Kill me please", Belgium);
Best Acting – Keren Berger, the leading actor in the movie "2 Night" (Dir.Roi Werner), Israel);
Special Jury Mention - "Shelter" / "Podslon", (Dir. Dragomir Sholev, Bulgaria);
Special Jury Mention – "A Useful Life" / "La vida útil", (Dir.Federico Vejroj, Uruguay, Spain);
Audience Award – "Almanya – Welcome to Germany" / "Almanya - Willkommen in Deutschland", (Dir.Yasemin Samdereli, Germany).
Parallel Jury Prizes:
“Don Quixote” Prize of the International Federation of film Societies - -"Tomboy" (Dir. Céline Sciamma, France);
Special Prize of the International Federation of Film Societies - "Lapland Odyssey" / "Napapiirin sankarit",(Dir. Dome Karukoski, Finland, Iceland, Sweden);
A prize of national judge of film critics for the best film of festival from National Union of Ukrainian cinematography – "Kill me please", (Dir.Olias Barco, Belgium);
“Nickolay Shustov” Prize for the best Ukrainian film awarded by the “Ukrainian Laboratory” Jury-"Dog Waltz" (Dir.Taras Tkachenko, Ukraine) from the anthology "Lovers in Kiev".
Pitching Jury Prize in the amount of 25,000 UA Grivnas - "Outsider" (Dir.Vera Yakovenko, Ukraine);