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The death penalty will forever be a hot-button issue in the U.S. and overseas. Dating back three decades, Ukraine joined other European nations in banning the ultimate penalty, but what about the years leading up to the small country's monumental decision? Kyiv-native filmmaker Philip Sotnychenko chose to base his new feature in the months leading up Ukraine's official declaration, a key factor in his disjointed narrative involving a complex and ultimately despondent murder investigation. Just as some authors are deemed a "writer's writer," La Palisiada is indeed cinema for cinephiles, a challenging but ultimately rewarding film that proves the country's talent behind the lens.

The 2025 Oscars are panning out to be another tight competition, of course, with the International Feature category ever a hot contender. If Academy members are up for challenging work, then perhaps Ukraine's latest entry into the race might just hold a candle to the top-five list.

History, when told well, is a muddy, muddled thing. There are no neat narratives or happy endings. Philip Sotnychenko “La Palisiada” takes that truism and braids it into a suitably complex form: This 1996-set noir of sorts chronicles a pivotal moment in Ukrainian history by focusing on a murder investigation. But as its two leads burrow themselves in the hunt for a guilty party, their journey turns out to be as dirtied and disorienting as the very systems from which the former Soviet country was weening itself, just a few years after their independence.

A murder opens “La Palisiada,” though it’s not the one with which Sotnychenko’s film is concerned. Instead, the shocking gunshot that precedes the film’s title card sets the table for a flashback to the past. Here is a tale not just of violence but the root of that violence, and its continued consequences.

There are 31 animated films, 85 international films and 169 documentaries competing in the 2024 Oscar races for Best Animated Feature, Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature, the Academy announced on Thursday.

In the animated feature category, contenders include “Flow,” “Inside Out 2,” “Memoir of a Snail,” “Piece by Piece,” “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rorhirrim,” “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” and “The Wild Robot.”

In the international category, the list includes “Emilia Perez,” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and “I’m Still Here.” The list of eligible films was reported exclusively by TheWrap in October.

In documentaries, the field includes “Sugarcane,” “Dahomey,” “No Other Land,” “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” “Black Box Diaries” and “Daughters,” among many others.

In all three categories, Academy members are given lists of films that are required viewing, but are eligible to view and vote for films outside their lists as...

With war still raging in Ukraine, the country’s artistry is even more of a wonder to behold.

Starting this week on October 15 and running through October 31, the Ukranian Cultural Festival returns to New York for its second year, with six features and 15 shorts co-presented by Razom for Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute, Kyiv and produced in partnership with Kyiv International Shorts Film Festival (Kisff) and Linoleum Animation Festival.

In a statement the head of Razom Cinema, Polina Buchak said, “The goal of our festival is to bring together American audiences and the Ukrainian community for a meaningful cultural exchange. It’s a space where we confront complex histories, challenge stereotypes, and discover shared values. Most importantly, this festival is a testament to the fact that Ukrainian culture existed, exists, and will exist — despite Russia’s centuries-old attempts at destroying its traces and its future.”

The festival’s screenings commence...

New features by Sophie Linnenbaum and Bruce Labruce were among nine German and Canadian projects pitched during the CineCoPro Conference at this week’s Munich International Film Festival.

Britta Strampe and Laura Klippel of Berlin-based Bandenfilm presented Linnenbaum’s The Nose which will be the director’s first film shot in English and with an international cast. It is a satire about an activist who rips off a president’s nose and holds it hostage in an attempt to achieve world peace, thereby plunging the world into chaos. It has already received script funding from the German Federal Film Board...

The UK’s Reason8 has locked in North American deals for Philip Sotnychenko’s Ukrainian Rotterdam premiere La Palisiada and Czech erotic drama Her Body with Film Movement.

Further sales include Her Body for UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand (Tmp), German-speaking Europe (Busch Media Group), Korea (Entermode/Evrit Consulting), Japan (At Entertainment) and Poland (Media4Fun).

Venice title The Red Suitcase, from Nepal’s Fidel Devkota, has sold to Dekanalog for North America, while Romanian Tudor Giurgiu’s Libertate has landed in French-speaking Europe (Destiny Films), Spain and Andorra (Twelve Oaks Pictures), Poland (Media4Fun) and Taiwan (Time Vision Co).

Belgium drama Skunk,...

Jeonju Jaunt

Korea’s second largest generalist film event the Jeonju International Film Festival has set eight fiction films by first or second-time feature directors, for its main competition.

They are “Cu Li Never Cries,” by Pham Ngoc Lan; “Junkyard Dog,” by Jean-Baptiste Durand, “La Palisiada,” by Philip Sotnychenko; “My Endless Numbered Days,” by Shaun Neo; “Oxygen Station,” by Ivan Tymchenko; “Practice,” by Laurens Perol; “The Major Tones,” by Ingrid Pokropek; and “The Permanent Picture,” by Laura Ferres.

