15/07/2016 - Ukraine’s biggest film festival is back for its seventh edition from 15-23 July

In 1925, Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin earned the march down the Potemkin Stairs a place in the annals of world cinema history. This iconic stairway will be the backdrop for the seventh edition of the Odessa International Film Festival, which was opened on 15 July by Xavier Giannoli’s Marguerite [+see also:
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interview: Xavier Giannoli
film profile] (France, Belgium, the Czech Republic), one of the big winners at this year’s César Awards, and will be closed on Saturday 23 July with a screening of the US comedy Maggie’s Plan by Rebecca Miller.

The international competition jury, which is chaired by Christopher Hampton and comprises Eva Neman, Rebecca O’Brien, Alex Ross Perry and Uberto Pasolini, will have to pick a winner from among the 12 participating feature films, ten of which are European. These titles include Xavier Seron’s Death by Death [+see also:
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interview: Xavier Seron
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interview: Adrian Sitaru
film profile] by Adrian Sitaru (Romania, Poland, France), Fukushima, Mon Amour [+see also:
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film profile] by Doris Dörrie (Germany), Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s The Lure [+see also:
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interview: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
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interview: Argyris Papadimitropoulos
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Five feature films will be screened as part of the national competition: Igor Minaev’s Blue Dress [+see also:
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film profile], The nest of the Turtledove [+see also:
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Land of the Enlightened [+see also:
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interview: Gianfranco Rosi
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As with previous editions, the festival will also include a charming section dedicated to Ukrainian short films, several special screenings, including one of Yann-Arthus Bertrand’s Human [+see also:
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film profile], master classes, a retrospective (dedicated this year to German director Christian Petzold), as well as an industry section for professionals. As a final note, Odessa has this year opened itself up to television series, screening the pilots of six European series as well as hosting a conference on TV series production in Ukraine.

To find out more about the festival’s programme, please click here.

(Translated from French)