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Butterfly Vision producer Darya Bassel and Call Me By Your Name executive producer Naima Abed are among 17 independent producers selected for Ace Animation Special, the animation business programme of European network Ace Producers.

The 17 producers will take part in the workshop from March 19-24 in Dingle, Ireland, in collaboration with the Animation Dingle festival.

Scroll down for the full list of producers

Now in its fifth edition, the workshop aims to show how to diversify business by developing and producing feature and series animation productions, for theatrical, broadcast and streaming release.

Producers will attend with animated features and series projects in early development,...

The event is an important incubator for European arthouse projects.

Feature debuts from Slovakia, Cyprus and Romania are among the 13 projects selected for the 25th anniversary edition of the East-West co-production market connecting cottbus, taking place from November 8-10 in the German town of Cottbus.

The event brings together producers from eastern and western Europe.

Producer Martina Sakova of Bratislava-based What If Films and writer-director Daniel Rihák will be presenting the coming of age comedy My World Upside Down which won the Orka Co-Production Award at last year’s Kids Kino Industry Forum in Warsaw and the PopUp Residency Visegrad...

The 10th anniversary edition of the international co-productiom platform Transilvania Pitch Stop will kicked off at the Transylvania international film festival in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, this week, with ten selected projects in development, coming from first and second- time directors from Romania, Georgia, Greece, Turkey, Hungary Ukraine, Bulgaria and Republic of Moldova, being pitched to producers, distributors, sales agents, representatives of film funds and other industry professionals, followed by one-to-one meetings.

“This year, 45 projects were submitted to Transylvania Pitch Stop and after a very, very long deliberation, our selection committee carefully reviewed and handpicked 10 projects for further consideration”, says Transylvania International festival’s Head of Industry Dumitrana Lupu.

The festival’s main industry event, launched in 2014 as a workshop for up-and-coming directors from Romania and Moldova, is now one of the leading co-production events aiming to foster cross-border cooperation between the Balkans and the countries from across the Black Sea region.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary as part of the industry program of the Transilvania Film Festival, the Transilvania Pitch Stop — one of the leading co-production and co-financing platforms for filmmakers from Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the wider Black Sea region — will showcase 10 projects by first- and second-time directors searching for potential European partners on June 15 in the historic medieval city of Cluj.

The selection, which includes projects from eight countries, is a diverse crop that ranges from intimate personal dramas to stories casting a wider net, capturing their protagonists in the throes of historical forces.

“They are very different this year,” said Dumitrana Lupu, who took over as TIFF’s head of industry in 2022. “We have genre. We have mystery. We have some magical realism.”

For the first time, the organizers selected a documentary to pitch during Tps — “Second Line,” Ukrainian director-producer Olga Stuga’s chronicle of life since the...

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the momentous burst of rebellion against the Iranian regime prompted by the death of Mahsa Amini are reverberating profoundly at the Cannes Film Festival.

At the festival’s opening ceremony on Tuesday night, legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve paid tribute to the war’s victims by reciting a poem from Ukrainian poet Lessia Oukraïnka, solemnly declaring: “I no longer have either happiness or freedom, only one hope remains to me: to return one day to my beautiful Ukraine.” One year ago, Cannes got off to an emotional start with remarks from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

On the industry side, official Russian delegations and companies with ties to the government are again banned from participating in the Cannes Marché du Film. And Iran’s Farabi Film Foundation, the top national film entity which has been attending the market for years, has not been allowed to book a stand,...

This film offers an unsparing view of how PoWs are treated when they return home – but it may not reflect the current mood

Ukrainian film-maker Maksym Nakonechnyi finished war drama Butterfly Vision last February, just days before the Russian invasion. His film tells a fictional story about a shellshocked female Ukrainian soldier held prisoner for two months by Russian-backed separatists in Donbas during the conflict that began in 2014. It’s a tough, unsparing movie, and possibly not the Ukrainian film that anyone wants to watch right now as the country fights for survival. Nakonechnyi’s reflective script, co-written with Iryna Tsilyk, doesn’t have Russia in its crosshairs; instead there are some inconveniently downbeat insights into the divided attitudes the soldier faces when she returns home.