Additionally, two documentary features also compete: “After the Snowmelt,” directed by Lo Yi-Shan and “Kix,” by Balint Revesz and David Mikulan.

The Covid-pandemic continues to affect filmmaking and festival selection, organizers said. “Even films planned to be made beforehand had to extend their production period due to the pandemic, and many works highlighted the limitations of the production environments, such as smaller cast numbers and minimal locations,” said chief programmer Chun Jinsu.

South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival (May 1-10) has revealed the full programme for its 25th edition, which will include a series of screenings to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sewol ferry disaster.

The festival will comprise 232 films from 43 countries, opening with Sho Miyake’s romantic drama All The Long Nights and closing with Kazik Radwanski’s Canadian drama Matt And Mara. Both screened at the Berlinale in February.

Among the line-up are six films to commemorate the sinking of the Sewol ferry on April 16, 2014, in which more than 300 people died, most of them high school students on a field trip.

2023 was a year of seemingly seismic change for the film industry, as superhero movies (especially Marvel) lost their grip on the box office while more auteur-led efforts such as Oppenheimer and Barbie made serious bank. Audiences seem hungry for a return to thoughtful and engaging efforts, voting for their wallets against a decade of cape-clad hegenomy in favour of more challenging (and visually interesting) cinema. But as with the majority of contemporary film analysis, these are mostly concerns for Hollywood. The international arthouse scene plugs away as usual, providing a diverse range of exciting visions that once again expand the very possibilities of the cinematic form. I went back and forth on this list several times, only coming to a final top ten this very morning. With courtroom drama, oddball romance, epic character study and even outright horror, this year’s selection subverted and expanded genre norms, showing that great cinema,...

The 36th European Film Awards took place in Berlin on Saturday, honoring the best cinema to emerge from Europe in 2023. The nominations, which were selected by the European Film Academy, were heavy on arthouse hits that emerged from the Cannes Film Festival including Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.” The results played out similarly to those from Cannes, with Triet’s Palme d’Or-winner taking the top prize of Best European Film.

“Anatomy of a Fall” additionally won the European Director award for Triet, who also shared the European Screenwriter award with Arthur Harari. Sandra Hüller was nominated twice in the European Actress category for her performances in “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest,” ultimately winning for the former.

The results mirrored those of the 2022 European Film Awards, when “Triangle of Sadness” followed...

In the disconcerting cadence of two unsettling gunshots, Ukrainian writer-director Philip Sotnychenko orchestrates a symphony of thought-provoking images in his debut feature, La Palisiada (2023). Awarded with the Fipresci prize at IFFR and honoured with the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Director at Sarajevo Film Festival, this innovative investigative drama is also vying for the European Discovery - Prix Fipresci at the European Film Awards.

The film's prologue unfolds amid a family gathering, a seemingly tranquil setting in our time. There's a discontented young man, who recently arrived from western Europe. His dissatisfaction with his homeland transforms him into a veritable headache, an incessant nagging force that challenges Ukrainian values. The tension escalates in the bedroom, culminating in a shocking act that sets the stage for the main story, set in 1996, five years post-Ukraine's declaration of independence and five months before the abolition of the death penalty.

Embarking on judicial scrutiny.

Five European films dominate the nominations for this year’s Awards

The European Film Academy has revealed the nominees for the main categories of the European Film Awards which take place in Berlin on November 9.

The Academy has shortlisted five of the highest profile films to come out of European this year for its best European film category, with the directors of the five films also all nominated in the best European director category. The five films also dominate the acting and screenwriting categories.

Three of the best European film nominees world premiered at Cannes. Justine Triet’s Palme d...

Jonathan Glazer’s harrowing Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest leads the nominations for this year’s European Film Awards (EFAs), picking up five nominations, including for best film and best director, in nominations announced via video on Tuesday.

Zone of Interest, the U.K. official entry for the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category, also scored Efa nominations for best screenwriter, for Glazer, and best actress and best actor noms for leads Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel.

Hüller will be competing against herself in the best actress category, having picked up a second Efa nom for her starring role in Justine Triet’s courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall. The Palme d’Or winner recieved four Efa noms, including for best European Film, best director for Triet and best screenplay for Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari.

Other best European film nominees include Matteo Garrone’s refugee drama Io Capitano from Italy,...

Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” and Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves” led the European Film Awards race after nominations for the major categories were revealed Tuesday.

The films were nominated in all five major categories – European film, director, screenwriter, actor and actress.

Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” was close behind with four nominations – film, director, screenwriter and actress.

All three films were prizewinners at Cannes: “The Zone of Interest” took the festival’s Grand Prize, “Fallen Leaves” won the Jury Prize, and “Anatomy of a Fall” was the Palme d’Or winner.

Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border,” the Special Jury Prize winner at Venice, took three nominations – film, director and screenwriter.

“Me Captain,” Venice’s best director winner, and “The Teachers’ Lounge” each nabbed two nominations.

“Afire,” “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry,” “How to Have Sex,” “La Chimera” and “The Promised Land” took one nomination each in major categories.

Movistar Plus+ Shooting Comedy ‘Muertos S.L.’

Cameras are rolling on Muertos S.L., an eight-part Spanish sitcom for Movistar Plus+ set in a family-owned funeral home. Laura and Alberto Caballero are directing the series, which is a Movistar Plus+ production in collaboration with Contubernio Sl. Carlos Areces leads the cast, which also includes Ascen López, Salva Reina, Aitziber Garmendia and Adriana Torrebejano among others. Plot reads: “When Gonzalo Torregrosa, owner and founder of Torregrosa Funeral Home, passes away, Dámaso Carrillo, his right-hand man in the company, doesn’t hesitate that the best for the business is taking the reins himself. However, against all odds, Nieves, the septuagenarian widow, decides to take the lead in the family business, with the assistance of her inept yet enthusiastic son-in-law, Chemi, a Marketing expert, and in defiance of her daughters’ plans to close the Funeral Home and start a gym.

The Ukrianian festival ran as a festival within a festival at Filmfest Hamburg.

Christina Tynkevych’s feature debut How Is Katia? was named the winner of the national competition of Ukraine’s Molodist Film Festival, held for the second year in a row as a festival within a festival at Filmfest Hamburg in Germany.

The Scythian Deer statuette and a cash prize of $2,500 was presented to the film’s producer Olha Matat on October 5, at the Abaton cinema by the jury of actress Alina Levshin, psychologist Svetlana Uvarova and film director David Wagner.

The drama about an ambulance doctor seeking...

The Ukrianian festival ran as a festival within a festival at Filmfest Hamburg.

Christina Tynkevych’s feature debut How Is Katia? was named the winner of the national competition of Ukraine’s Molodist Film Festival, held for the second year in a row as a festival within a festival at Filmfest Hamburg in Germany.

The Scythian Deer statuette and a cash prize of $2,500 was presented to the film’s producer Olha Matat on October 5, at the Abaton cinema by the jury of actress Alina Levshin, psychologist Svetlana Uvarova and film director David Wagner.

The drama about an ambulance doctor seeking...

‘Festival within a festival’ opens with Anna Buryachkova’s Venice’s Orizzonti Extra title Forever-Forever

The Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival is returning to the Filmfest Hamburg for the second year running as a “festival within a festival” to present its national competition of Ukrainian feature films.

The competition line-up opens on October 2 with Anna Buryachkova’s Venice’s Orizzonti Extra title Forever-Forever.

The line-up also includes Tonia Noyabrova’s Berlinale’s Panorama film Do You Love Me?, Christina Tynkevych’s How Is Katia, which played in Locarno’s Filmmakers of the Present last year, Philip Sotnychenko’s Rotterdam and San Sebastian title La Palisiada,...

Other prize winners included Philip Sotnychenko’s ’La Palisiada’ and Vladimir Perisic’s ’Lost Country’.

Elene Naveriani’s Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry was the big winner at the Sarajevo film festival’s awards ceremony on Friday (August 18), taking home prizes for best feature and best actress for Ekaterine Chavleishvili.

Scroll down for list of key winners

The Georgia-set romantic drama premiered in Directors’ Fortnight, and stars Chavleishvili as a prickly, self-sufficient woman whose life changes after she narrowly escapes a fatal accident. Totem are handling international sales.

Philip Sotnychenko won the €10,000 best director prize for Ukrainian cop thriller La Palisiada, which premiered at Rotterdam.

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, Elene Naveriani’s Georgian drama about a 40-something independent woman who has an affair that triggers an existential awakening, has won the top prize for best film at the 2023 Sarajevo International Film Festival.

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry star Ekaterine Chavleishvili also took the best actress honor at the Heart of Sarajevo awards, which were handed out in the Bosnian capital Friday night.

The best actor prize went to newcomer Jovan Ginic for his role in Vladimir Perisic’s Lost Country as a Serbian teenager in the 1990s, caught between student protests against the authoritarian regime of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and his loyalty to his mother, who happens to be the spokeswoman for the regime.

Ukrainian filmmaker Philip Sotnychenko won best director for La Palisiada, a slow-burning crime drama about two old friends, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist, who investigate the murder of their colleague in...

Elene Naveriani’s “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry” won the top prize, the Heart of Sarajevo Award for best feature film, Friday at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The Georgian film, in which a stoically independent woman in her late 40s experiences a gentle existential awakening during an affair with a local deliveryman, also won the best actress prize for Ekaterine Chavleishvili’s performance.

