The film of Ukrainian students received three golden awards in the nominations for "Best foreign short film", "Best director of a foreign short film," and "Best Actress of a foreign short film". Previously, "The First Snow" was recognized as the best short film at the Croatia Creators festival.
The short film "The First Snow" tells the sad story of the friendship between a homeless dog and a girl who lost her family due to the war. The film's authors say this is "a film about war without a war."
"The film is actually very moving," says producer Ruslan Poleshuk. - "We started shooting it at the beginning of January 2022. But even then, even before the full-scale invasion, the topic of war was harrowing for us. Because some of the film's authors - director Anton Sytnyk, cameraman Olga Kononenko, and the performer of the leading role - 13-year-old Adelia Nazarchuk - are immigrants from Donetsk. They had already left their homes because of the war. But on February 24, it happened again… We shot the first scene of the short film at the New Year's fair in Podil at the beginning of 2022. However, the war prevented us from completing the picture as planned. We filmed "The First Snow", when no more battles were near Kyiv. We shot the final scene in the summer in a high-rise building bombed by the Russians in Irpin. At first, we planned a completely different ending, but after the full-scale war began, we reworked the end".