The soldier’s name is Lilya (Rita Burkovska), nicknamed “Butterfly”, an aerial reconnaissance expert who is released in a prisoner swap. We watch her...

Coming Home: Nakonechnyi Explores Collateral Damage in Prescient Drama

While the near decade long conflict between Russian and Ukraine has spilled into full-blown war, a handful of directors have explored the significantly intense ripple effects which defined the era and documented the events leading up to it. Whether it’s the prolific output of Sergei Loznitsa, or last year’s Reflection from Valentyn Vasyanovych and Loup Bureau’s documentary Trenches, the struggle in the Donbas region has been an omnipresent reality, revisited as a straightforward but utterly prescient melodrama from Maksym Nakonechnyi with his directorial debut, Butterfly Vision. A female drone soldier nabbed by Russian separatists at last returns home during one of the customary prisoner exchanges between sides, pregnant by rape and numbed by the additional trauma triggered by her return.…...

“The Days I Would Like to Forget” by Ukrainian film collective Tabor, which picked up the top industry award at international documentary festival Visions du Réel, is a trilogy project that examines the consequences of war.

It is directed by Alina Gorlova, Maksym Nakonechnyi, Simon Mozgovyi and Yelizaveta Smith, who have been working together and documenting the war in their country for close to a decade.

The project is divided into three 70-minute chapters: “Human & War,” which examines the impact of war on everyday life, “Death & Life,” which focuses on the perception of death during the Russian-Ukrainian war, and “Space & Time,” which investigates the link between the war in Ukraine and other parts of the world.

Gorlova, who was in Nyon to pick up the award together with producer Eugene Rachkovsky, told Variety how all four directors started filming the war in the immediate aftermath of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia on Feb.

A group of Ukrainian filmmakers have won the top industry award at Swiss international documentary film festival Visions du Réel with their project “The Days I Would Like to Forget,” divided into three chapters, each of which will explore a different phenomenon of war.

Filmmakers Alina Gorlova, Maksym Nakonechnyi, Simon Mozgovyi and Yelizaveta Smith of independent Ukrainian production company Tabor were awarded the Vision du Sud Est prize, handed out to the best project from the South or Eastern Europe.

Running alongside Visions du Réel, the festival’s industry event brought together some 1,600 professionals from nearly 80 countries, in line with last year’s record numbers.

A total of 31 projects were presented in the key forums – VdR–Pitching, VdR–Work in Progress (Wip) and VdR–Rough Cut Lab, alongside the VdR–Development Lab – that run April 24 through April 27 in Nyon, Switzerland.

Representing her colleague filmmakers who are shooting in Ukraine, Gorlova...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including a Béla Tarr double bill, with new 4K restorations of Damnation and Sátántangó, Léa Mysius’ The Five Devils, Radu Jude’s short The Potemkinists, and Kira Kovalenko’s Unclenching the Fists.

They will also present a series on past Cannes Film Festival selections with films by Abderrahmane Sissako, Alice Rohrwacher, Djibril Diop Mambéty, Jeremy Saulnier, and more. Ana Vaz’s The Age of Stone and most recent work It is Night in America will arrive on the service, plus a Merchant Ivory series.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

May 1 – Blind Spot, directed by Claudia von Alemann | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema

May 2 – Heat and Dust, directed by James Ivory | Gilded Passions: Films by Merchant Ivory

May 3 – Damnation, directed by Béla Tarr | Béla Tarr: A Double Bill

May 4 – The Bostonians, directed by...

Iryna Tsilyk’s documentary offers a female perspective on the war in Ukraine.

Iryna Tsilyk’s Red Zone received a special €20,000 Eurimages development award at Cph:dox, as part of the Cph:Forum industry winners on March 23.

The first-time award was given in support of and solidarity with the Ukrainian film industry, to the best pitch by a Ukrainian film.

