Mykolaychuk OPEN 2025 Festival announces winning films

The fourth international festival of audience cinema Mykolaychuk OPEN named the winners of the competition programs. The winners of the festival were determined by audience voting. Also, separate awards were provided by the festival partners — AMO Pictures, Space Production, Kyivstar TV and Syndicate Kyiv. We remind you that 1+1 media is the general media partner of the event.

The national short film competition featured 23 films dedicated to the themes of war, love, home and the search for a form of expression. The winners were distributed as follows:

— The prize for the most original expression, the New Vision Award from Syndicate Kyiv ($500), went to the film “Territory of Childhood” by Marina Shkrabalyuk. This is the story of a 15-year-old teenager Zhenya, who helps his younger brother look for a dog, but their adventures will have unexpected consequences.

— The Kyivstar TV Intersectional Prize for Best Script ($500) went to the film from the non-competitive program “The Crime of Actress Maryskina” by Darya Dolesko. This is a topical satire on Ukrainian theater and the situation of actors.

— The Space Production Prize for Best Direction ($500) went to the film “Teach Us to Fly” by Liliya Syvytska. This is a film about a young Ukrainian photographer Maria, who rethinks her purpose in wartime Kyiv after the de-occupation of the region.

— AMO Pictures Production chose its winner, who received $500 and a statuette – “Blueberry Summer” by Masha Kondakova. The short film tells the story of a girl Ksyusha, who picks blueberries in a forest that has undergone changes due to the war.

— The winner of the national competition, which was chosen by audience vote, was the film “The Last (Extreme) Take” by Oleg Kibalnyk. This is the director’s second victory at the festival. The film, which tells the story of how Oleg worked as a firecracker on a film set, brought the author a prize of $1,000 and the “Iron Mykolaychuk” statuette.

8 feature films from Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Vietnam, France, Tunisia and Germany competed in the international competition.

— The winner of the international feature-length competition was the film “Waves” by Jiri Madla. This is the second Czech film of all time and the Czech candidate for the Oscar. The historical drama with elements of a thriller tells about the work of a radio station, which was a real nightmare for the communist government of Czechoslovakia, and the events of the Prague Spring, when Soviet troops invaded the country. The director recorded a video message in which he assured that Ukraine has friends in the Czech Republic, and concluded his speech with the call “Glory to Ukraine!” The screening was held with the support of the Czech Center in Kyiv.

— Second place (Special Honorable Mention) went to the film “Red Path” by Lotfi Ashura. This is a tense drama that tells the story of an event that shocked Tunisia in 2015.

During the award ceremony, an animation created as part of the Mykolaychuk Kids program was presented. The workshop for children was held by the founder of the First Professional School of Sand Animation, Oksana Mergut. The eight-day festival was closed by the Ukrainian adventure story “Troye” by Ivan Kravchyshyn — about the Makhnovists who robbed the Bolsheviks. The film will be released in Ukrainian cinemas on August 21.

Let us recall that the official award of the film festival was called “Iron Mykolaychuk”. The design of the award is inspired by the role of filmmaker Ivan Mykolaychuk in the Ukrainian film “The Lost Diploma” directed by Borys Ivchenko in 1972. This is the third time that the statuettes are being created by masters Dmitry Shiyanov and Yevhen Sopko from Hisoshi Art Studio.

This year, the Mykolaychuk OPEN festival showed 70 short and full-length films and held the Mykolaychuk Kids section for the first time, which was visited by over 1,200 children. During the festival, a scanned and previously unavailable film based on the script by Ivan Mykolaychuk “And in the Sounds Memory Will Respond…” was shown, and Ukrainian premieres of Ari Aster’s films “Eddington”, Sarah Jessica Parker’s production project with Alexander Teren “The Front Row” and other films were held.