Closing ceremony of the 12th Odesa International Film Festival will be held on the Potemkin Stairs, August 21st.

For the first time in history the closing ceremony of the 12th Odesa International Film Festival will be held open-air on the Potemkin Stairs. Everyone will be able to see live the presentation of awards to the laureates of the National Competition. In particular, the winners will be awarded in the following nominations:

• Golden Duke, the Grand Prix of the festival based on the results of the audience vote;
• The Best Ukrainian Full-Length Film;
• The Best Director's Work;
• The Best Acting;
• The Best Ukrainian Short Film;
• Diplomas of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI)

The 12th Odesa International Film Festival focuses specifically on Ukrainian cinema, and therefore the winners of this year will be determined exactly in the National Competition. Therefore, it was important for us to share this solemn event with the audience, who will witness the triumph of Ukrainian cinema. On the eve of the 30th anniversary celebration of the country's independence, everyone will be able to make sure that Ukrainian cinema does not just exist, but grows, develops and wins

Anna Machukh, Executive Director of Odesa International Film Festival

The closing film of the 12th Odesa International Film Festival will be the film "The Kid" by Charlie Chaplin, which turns 100 this year. Screening of the film will be held on the final day of the festival on August 21 open-air on the Potemkin Stairs.

The silent comedy drama The Kid is Charlie Chaplin's first full-length director's work to which he wrote the script, acted as a producer and played a major role. This is a story about a small child, which after birth was left by his mother. The boy accidentally finds a tramp who begins to take care of the baby and teach him everything he knows.

Supporters of Chaplin consider The Kid film as the most perfect and personal film of the author.

The suffering of the tramp that we see on the screen is largely inspired by Charlie Chaplin's memories of his childhood. At the age of seven, he was taken away from his mother and sent to a shelter.

It was thanks to this film that the world's first child-movie star appeared. It was Jackie Coogan, whom Charlie Chaplin invited to play the baby after he saw the guy on the stage of the music hall, where he performed. In addition, decades later, the situation in which Jackie Coogan found himself due to the careless disposal of his parents by his capital, will lead to the emergence of the Coogan Act in the United States, designed to protect the capital of child actors.

Free show of The Kid film on the Potemkin Stairs will be accompanied by the Odessa Symphony Orchestra. After all, “Rhythm is the basis of all humor", as Charlie Chaplin said, who played musical instruments himself.

In previous years, during the atmospheric open-air film show on the Potemkin Stairs within the framework of Odesa Film Festival, viewers watched films that are rightly called the classics of silent cinema: "The City Lights" by Charlie Chaplin, "Blackmail" by Alfred Hitchcock, "Metropolis" by Fritz Lang, "Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Berthelet, "Safety Last!" with Harold Lloyd starring, "Battleship Potemkin" by Sergei Eisenstein, "Sunrise" by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, "Au Bonheur des Dames" by Julien Duvivier, "Man With a Movie Camera" by Dziga Vertov, "Cossacks" by MGM Studio and others. In addition, with the assistance of OIFF on July 11, 2015, the solemn opening of the commemorative sign of the European Film Academy took place, which secured the title of Treasure of European Film Culture behind the Potemkin Stairs.

The 12th Odesa International Film Festival will be held from 14th to 21st of August.

With the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency.

Source: Odesa International Film Festival