It was selected by jurors Emma Scott, head of distribution and short film production at Screen Ireland, plus producers Rikke Tambo Andersen of Tambo Film and Heino Deckert Makri of ma.je.de.

The jurors praised an “innovative look at the inner...

13 projects in development and six works in progress to be presented at festival’s co-production market.

New films from the Czech Republic’s Beata Parkanová and Slovenian director Martin Turk are among the projects in development and works in progress being presented at the 24th edition of the East-West co-production market Connecting Cottbus (coco), which takes place from November 9-11 during Germany’s FilmFestival Cottbus.

Parkanová’s feature project Black Blood, produced by Ondrej Zach of Prague-based Ozet Film, sees her returning to Cottbus after presenting her previous feature The Word as a work in progress at last year’s Connecting Cottbus.

Finland’s leading film festival Love & Anarchy is ready to celebrate its 35th edition, free of Covid restrictions and finally able to focus on the films and the audience, says executive director Anna Möttölä in Helsinki. But it has been a bittersweet time, marked by the loss of Jean-Luc Godard and Lina Wertmüller back in December, whose 1973 film gave the event its name.

While Wertmüller will be celebrated with a screening of “Seven Beauties,” another tragedy is on the team’s mind: the sudden death of Charlbi Dean, the star of Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner – and the festival’s opening film – “Triangle of Sadness.”

“It will be a memorial screening,” says artistic director Pekka Lanerva. Dean’s co-star, Zlatko Burić, is expected to attend.

Anna Möttölä, Pekka Lanerva

“All our thoughts go to her family and to the cast and crew. To have such a promising career,...

New German titles, festival favourites and a Ukrainian competition,

Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness heads the festival favourites that will screen at the 30th anniversary edition of Filmfest Hamburg later this month.

It will be joined by Cannes title Cristian Mungiu’s R.M.N., as well as local Hamburg filmmaker Helena Wittmann’s Human Flowers Of Flesh , Kilian Riedhof’s You Will Not Have My Hate and Ann Oren’s Piaffe, which all premiered at Locarno, and Venice titles Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin, Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, Houman Seyedi’s World War III,...

The first 30 titles in the running for the EFAs have been announced.

The first 30 titles in the running for the 2022 European Film Awards have been revealed with a second wave of titles due to be announced in September.

Scroll down for first selection of films

The titles include Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness, Carla Simón’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras and Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar-winner Belfast. Also selected is Colm Bairéad’s The Quiet Girl, which is Ireland’s submission for the best international feature Oscar.

Further Cannes award winners to make the first...

Wild Bunch racks up deals for territories including UK, France and Japan.

Ukrainian director Maksym Nakonechnyi’s critically praised debut dramatic feature Butterfly Vision has racked up a number of eyecatching sales through Wild Bunch International.

The film, a harrowing drama about a woman returning home from the Ukrainian frontline who discovers she is pregnant, is screening in Sarajevo’s In Focus Programme this week following its world premiere in Un Certain Regard in Cannes in May.

Deals confirmed by Wild Bunch’s head of international sales Eva Diederix include France through Nour Films (releasing October 12) and the UK through Mubi.

It’s possible that the very first casualty of war is not truth, but nuance. Since Maksym Nakonechnyi’s grimly disturbing “Butterfly Vision” was conceived and shot, the protracted Donbas conflict during which it is set has flared into all-out war following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It makes the film’s inclusion in this year’s Un Certain Regard lineup an acutely timely statement. With the Cannes Film Festival, like all fests, under intense scrutiny for what its selections suggest about its political stance, this Ukrainian co-production, with its Ukrainian director, cast and crew, is certainly a boost to its anti-Russia bona fides.

But the film’s actual story — which problematizes any more obviously pertinent narrative of unblemished Ukrainian heroism — presents a far more complex picture. Its perceptive pessimism is to its credit as a film. But such a coldly self-critical assessment of the nation’s internal divisions faces an uncertain short-term future,...

