KYIV CRITICS’ WEEK is an international film festival created to introduce Ukrainian viewers to the best new films selected by professional Ukrainian film critics. The festival program includes films from the line-ups of this year’s major world film festivals, as well as films that have had a significant impact on the history of cin-ema or are dedicated to prominent figures of cinema.
After each screening, the audience will have a discussion with a film critic.
CURATORS OF THE 2021 FESTIVAL
Prominent Ukrainian film critics act as curators.-
Daria Badior
Film critic, journalist. Member of FIPRESCI. She was a member of the Ukrainian Oscar Committee in 2016-2018.
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Stanislav Bytiutskyi
Film critic, director. His texts are published in such Ukrainian and foreign media on cinema and culture as SEANS, Colta, LB, Sho, Korydor, and others. Founder of Cineticle, an online magazine about auteur cinema. Curator of the film program “Against Oblivion: Cinema after the War” at the PinchukArtCentre. Film critic at the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Center.
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Serhiy Ksaverov
Film critic, DTF Magazine journalist. Host of the author’s show about movies on “Radio Aristocrats" (2016-2018)
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Anna Datsiuk
Film critic, DTF Magazine journalist. Host of podcasts on “Radio Podil” and the author’s show about movies on “Radio Aristocrats" (2016-2018).
Zhovten Cinema is a cult place for several generations of Kyiv cineastes.
It opened in 1931 as “Deviate Derzhkino” (“Ninth State Cinema”). Over the years, the building has been re-peatedly reconstructed. Not only the technical equipment was updated, but the building itself transformed several times. During the Nazi occupation, the building retained its purpose, only its name was changed to “Gloria”. In 1943, after the liberation of Kyiv, the cinema received its current name.
Initially, the Zhovten cinema planned to show silent films. The opening film – Hegemon – was silent. The largest of its cinema’s screening halls was named after this film. In the last decades of the XX century, the cinema has occupied a special niche in the cinematic space. It has become a hub, where viewers discover the best works of world and Ukrainian cinema, various festival programs, previews, creative meetings and retrospectives.