2005 Molodist Film Festival in Kyiv offers a first: movie deals (11/06/05)

2005 Molodist Film Festival in Kyiv offers a first: movie deals

by Yana Sedova
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - In recent years, the annual Molodist Film Festival in Kyiv has drawn hundreds of film professionals from all over the world to watch new movies and build networks - but do little else.

This year's event, held between October 22 and 30, marked the nascence of a business side to the film festival that may give the boost to the Ukrainian film industry that it desperately needs.

For the first time, the festival launched its "Kinorynok Molodist," a separate, four-day event at Kyiv's Butterfly-Ultramarine Movie Theater, where distributors and producers sold their films and cut business deals.

"We have been dreaming about an international film market for five years, and now we are finally hosting it," said Andrii Khalpakhchi, the general director of Molodist.

Kinorynok (which translates as cinema market) has already begun to open up opportunities in all spheres of the Ukrainian film business, including production, distribution and marketing.

"It is very important for the festival to promote Ukrainian films abroad," Mr. Khalpakhchi said. "We must present the Ukrainian national idea to international viewers."

Two trade organizations, the Association to Assist Film Development in Ukraine and KinoExpo Ukraine, helped the film festival's leaders organize Kinorynok, where 100 movies and 21 owners of film rights from six countries participated.

So far, Ukrainian producers have made deals to collaborate on projects with foreign professionals, said Andrii Rizol, the director of Kinorynok. "We want to revive the market and enable the explosion of the nation's production," he said.

For the first time, Ukrainian distributors signed contracts directly with the owners to the film rights, Mr. Rizol said. In the past, these distributors had little choice but to buy films from Russian distributors in Moscow. These films were dubbed only in Russian.

"We managed to prove that we are not just a secondary market," Mr. Rizol said.

The new opportunity now presents the challenge of dubbing films into the Ukrainian language, which has been done only for films shown on television, but not features released in theaters or the DVD.

The influential Oleksander Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kyiv that used to shoot dozens of movies every year during Soviet times is barely operating. Foreign investors are ready to build a laboratory at Dovzhenko Studio to dub films in Ukrainian or create subtitles, Mr. Khalpakhchi said.

Even though some movies currently have Ukrainian subtitling, all of it is produced in Moscow, he said. "We shouldn't go to Moscow to dub films there," he said.

In the interest of displaying award-winning films for the audience's entertainment, Molodist's directors bought the rights to present the French film "Crustaces et Coquillages" (whose title in Ukrainian is "Pliazh Moresko").

"A French company sold its rights exclusively for Ukraine," Mr. Khalpakhchi said. "Things like that never happened in Soviet times, as everything was distributed in Moscow. And that is what we had until now."

Directors and producers personally represented their movies at the Kinorynok, which were displayed inside a theater. The rare opportunity for Ukrainian filmmakers to present their films to a foreign audience offered the possibility of signing contracts with foreign distributors.

The French film company WIDE and German companies Bavaria Media and Kinowelt International began discussions to acquire the Ukrainian documentary films "The Last Shift" and "The Seventh Day," both produced by Zakryta Zona.

"The Seventh Day" is a documentary dedicated to a significant date of the Orange Revolution, November 28. It will be released in Ukrainian theaters on November 24.

On November 28, Internal Affairs Ministry officers received arms with orders to disperse the rally on the maidan. "We all were a half-step away from civil war that day, when the maidan could have been drowned in blood," said Volodymyr Ariev, a producer with Zakryta Zona. "This is the first Ukrainian political thriller."

Bavaria Media was also interested in another Ukrainian film, "Happy People," by director Oleksander Shapiro, a story about disaffected youths who test each other's limits.

One film still in production has already received proposals from foreign companies for worldwide distribution, said Pavlo Solodko, a representative of Ukrainian company PRE Production. Still unnamed, the film is a love story set against the backdrop of the Orange Revolution.

Foreign distributors attending Kinorynok said the event has potential.

"We are highly satisfied with Kinorynok," said Helge Kyonen, a representative of Bavaria Media. "Our main task was to work directly with Ukrainian distributors. (Ukrainian) companies are very professional and open for negotiation. I want to stress that we saw a civilized market in Ukraine that is functioning and developing according to European standards."

However, some Ukrainian directors are not so optimistic having already convinced themselves that the government is unable to support the Ukrainian film industry, said Oksana Bairak, a Ukrainian director attending the October 28 congress of the Association to Assist Film Development in Ukraine.

The government is required to finance 50 percent of cinema production in Ukraine, according to law. However, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism requires continuous check-ups of the whole production process, including expenditures, if they give money, Ms. Bairak said.

"The government fails to give me enough promised financing, however it then wants to find out where I get the money to finish the shooting of a film," Ms. Bairak said. "This is nonsense!"

Ukrainian directors are willing to work independently of the government, but they demand tax benefits for the film-making industry.

"We do not want to steal anything," Ms. Bairak said. "Just relieve us from 25, 30 or 80 percent of taxes. Only then will national film production come to life."

There is also a model of joint film production between independent producers and the government in other countries, she said. "If the government finances one film at least, we could see how the model works," she said.

This year Molodist received 59 applications, the highest ever, said Mila Novikova, the program director of the festival.

Of the festival's three film categories, Ukrainian films competed only among student films. Five entered and none won.

Two films - "Melodrama" by Polish director Philip Marchevskii and the French-Russian collaboration "Together" by director Nikolai Khomeriki - won as best student films.

Ukraine didn't present nominees for the Debut Full-Length Feature Film and Debut Short Fiction Film.

The Filmmakers Union of Ukraine founded Molodist in 1970; it was the first student film festival on the level of a Soviet republic.

The festival evolved into the Molodist International Film Festival in 1993, when filmmakers were also allowed to debut their films alongside those of students.

The Federation of the International Association of Film Producers (FIAPF) officially registered the festival in 1995.

Among the internationally recognized directors attending this year were Jerzy Hoffman, Kszysztof Zanussi and Roman Polanski of Poland, as well as Ukrainian-born Vadim Perelman, who currently works in Hollywood.

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