Photo: Is an Award Show an Award Show without A Protest? Writer’s Note: This article talks about sexual assault and the topics of human rights violations. Take care of yourself when reading. Between pregnant models wearing designer clothes and ‘Triangle of Sadness’ winning Palme d’Or, a topless activist ran onto the ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’ red carpet at the Cannes Festival. Across her chest were the words “Stop Raping Us” with the Ukrainian flag colors, bloody handprints on her thighs and underwear, and the word “Scum”, the name of a feminist French activism group, written across her back. As she shouted her complaints, she was removed from the carpet by security. Scum later tweeted that the act was a protest against the Russian forces that are raping dozens of Ukrainian women and girls. Award shows are no stranger to protests. In fact, at the same festival, the...

Though shot and set prior to the Russian invasion, by dint of being a Ukrainian picture detailing the aftermath of a woman soldier’s assault in the Donbas, “Butterfly Vision” lays claim to uniquely wretched timeliness at this year’s Cannes. What is an impressive if formally flawed first film from Maksym Nakonechnyi earns some emotional weight vis-a-vis present events: the Ukrainian flags of blue and white, flown with unsparing pride across Nakonechnyi’s images, bear the immediate frisson of beleaguered resistance, and that women Stateside presently face unprecedented threats to their bodily autonomy only compounds the miserable resonance.

Continue reading ‘Butterfly Vision’: Maksym Nakonechnyi’s Debut Is A Relevant, Resilient Ukrainian Drama [Cannes] at The Playlist.

“The Worst Ones” (“Les Pires”), a drama about four unruly French teenagers who are chosen to act in a film, has won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.

The film was chosen by a jury chaired by actress Valeria Golino and also including director Debra Granik, actors Joanna Kulig and Edgar Ramirez and actor-singer Benjamin Biolay. Acting prizes went to Vicky Krieps for “Corsage” and Adam Bessa for “Harka,” while the directing award went to Alexandru Belc for “Metronomes.”

Saim Sadiq’s “Joyland” won the Jury Prize, which made it runner-up to “The Worst Ones.”

The Un Certain Regard section, which is typically devoted to smaller, more daring films than those in the main competition, consisted of 20 movies this year. Other entries in the section included Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s “War Pony,” Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul,” Maryam Touzani’s “The Blue Caftan,...

Afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here. Cannes is wrapping and we have the very latest from the Croisette, plus a hell of a lot more in this week’s deep dive. Read on.

Au Revoir, Cannes

Cautious optimism: Diana Lodderhose here, back with week two of our Cannes roundup. For most, this year’s festival will be remembered as a hopeful one, filled with optimism for the business in a post-pandemic world. In the run up to the event, a record number of packages were announced – most of which were broken here at Deadline – but deal-making is seemingly not as fast-paced as one might expect, suggesting some cautious optimism amongst buyers. Andreas Wiseman noted in his halfway temperature check of the festival that there are some record-asking prices being offered up for buyers this year, such as a German ask for Lionsgate’s Hunger Games prequel coming in at a whopping 30M.

The major prize-winners at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival have yet to be announced, but there is no question about which film is the most important. “Butterfly Vision” doesn’t just have the distinction of being one of the two Ukrainian productions on display (the other being Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s “Pamfir”), it also tells a story about the effects of warfare both on Ukraine’s soldiers and the citizens who have waited for them back home. It is almost incredible that Maksym Nakonechnyi was able to finish “Butterfly Vision” and to bring it to Cannes, where he made a touching speech about the risk of Ukrainian culture being extinguished. It is even stranger to see a film which is so horrifically timely.

Its heroine is Lilia (Rita Burkovska), a young drone pilot who is nicknamed Butterfly. In the opening scenes, she is handed over to the Ukrainian authorities, having been held...

Arguably the most timely film in Cannes this year, Butterfly Vision will also likely remain one of the least seen, in that it exists overwhelmingly as a marker of a very specific time and place rather than as anything many people might actually choose to watch. Presented in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, this somber and sobering document about Ukraine appears to mix verité-style dramatized scenes with television and other visual material that is never less than tremendously grim. How and by whom it might be shown in the territories where viewers would most appreciate it is unclear; depressing hardly begins to describe it.

