Ukrainian Institute will present 5 film producers at the European Film Market (EFM) of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.
The participants were selected by the festival’s organizers from the long-list made by the Ukrainian Institute.
The delegation will include Maksym Asadchyi, Denys Ivanov, Maksym Nakonechnyi, Yuliia Sinkevych, and Viktoria Khomenko. This year EFM will be held from 16 to 22 February.
The European Film Market is one of the top three meeting places of the international film and media industries. Over a period of eight days, around 10,000 representatives of the international film and media industries – primarily producers, buyers and sales agents, distributors, and financiers – come together to network, exchange, inform themselves and do business. The film market is held simultaneously with The Berlin International Film Festival (The Berlinale) – one of the so-called Big Five of the most prestigious film festivals in the world.
“It was not easy to choose – all candidates are very strong professionals and meet the selection requirements. When making the selection it was considered that several producers from the list will participate in other events of the EFM and the Co-Production Market,†– comments the team of the Film Market.
The selected producers will present their projects to the international professional community, as well as establish valuable professional contacts.
When forming the long-list of candidates, the Ukrainian Institute considered the professional qualities of the producers and the availability of co-production projects in development, as well as the already confirmed participation of producers in the film market programmes based on data from Berlinale Talents, Berlinale Co-Production Market and selection for pitching at the Odesa International Film Festival with projects in development.
In order to provide opportunities for the widest possible range of Ukrainian film community representatives, the long list does not include producers who have been presented in the focuses of the Ukrainian Institute at international industry platforms over the past 6 months.
About producers:
Maxim Asadchiy
Film producer (Pronto Film), among others, produced Dad’s Sneakers by Olha Zhurba (2021, Short), Locarno Official selection. Film in Ukrainian distribution – Toloka (2020), Foxter & Max (2019), Povodyr (2014), etc. Projects in production – Utopia by Yuri Rechinskiy (Odesa IFF WiP), All clear signal! by Andrii Negreskul, and PTSD by Maksym Ksyonda
Denis Ivanov
Ukrainian producer, film distributor, cultural manager, head of the Arthouse Traffic film company, member of the European Film Academy and National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, founder of the Odesa International Film Festival and Children Kinofest. Among others produced The Tribe by Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi, Donbas by Sergei Loznitsa, Cenzorka by Peter Kerekes, and Rhino by Oleh Sentsov. Now he is working on the new film by Oleh Sentsov called Kai, finishing Demons by Nataliia Vorozhbyt.
Maksym Nakonechnyi
Co-founder of the independent production company Tabor with his friends, which now makes documentaries, fiction films, theatre plays, commercial and social videos, and cultural volunteering projects. Maksym has completed several fiction shorts as a director and regularly produces documentary films. His films have screened widely on the international festival circuit and received both broadcast and theatrical releases. Maksym’s directorial feature debut Butterfly Vision is included into the Un certain regard competition at Cannes 2022.
Julia Sinkevych
Film producer (JS Films), festival curator, co-founder and member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Film Academy, and member of the European Film Academy. From 2010 to 2020 Julia worked as a general producer for the Odesa International Film Festival. Julia recently produced Lucky girl by Marysia Nikitiuk, co-produced a documentary film Close relations by Vitaliy Mansky (2016), and Heatsingers (2019) by Nadia Parfan. Julia is currently working on feature films It’s not a full picture (development), a documentary by Maryna Stepanska, and the fiction film Lesia (development) by Nana Janelidze.
Vika Khomenko
Film producer (Moon Man). A House Made of Splinters (2022) by Simon Lereng Wilmont (Award in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at Sundance 2022) – co-producer (minority co-production); Outside (2022) by Olha Zhurba (The Willy Brandt Documentary Film Award for Freedom and Human Rights at Human Rights Film Festival Berlin 2022) – producer; Stop-Zemlia (2021) by Kateryna Gornostai (Crystal Bear at Berlinale 2021) – producer.
Ongoing projects: State (working title) by Nikon Romanchenko, Antonivka (working title) by Kateryna Gornostai.
