The 12th Odesa International Film Festival continues to announce films of the Gala Premieres non-competition program. The section presents art hits, which will soon be released in Ukraine, and participants of the main competition programmes of leading international film festivals.

In the Gala Premier program, the audience of the 12th OIFF will be the first to see The Green Knight, an epic fantasy by director David Lowery and A24 Studio. The film is based on the legendary poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight about the adventures of Gawain, the nephew of King Arthur. The poem, whose author is still unknown, remains one of the most prominent works of English literature, which inspired William Shakespeare and J. R. R. Tolkien.

The film promises a new look at the classic legend from the Arthur cycle about Sir Gawain and his journey through the temptations of body and spirit, ghosts, and intrigues for the battle with the Green Knight, a giant emerald stranger. Gawain will have to define his own character and prove its value in the eyes of the family and the kingdom in the face of an indescribable threat. The main roles in the film were performed by the nominee for the Oscar award and BAFTA winner Dev Patel and Oscar laureate Alicia Vikander. The film will be released on August 26, 2021.

Another foreign film, which will be shown within the framework of the Gala Premieres program, is Gunda by Viktor Kossakovsky. After studying the fragility of human existence in the previous film Aquarela, the director created a cinematic reminder that the planet belongs not only to us but to billions of animals. In the documentary film Gunda, Viktor Kossakovsky, through his acquaintance with Gunda sow, two inventive cows and a one-legged hen, hypnotizes the viewer with an emotional connection between representatives of the animal world. The executive producer of the film is Joaquin Phoenix.

The film was nominated for the European Film Academy Award as the Best Documentary in 2020.

Also, in this out-of-competition programme there will be a premiere of the Ukrainian film Stranger, the author of the script and director of which was Dmitriy Tomashpolskiy. Esoteric detective tells about the investigation of the inspector Hlukhovska. In her career, there is no unsolved case, but will she solve the mystery of the disappearance of the synchronous swimming team right during the performance in the pool? And how is the disappearance of the patient of the hydropathic establishment, who took a coniferous-pearl bath associated with this?

The film was selected in the official competition programs of 20 international film festivals, where it has got 11 awards.

Documentary film directed by Alina Gorlova This Rain Will Never Stop leads viewers with a powerful and exciting journey through the endless human cycle of war and peace. The main character of the film is 20-year-old Andrii Suleiman. His family moved to Ukraine, fleeing from the war in Syria. But avoiding one tragedy, the boy's family was in another, as the Russian aggression began in the East of Ukraine. Andrii becomes a volunteer of the Red Cross, but soon he must go to Syria to bury his father in his native land.

The film received the Best Feature Film Award in the Best First Appearance section of the IDFA International Documentary Film Festival.

The film Roses. Film-Cabaret by Irena Stetsenko is a musical story about the birth of civic dignity and political will told by Dakh Daughters freak cabaret actresses. Dakh, which was created in the dressing room of the Kyiv theater, at the first solo show this team presented a modern interpretation of cabaret art. At the same time, a revolution begins in the country. For Dakh Daughters, art becomes a way of understanding these events. In this whirlpool, the viewer watches each of the members of the band, considering 7 roles, 7 images of femininity, 7 ways to be in truth with them.

Also, the Gala Premieres non-competition program will be shown to the participants of the 74th Cannes Film Festival: films Annette by Leos Carax and Memoria by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who this year apply for Palme d'Or.