Young local filmmaker Maksym Nakonechnyi has been very resourceful in gathering footage that starkly and upsettingly reveals the trauma of recent times; the images are of ruin and disfunction as well as of life continuing in its own fashion.

The central figure is a young aerial...

When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, director Maksym Nakonechnyi – whose debut feature “Butterfly Vision” world premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard – was developing his next film – a comedy about flat-Earth conspiracy under the working title “The Earth Is Flat – I Flew Around It and Saw It.” But he is putting it on the backburner now, he tells Variety, because “this war has already changed everything.”

“I wanted to make something that wouldn’t be directly influenced by the war, but then I understood it would be anyway. When we studied Ukrainian literature back at school, we used to complain about all these depressing, tragic stories. Now, we are bitterly joking that our life is like this 24/7,” he says.

Instead, Nakonechnyi is shooting a documentary for dance music platform Resident Advisor about Ukrainian electronic scene, called “Ukraine Underground,” and developing a short documentary set in the Kyiv Zoo.

“Butterfly Vision...

In what is now the third protest to hit the Cannes red carpet during the festival, a group of Ukrainian filmmakers called out the Russian “genocide” in their country and challenged the world to not look away.

Filmmakers from the movie “Butterfly Vision” on Wednesday on the steps of the Grand Palais theater held a banner that read, “Russians kill Ukrainians. Do you find it offensive and disturbing to talk about this genocide?” Those involved also held up transparent squares in front of their faces that showed the online symbol of an eye with a slash through it, which on social media or the web generally warns of disturbing content that you must opt in to see. The filmmakers also wore T-shirts with the same message during their photocall ahead of the film.

“Butterfly Vision,” which premiered on Wednesday in the Un Certain Regard section and is directed by Maksym Nakonechnyi,...

The Cannes Film Festival has had its third red carpet protest in the space of a week.

On Wednesday, a group of Ukrainian filmmakers from the film Butterfly Vision took part in a demonstration by holding a banner that read: “Russians kill Ukrainians. Do you find it offensive or disturbing to talk about this genocide?”

The participants covered their faces with transparent squares depicting the crossed eye as seen in social media when content is deemed sensitive or disturbing.

The demonstration took place on the steps of the red carpet outside the Palais and follows two other demonstrations in the past week: one against sexual violence towards women in Ukraine, and another against domestic violence in France.

Hard-hitting Ukrainian film Butterfly Vision follows a female soldier who returns home from the front line after being held captive for two months to discover that she is pregnant after being raped by her warden.

With the Cannes Film Festival abuzz ahead of the world premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” a mournful air raid siren sounded over the Croisette on Wednesday afternoon, serving as a somber reminder that the war in Ukraine has entered its fourth brutal month.

In a solemn protest outside the Salle Debussy, just steps from where Tom Hanks, Austin Butler and other stars of the “King of Rock” biopic were set to hit the red carpet at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, the Ukrainian filmmaking team behind Un Certain Regard player “Butterfly Vision” made an impassioned plea that the world remember their country’s suffering.

Standing on the steps of the Palais as the siren wailed – a nod toward the warnings that sound across Ukraine when a Russian attack is imminent – director Maksym Nakonechnyi, producers Darya Bassel and Yelizaveta Smit, and lead actress Rita Burkovska stood side by side with nearly...

As the boundaries in cinema become increasingly fluid, emerging filmmakers whose films have been selected at the Cannes Film Festival have been discussing their journey from documentary to fiction at the Cannes Market’s Cannes Docs sidebar.

Curated by the Documentary Assn. of Europe, the panel on Sunday brought together Ukrainian director Maksym Nakonechnyi, the director of Un Certain Regard title “Butterfly Vision,” and Erige Sehiri (“Railway Men”), the Tunisian director of “Under the Fig Leaves,” which had its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar.

