A film about the Ukrainian woman boxing champion won a festival in Cannes

The Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards 2021 chose the winners among 900 corporate and documentary films submitted to the festival. One of the winners was the Ukrainian video “Anna”, directed by Maxim Chuzha.

The short film tells the story of the sports career of Anna Okhota a multiple-time champion of Ukraine, Europe, and the 2018 World Boxing Championship vice-champion.

The five-minute video won the sports films category, getting the festival’s commemorative silver dolphin award. About 50 films from the post-soviet countries apply for this award every year, but over the past 12 years, only four films of Ukrainian production have been selected at this festival in Cannes. It is noteworthy that this year the jury did not determine a clear winner in this category and have not awarded a single golden dolphin. Instead, the victory was shared between the Ukrainian film “Anna” and the French “Roland Garros – Building the legend”.

Anna is an athlete from the small town of Horishni Plavni, Poltava region, who shares her story of victories and failures, training secrets, diet, talks about how she feels in and out of the ring, as well as her dream. Her city became famous for its athletes after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games when everyone found out about Liudmyla Luzan, who won silver and bronze medals for the Ukrainian rowing team. “Our city can boast of champions of Ukraine, Europe, and the world, as well as Olympic champions thanks to the support of Ferrexpo,” said Oleksandr Serednitskiy, Anna Okhota’s coach.

The athlete was supported by Ferrexpo as part of its corporate social responsibility program in support of sports and local communities.

Supporting the development of sports is an important part of Ferrexpo’s corporate social responsibility programs. We fund hundreds of athletes in the region where the company operates, allowing them to train in the best possible conditions. And we are happy when, thanks to our support, many of them become prize-winners and champions of the most prestigious Ukrainian, European and world competitions.

Yuriy Khimich, head of CSR Department at Ferrexpo

Notes:

Since 2010, the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards Festival has set world standards for corporate films. The festival jury, consisting of Oscar and Emmy winners and corporate communications specialists, is a guarantee of the winners’ quality. Winners from all five continents and Grand Prix winners from Australia, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland make the festival genuinely international.

Ferrexpo is a Swiss iron ore company with assets in Ukraine. The company’s main activity is producing and exporting high-quality iron ore pellets used in steel production. Ferrexpo is the largest manufacturer and exporter of pellets of Ukraine. Current production assets are Poltava and Yeristovo Mining. Ferrexpo PLC owns 100% of the shares of Ferrexpo AG, which, in turn, owns 100% of Poltava Mining and 100% of Yeristovo Mining. In 2020, the company produced 11.2 million tons of iron ore pellets. The primary consumers of products are steel companies from Austria, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Vietnam, and the United States. Ferrexpo shares are listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker FXPO.