The award for best director went to Ukraine’s Philip Sotnychenko for “La Palisiada,” and the best actor prize was picked up by Serbia’s Jovan Ginić — who won the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award at Cannes — for “Lost Country.” Serbian director Nemanja Vojinović’s “Bottlemen” took the documentary film award.

The awards were given by a jury headed by actor Mia Wasikowska (“Club Zero”), which included Danish-Croatian actor Zlatko Burić (“Triangle of Sadness”), Serbian-Danish actor Danica Ćurčić (“The Chestnut Man”), Museum of Modern Art Department of Film...

Bono made a surprise appearance at the Sarajevo Film Festival this evening, where he accompanied the crew behind the U2-inspired Bosnian war documentary Kiss The Future, which opened the festival.

Bono was joined by his U2 band member The Edge on the red carpet at Bosnia’s National Theatre alongside CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour, who also features in the doc, during which she recounts her time as a young reporter covering the Bosnian conflict.

Directed by filmmaker Nenad Cicin-Sain, Kiss the Future tells the story of the underground community that continued to work and live throughout the 1990s siege of Sarajevo. Amid the breakup of Yugoslavia, the citizens of Sarajevo woke up to find their city under siege and wider Bosnia at war.

Bono and Christiane Amanpour.

In a far-fetched scheme inspired by local resistance, Bill Carter, an American aid worker living in Sarajevo, reached out to the world...

The Sarajevo Film Festival has long been the biggest showcase of Southeast European cinema and this year’s edition, which unspools on August 11, is on course to be its most reflective and regionally focused edition yet.

“Our manifesto has always been to support young filmmakers and productions from the region while rebuilding an international film industry around it and this year our aim is to strengthen that even further,” says festival director Jovan Marjanović, who is currently in his second year in the role after taking over from festival founder Mirsad Purivatra, who started the event in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War.

This year’s official selection will see 49 films compete for Heart of Sarajevo awards across its four competition sections – feature, documentary, short and student film – and included in this are 22 world, two international, 22 regional and three national premieres. Films in the official line-up include...

The European industry has created support initiatives, including for funding, co-production and raising awareness.

How do you keep an industry going when your cities are being bombed, some of your leading directors are fighting on the front line and your local sources of funding have dried up?

This is the question Ukrainian filmmakers have been asking themselves over the last 12 months, since the full-scale invasion by Russia on February 24th, 2022.

To the outside eye, it may seem the industry is doing remarkably well. From Pamfir and Butterfly Vision in Cannes last year to Iron Butterflies and 20 Days In Mariupol in Sundance,...

Political dramas and documentaries were the big winners at this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), as socially relevant features from Africa, Sri Lanka and the Middle East came away with the top honors.

Cyrielle Raingou’s Le Spectre De Boko Haram, a documentary that follows a group of children living in the far north region of Cameroon whose lives are overshadowed by the threat of Islamist terrorist organisation Boko Haram, won the main prize, the 2023 Tiger Award, which comes with 43,000 (€40,000) in prize money, announced at a gala ceremony in Rotterdam on Friday night.

Endless Borders, a minimalist thriller from Iranian director Abbas Amini, the story of an exiled Iranian teacher living in a border village between Iran and Afghanistan, won the IFFR’s Big Screen Award for best film in the IFFR’s main sidebar section.

The award came just hours after dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi was released from prison in Iran,...

Cyrielle Raingou’s documentary “Le Spectre de Boko Haram” won the Tiger Award, the top prize of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Friday. The film follows a group of children in the north of Cameroon, an area dominated by the terrorist organization Boko Haram. Raingou is from the area herself.

“When I received this unforgettable call, I started crying. I couldn’t believe it. This recognition means the world to me and my people,” Raingou said on a video message played during the awards ceremony.

The jury deemed Raingou’s feature debut “a story that centers on its filmmakers’ patient and honest gaze on the hovering presence of violence, seen through the eyes of innocents.”

The Tiger Award, which aims to “raise the profile of and reward up-and-coming international film talent,” is accompanied by a €40,000 cash prize, to be shared between the film’s director and producer. This year’s...

Visakesa Chandrasekaram’s ’Munnel’ and Artemis Shaw and Prashanth Kamalakanthan’s ‘New Strains’ also won awards.

Cyrielle Raingou’s Le Spectre De Boko Haram has triumphed at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), taking home the main prize, the €40,000 Tiger award, at the ceremony which unfolded tonight (February 3), held in-person for the first time since 2020.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Raingou’s debut feature is a documentary following a group of children living under the threat of terrorist organisation Boko Haram in the far north region of Cameroon – the region Raingou herself is from.

The winner was...