Big Screenings and Crazy Stories:FILM.UA Group and UFD presented their line of theatrical projects for 2018-2020

On December 13, on the first day of OIFF Winter Film Market, FILM.UA Group and UFD presented Big Screenings and Crazy Stories, a line of theatrical projects from Animagrad, Kinorob, and FILM.UA to be released on the big screens in 2018-2020.  

Film market participants and accredited press were presented with seven feature films, most of which are screenings of Ukrainian and world literature. The line included animation films The Stolen Princess: Ruslan and Lyudmila and Mavka. The Forest Song (produced by Animagrad), historical films The Rising Hawk, Gareth Jones and Anna de Kiev (produced by Kinorob) and also feature films Felix Austria and Crazy Wedding (produced by FILM.UA Group).

During the presentation, there was a premiere of the first official trailer for the animated film The Stolen Princess: Ruslan and Lyudmila. On December 14, the trailer will be published on the digital platforms of the project, FILM.UA Group, and Animagrad, and starting from December 21 available in Ukrainian cinemas as well. Film market participants also found out about the marketing strategy and plans for the film’s promotion campaign; besides, several new episodes with the total timing of 15 minutes were shown. The release of The Stolen Princess: Ruslan and Lyudmila cartoon in Ukraine is planned for March 7, 2018; the national distributor is UFD. The rights to Ukrainian cartoon distribution have been pre-sold to more than 30 territories, including China, South Korea, France, Poland, Bulgaria, Germany, MENA and Latin American countries.

The team of the second feature project from Animagrad, animated film Mavka. The Forest Song, also presented new materials at the film market. The event guests saw an exclusive art video where the project’s creative team introduced the concepts of new characters and locations for the cartoon.

Kinorob studio presented several of its projects. Historical action film The Rising Hawk for which filming is due to start in spring 2018, was presented by the film’s director Akhtem Seitablayev and producer Egor Olesov. For the first time, film market participants were shown the video of the creative team’s trip to the Carpathians during which they were on the lookout for the most picturesque locations for shooting and ethnographic materials for further work on the film. The release of The Rising Hawk in Ukraine is planned for 2019.

Besides, the presentation’s guests found out new details about the work on studio co-production projects. The filming of Ukrainian block to the historical thriller Gareth Jones co-produced by Ukraine, Poland, and the UK, will take place in February 2018, and the film’s premiere is planned for 2019. This is a story of a well-known British journalist who, in spite of the mortal danger, tried to tell the world community the truth about the tragedy of Ukrainian people, the Famine. The world didn’t hear him, but Gareth’s investigation inspired British writer George Orwell to write a dystopian novella Animal Farm. The story about Gareth Jones will be filmed by a well-known Polish director Agnieszka Holland (Academy Award and BAFTA nominee, Silver Bear at Berlinale 2017), and the lead role has been given to a renowned Irish actor Jack Reynor (starring in Transformers: Age of Extinction).

One more co-production project of Kinorob studio is a historical drama Anna de Kiev co-produced by Ukraine and France. The filming will start in 2018, with the release scheduled for 2020. Anna de Kiev is a screening of a novel by Jacqueline Dauxois Anne de Kiev: Reine de France about the destiny of daughter to Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise and wife to French king Henry I. The director of the French-Ukrainian film will be Yves Angelo, a three-time César winner for Best Cinematography. The appointed DOP is Sergiy Mykhalchuk from Ukraine, winner of numerous prizes and awards, including Silver Bear. The news of these projects was told by producer Egor Olesov.   

FILM.UA Group presented two new feature projects the studio is now actively working on. A real family comedy Crazy Wedding was introduced to the guests by the film’s celebrity producer Yuriy Gorbunov. The premiere of a comedy about multicultural marriage against the background of “holier-than-thou” patriotism will take place in autumn 2018. The film is directed by Dmytro Malkov.   

Felix Austria historical drama based on a bestseller with the same title was presented by Nadia Zayonchkovska, project producer, and Sofia Andrukhovych, author of the novel and co-author of the script. The filming will start in 2018, and the release to the big screens is scheduled for 2019.

All the abovementioned projects, except Felix Austria, obtained support from Ukrainian State Film Agency.