The Grand Opening of the 12th Children's Film Festival Took Place in Kyiv
The largest children's film festival in Ukraine began with a musical performance by ambassador and singer Svitlana Tarabarova.
On June 13, the 12th Children's Film Festival, the largest Ukrainian film festival for children and teenagers, kicked off. The Oscar Cinema in Kyiv hosted a grand Opening Ceremony with the participation of Svitlana Tarabarova, the Honorary Ambassador of this year's festival, a singer and composer, mother of six-year-old Ivan, four-year-old Maria, and two-year-old Polina. She sang the song "Manifesto" for the Children's Film Festival audience and danced her famous dance "I and You" with the children.
The visitors were greeted by program director Ilya Dyadyk and the mascot Sovenya Charlie. And also, the head of the State Agency of Ukraine for Cinema Andriy Osipov, Hanna Tigipko-Baykovska, founder of the neobank izibank, which this year became a partner of the festival center, and the representative of the cultural department of the Embassy of Germany in Ukraine Hansjörg Deng delivered welcoming speeches. The host of the Ceremony was Natalie Solonik, the host of the project “Closer to the Stars” on the TET TV channel, a mentor of the social project “Make a Dream Come True” from 1+1 Media.
The opening ceremony featured the family comedy film “The Bookwalker” – a film adaptation of the international bestseller, translated into over 30 languages and sold in over half a million copies. The story of a touching friendship between a reclusive bookstore salesman who delivers books to readers every day, and a 9-year-old girl Shasha, who aspires to become his assistant.
In addition to Kyiv, free screenings of the film took place in cinemas in 11 more cities: Lviv, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Dnipro, Lutsk, Odessa, Poltava, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Zaporizhia, and Chernihiv. You can attend the following free screenings of films from the Children's Film Festival program with prior registration, which is ongoing on the festival website.
In addition to the film "The Bookwalker", six new European films have entered the Children's Film Festival International Competition. They will also be shown in cinemas in 12 Ukrainian cities. Also on the big screens will be shown a retrospective program ("Pippi Longstocking" from 1969 - the most famous screen incarnation of the red-haired rebel), a selection of films-finalists of the Children's Film Competition and last year's winner - the adventure comedy "Summer of Surprises".
And on June 21, a selection of works from the Children's Competition will be screened, which includes 19 films, among which the audience and the professional jury consisting of Natalka Vorozhbyt, Marina Koshkina and Valeria Sochyvets will choose the winners. The names of the laureates will be announced on June 22 during the closing ceremony of the 12th Children's Film Festival.
You can also join the festival virtually: in the Children's Film Festival online cinema you can watch a selection of films-finalists of the Children's Film Competition, the Special online program "The Most Valuable Cargo" - a selection of films that explore the most important mission of adults: protecting childhood even in turbulent historical periods.
Children's Film Festival is the largest film festival in Ukraine for children and adolescents, created to educate a new generation of moviegoers in Ukraine, develop family cultural leisure practices and promote the art of cinema. Since its inception in 2014, the event has been visited by almost 300,000 spectators.
The 12th Children's Film Festival takes place from June 13 to 22. All events are free of charge upon registration.
