13/07/2018 - Odesa's Film Industry Office offers a platform for the support and development of Ukrainian cinema at its flagship event during the OIFF

A previous edition of the Odesa Film Industry Office

The Odesa International Film Festival's industry section, Film Industry Office, taking place from 17-20 July, will feature an array of events that support the development of Ukrainian cinema.

The most interesting new projects produced or co-produced by Ukrainian filmmakers will be presented in the Pitching and Work in Progress sections. Pitching is a competition for feature-film projects in development intended for theatrical and film-festival distribution, and this year it will introduce ten such projects (for the full list, click here). The winner will receive a prize of circa €2,000 (UAH 60,000). 

Meanwhile, Work in Progress is a presentation of completed feature-length films intended to be distributed in 2018-2019. Their producers and directors will be outlining them to an audience of distributors, sales agents, festival programmers and journalists, also aiming to attract the attention of international distributors and potential partners for future projects. The list of 12 Work in Progress films can be found here. 

ScripTeast Series Projects is a drama-series competition organised by the Odesa IFF and powered by ScripTeast, the premier European training programme for the best Eastern European scriptwriters organised by the Independent Film Foundation, and Ukraine's biggest international film company, Star Media, which will also award the best project with a post-production service package worth $20,000. The list of six participating international TV series projects can be found here. 

In addition, the Odesa Film Industry Office is organising the Actor's Workshop from 15-18 July, with classes for participants led by the world’s best film professionals, including actor-director Ivan Shvedoff. The purpose of the lessons is to outline necessary career steps and to elevate acting to a new, higher level. The list of the 14 actors taking part can be found here.

Finally, the industry programme of the ninth OIFF will include a networking meeting of film commissions, a Eurimages conference and panel discussion entitled "Gender Equality - Myth and Reality", a panel on the topic "Film Festivals Between Civil Society Values and Politics", co-organised with the Cottbus Film Festival, a panel on co-production markets, a case study on Cold War [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Pawel Pawlikowski
film profile] as a benchmark for international standards of co-production and financing agreements, a Polish-Ukrainian co-production meeting, and a presentation on new financing opportunities in Ukraine.