News

Animagrad Studio, the Ukrainian animation powerhouse behind the global hit “Mavka. The Forest Song,” has unveiled the first teaser for its latest project, “Family Squad,” Ukraine’s first satirical animated feature.

This 2D animated dramedy, aimed at young adult audiences, marks a collaboration with acclaimed Ukrainian filmmaker Antonio Lukich.

The teaser introduces viewers to the film’s protagonist, Serhii Punko, a 30-year-old misfit whose life takes an unexpected turn when a celestial mix-up by Miki, a feline angel of death, sends him to heaven. Serhii’s journey back to the land of the living leads him to the frontlines and the Chop Pirates, a group of former smugglers from Transcarpathia. The story promises a blend of love, betrayal and self-discovery.

Originally conceived as the YouTube project “Nasha Faita,” creators Mykhailo Krapenko, Pavlo Mandzych, and Ivan Bon are making their feature animation debut with “Family Squad.” Lukich serves as creative producer...

The team behind the Ukrainian hit animated feature “Mavka. The Forest Song” is partnering with “Luxembourg, Luxembourg” filmmaker Antonio Lukich to launch Ukraine’s first satirical animated feature, the filmmakers announced during the Annecy Animation Festival.

Produced by Animagrad Studio and Telescope Animation, “Family Squad” is billed as a life-affirming dramedy pitched at young adults. It follows Serhii Punko, a lonely gas station attendant whose life takes an unexpected turn when he finds himself in heaven after a mistake by the angel of death.

Granted a second chance at life, Serhii must return to Earth and find at least one person who needs him. With no one to turn to, he sets out in search of the father he never met, making friends and saving a child’s life along the way.

Animagrad Studio is the production outfit behind the wildly successful animated feature “Mavka. The Forest Song,” which has...

The Berlin Film Festival, which runs Feb. 15-25, has revealed the lineup of its Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Producers of 34 film projects from 27 countries will be pitching to potential financing and co-production partners at the 21st Berlinale Co-Production Market, which runs Feb. 17-21. Seventeen projects are directed by women. There were 318 submissions, a slight increase from last year.

Eighteen of the projects are already partly financed with budgets ranging between Euros 600,000 and Euros 5 million ($5.47 million). Among the directors whose new works are likely to spark interest are Ukrainian filmmakers Kateryna Gornostai, who won a Crystal Bear for “Stop-Zemlia” in 2021, and Antonio Lukich, the director of “Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” which played in Venice in 2022, Italy’s Andrea Pallaoro, Serbian director and actor Mirjana Karanović, and the Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka.

The Berlinale Directors section features three brand-new projects by directors who have had films at the Berlinale in the past: “Alma” from Sally Potter,...

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,...

Sundance documentary “Stephen Curry: Underrated” and SXSW television premiere “I’m a Virgo” will open and close Sffilm, the 66th annual San Francisco International Film Festival.

Sffilm unveiled the full lineup for the fest along with the openers and closers. The Bay Area film festival, which screens in theaters across San Francisco as well as Oakland and Berkeley, will host 50 feature film programs (includes Workshop and “mid-lengths”), 46 shorts, and one TV screening (“I’m a Virgo”). Both directors behind “I’m a Virgo” and “Underrated” — Boots Riley and Peter Nicks — grew up in the Bay Area, more specifically in Oakland. Other films from Bay Area filmmakers whose projects will screen include W. Kamau Bell’s “1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed,” Savanah Leaf’s “Earth Mama,” and Babak Jalali’s “Fremont.”

“It is Sffilm Festival season once again and I cannot wait to share this year’s program with local audiences,” Jessie Fairbanks, Sffilm’s director of programming,...

The Ukrainian cast and crew of Luxembourg, Luxembourg — premiering in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival — today used their Lido photo call as a powerful call for support of Ukraine’s families.

In connection with the theme of the movie, director Antonio Lukich and team held up a series of pictures from classic films featuring a strong father and son relationship, and in which the father’s image was obscured. This while posing with banners that read “Imagine movies without fathers” and “Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, thousands of Ukrainian children have been left without parents.”

Luxembourg, Luxembourg follows twin Ukrainian brothers who set out on a journey to the titular country upon learning their long-absent father is sick in the capital.

In a statement, the filmmakers said, “We want to attract the attention to the problem with which we, as Ukrainians, will be faced after...

The journey to the Lido has been longer than most for Ukrainian director Antonio Lukich, whose sophomore feature, “Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” has its world premiere Sep. 7 in the Horizons strand at the Venice Film Festival.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Lukich’s life has been upended. Forced to flee Kyiv at the start of the war, the director spoke to Variety from Sweden, where he’s among four Ukrainian filmmakers who were granted a residency with the support of the Göteborg Film Fund.

It is, he acknowledges, a world removed from the one he left behind. “It’s a great opportunity to develop Ukrainian stories when you cannot develop them right now in Ukraine,” he said.

“Luxembourg, Luxembourg” stars real-life rap duo Ramil and Amil Nasirov as twin brothers who grow up in the shadow of their missing father, a small-time crook who vanishes one day without a trace.

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s impassioned speech, delivered Wednesday during the opening ceremony of the Venice Film Festival, was a reminder to the international film industry not to ignore or forget the war raging on Europe’s eastern borders.

“Your opinion is important, and your voice counts,” Zelensky said in his recorded video, calling on the film industry to “talk about this war with the most clear language possible: the language of cinema, the language that you all talk.”

More than six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, news of the war has begun to slip out of the headlines, something Zelensky pointed to in his speech, noting the danger that those killed in the conflict could fall into “obliviousness and obscurity.”

But in the months since the Feb. 24 invasion, the global film industry has come together to support and sustain the embattled Ukrainian film industry,...

"For some reason, all boys look for trouble." The Match Factory has revealed an early festival promo trailer for a film titled Luxembourg, Luxembourg, from Ukrainian filmmaker Antonio Lukich. It's premiering at two major festivals - the 2022 Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival coming up in a few weeks. Yes, there is a brand new Ukrainian comedy out there and this one is not about the war or anything about Russia, but much more about Ukraine's relationship with Europe. And the differences. It feels akin to a film like The World Is Yours more than anything else. Twin brothers, played by Ramil and Amil Nasirov from rap group Kurgan & Agregat, set out on a journey to see their dying father, who left them as children, in Luxembourg once last time. This looks like it might be damn good and I'm glad these two film festivals are featuring it this year.

Festivals

On Aug. 24, Ukraine independence day, the Venice Film Festival has revealed that it will host a Ukrainian Day on Sept. 8, as part of the festival’s Venice Production Bridge initiative. The day will kick off with a panel discussion introduced by the president of the Biennale, Roberto Cicutto, and the artistic director of the 79th festival, Alberto Barbera.

Panelists include the Ambassador of Ukraine to Italy, Yaroslav Melnyk; the head of the National Cinema Institution of Ukraine, Marina Kuderchuk; the director of the film “Luxembourg, Luxembourg” (which will screen in competition in the festival’s Horizons strand), Antonio Lukich; the director of the film “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” (screening out of competition), Evgeny Afineevsky; the exhibiting artist in the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 59th Biennale Arte, Pavlo Makov; the curator of the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 59th Biennale Arte, Boris Filonenko; the representative of Ukraine’s...