The titles are fiction debuts for Nakonechnyi and Sehiri, who are both experienced documentary filmmakers.

Inspired by the conflict in Ukraine’s Eastern Donbas region that has been ongoing since 2014, “Butterfly Vision” is the story of a young Ukrainian soldier who returns home after being held captive for months and discovers she is pregnant after being raped by her Russian warden.

Nakonechnyi, whose credits...

The festival is aware of the planned protest and is permitting it to take place, including the sirens.

The team behind Un Certain Regard title Butterfly Vision will stage a protest on the red carpet ahead of the film’s premiere tomorrow (Wednesday 25) in the Salle Debussy.

Director Maksym Nakonechnyi, producers Darya Bassel and Yelizaveta Smit, and lead actress Rita Burkovska will take to the steps to the noise of the air raid sirens that sound in Ukraine when a Russian attack is imminent.

These will play in place of the music that typically accompanies Cannes premieres, which is selected by the film team.

Presiding over the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, director Thierry Frémaux has assembled some serious Hollywood star power, world cinema auteurs amid indications that despite Covid, the film world is buzzing with anticipation for the films, the deals and most of all the glamour the fest brings.

While Frémaux has been credited with expanding the horizons of the Cannes Film Festival since taking over the reins of its Official Selection in 2001, he’s also been praised for building relationships with American studios and filmmakers.

This year, he’s lured them back in spite of the ongoing pandemic, with a lineup including James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future,” Joseph Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” Kelly Reichardt’s “Showing Up,” George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing” and Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.”

“My first red carpet was for ‘Moulin Rouge!’ with Baz Luhrmann...

War in Ukraine puts its history and culture in peril. Many showcases and three festival slots are being dedicated to Ukraine movies during this Cannes Film Festival. Readers, prepare yourself for a long blog here, there is so much to be said!

Maksym Nakonechnyi’s drama Butterfly Vision is in Un Certain Regard. Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region began fighting in 2014 and are resurging now as Russia invades. In this story, a female Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance expert returns home to her family after serving in Donbas, where she was captured and held prisoner for months. The trauma of captivity continues to torment her and surface in dreamlike ways, yet she refuses to identify as a victim and fights to liberate herself. Paris-based distribution and production company Nour Films will release it theatrically in France just after Cannes.

‘Butterfly Vision’ by Maksym Nakonechnyi

As a debut feature in Official Selection, Directors’ Fortnight or Critics’ Week, it is eligible for the Caméra d’Or. The film is a coproduction of Kyiv-based production company Tabor, cofounded by Nakonechnyi, Croatia’s 4Films, the Czech Republic’s MasterFilm and Sweden’s Sisyfos. International sales are by Wild Bunch.

‘The Natural History of Destruction’ by Sergey Loznitsa

The Natural History of Destruction, in Special Screenings of Cannes Ff is a documentary based on the book by German writer W.G. Sebald, examining the perception and processing of the phenomenon of mass destruction of the German civilian population in European post-war literature. The film posits the question: is it morally acceptable to use a civilian population as an instrument of war? Director Sergey Loznitsa won the prize for Best Doc last year in Cannes with his incredible deeply moving Babi Yar. Context (Read my blog on it here.) Producer Maria Choustova has worked with Loznitsa on most of his films. This is an international coproduction of Netherlands, Germany and Lithuania. International sales are by Progress Films.

Pamfir will screeen in Directors’ Fortnight. As a first film, it too is eligible for the Camera d’or. A coproduction of Ukraine, France, Poland, Chile and Luxembourg, the Ukranian language film, directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk takes place in Western Ukraine, on the eve of a traditional carnival. Pamfir returns to his family after months of absence. Their love is so unconditional that when his only child starts a fire in the prayer house, Pamfir has no other choice but to reconnect with his troubled past to repair his son’s fault. He will be taken on a risky path with irreversible consequences. International sales are by Indie Sales.

