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DISTRIBUTION / RELEASES / EXHIBITORS Ukraine

Crew United’s Filmmakers for Ukraine platform launches the Online Charity Screenings

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- The initiative aims to support the country’s film industry and to encourage movie enthusiasts to learn about the history of Ukraine and its people through the art of filmmaking

Crew United’s Filmmakers for Ukraine platform launches the Online Charity Screenings
Some of the films available as part of the Online Charity Screenings

Crew United’s Filmmakers for Ukraine platform will bring Ukrainian films closer to the international audience through the Online Charity Screenings. The initiative, which kicked off on 14 July, aims to support the local film industry and to encourage the international community of movie enthusiasts to learn about the history of Ukraine and its people through the art of filmmaking.

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The screenings come after a few months of intense work carried out by Crew United. Filmmakers for Ukraine was set up during the first few days of the Russian invasion. Together with a team of volunteers from all over Europe – including representatives of professional associations, institutions and the industry – the platform managed to provide Ukrainians in need with useful information and concrete assistance. The project helped people find housing, jobs and the tools they need to carry on.

In early April, Filmmakers for Ukraine published a call to Ukrainian filmmakers, asking them to submit their titles for the Charity Screenings.

The funds collected from the initiative will provide concrete assistance to filmmakers in dramatic or life-threatening situations. On this occasion, Filmmakers for Ukraine has partnered with Pantaflix, a German VoD service that previously served as an online platform for several international film festivals, such as DOK.fest Munich and the Filmfest Oldenburg. All funds will be administered by the newly founded NGO Filmmakers for Refugees, and a committee of international film professionals will be in charge of allocating the donations.

The effort has received the endorsement of Polish director and European Film Academy president Agnieszka Holland: “We want to understand what’s going on in Ukraine, and cinema is very helpful because it opens doors to a deeper knowledge and emotional experience. So, watching Ukrainian cinema on the Filmmakers for Ukraine charity screening platform is a win-win situation: you can watch wonderful films and support Ukrainian filmmakers. They need to be seen and supported, and this is an opportunity [for them] to continue their work.”

Danish filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont’s award-winning documentary The Distant Barking of Dogs [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(2017) opens the programme. The selection of online screenings available on the platform includes films by established directors as well as gems helmed by the latest generation of filmmakers and international titles that show Ukraine from the perspective of a foreign observer. The first titles to be announced are Andrew Liulko’s Not Now (2020), Daria Onyshchenko’s The Forgotten (2019), Marina Stepanska’s Falling [+see also:
trailer
interview: Marina Stepanska
film profile
]
(2017), Oleg Chorny’s The Rain Project (2016), and Jan Hinrik Drevs and René Harder’s Mr Pilipenko and His Submarine (2006). New films will be added every week.

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