Tallinn Goes to Cannes Works-in-Progress will show works from Ukraine, both in person and online. as announced by Estonia’s premier festival, Tallinn Black Nights, the only A-category film festival in Northern Europe. Also known as Poff, it screens around 200 features with four competitive programs. Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event is the one-week summit for film and audiovisual industry professionals which runs during the festival. Its 21st edition takes place from Nov 18–25 and welcomes projects and participants from around the globe.

Goes to Cannes Works-in-Progress Showcase to be held May 21, 2022, 14:15 - 16:15 GMT+2- Palais K and Online at 14:15 in every time zone will be dedicated to films from Ukraine.

Cannes Docs | Docs-in-Progress > Ukraine Showcase will also be held May 21, 2022, at 10:00 - 11:15 GMT+2 in Palais H.

Cannes Docs 2022 offers an exclusive series of eight showcases of curated docs-in-progress in finalization stage, aiming to hit the circuit within a few weeks or months. These showcases of docs-in-progress are primarily designed for international decision makers looking for fresh new titles – in particular festival programmers and sales agents –, but also generally addressed to any potential gap financing or post-production partner.

Docudays UA, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Institute, presents an exclusive showcase of four creative documentaries on the stage of production and post-production. The section we curated were all started before the current war but each of them was highly impacted by the events that are threatening the existence of our country. These 4 exceptionally cinematic projects present the reality of Ukraine before and during the war.

The Ukrainian Institute is a public institution that promotes Ukrainian culture internationally. Docudays UA is the main Ukrainian documentary international film festival with an annual 20K attendance.

Maksym Nakonechnyi’s first feature revolves around a female Ukrainian soldier returning home after months of being held a prisoner in the Donbas.

Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has acquired world sales on Ukrainian director Maksym Nakonechnyi’s drama Butterfly Vision ahead of its premiere in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The feature has also been acquired by Paris-based distribution and production company Nour Films for theatrical release in France.

Butterfly Vision is Nakonechnyi’s feature directorial debut and as such will also be in the running for the Caméra d’Or covering all the first...

The Ukrainian Institute has issued an official letter to the Cannes Film Festival and French director Michel Hazanavicius asking them to rename his opening night movie “Z (Comme Z),” which the org claims is a pro-war symbol of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In Russia, “Z” is considered a pro-war symbol that has also been used in pro-Russian demonstrations across Europe. The symbol has recently been adopted by some Russian figures taking part in world events, such as gymnast Ivan Kuliak who, while in Qatar for a World Cup event, sported a “Z” on his chest while standing on a podium next to Ukrainian athlete Illia Kovtun. Last week, Lithuania’s parliament voted to ban public displays of the letter “Z” in protest of the ongoing war.

A letter sent to Cannes by the Ukrainian Institute, and seen by Variety, reads: “We consider that changing the title of the opening...

Updated, April 21: The Cannes Film Festival has added competition titles and additional screenings in the Midnight, Un Certain Regard, and Out of Competition sections. They are:

Competition

“The Eight Mountains,” Charlotte Vandermeersch, Felix Van Groeningen

“Un Petit Frère,” Leonor Serraille

“Tourment Sur Les Iles,” Albert Serra

Cannes Premiere

“Don Juan,” Serge Bozon

“La Nuit du 12,” Dominik Moll

“Chronicle of a Temporary Affair,” Emmanuel Mouret

Midnight Screenings

“Rebel,” Adil Arbi, Bilall Fallah

Un Certain Regard

“More Than Ever,” Emily Atef

“Mediterranean Fever,” Maha Haj

“The Blue Caftan,” Maryam Touzani

Out of Competition

“L’Innocent,” Louis Garrel

Special Screenings

“Mi Pais Imaginario,” Patricio Guzmán

“The Vagabonds,” Doroteya Droumeva

“Riposte Feministe,” Marie Perennes, Simon Depardon

“Restos do Vento,” Tiago Guedes

“Little Nicholas,” Amandine Fredon, Benjamin Massoubre

Earlier, April 14: The 2022 Cannes Film Festival is upon us and once again taking place in person this spring from May 17 through May 28. The lineup for...