Ukrainian films win top prizes at Riga Film Festival

Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba's film Songs of a Slowly Burning Land won the main competition at the Riga International Film Festival. Two other Ukrainian films won in other nominations.

This was reported by Ukrinform with reference to the press service of the Riga IFF.

Olha Zhurba's documentary Songs of a Slowly Burning Land (2024) was made in co-production with Denmark, Sweden, and France. Its world premiere took place in early September at the Venice Film Festival (where it opposed the propaganda film Russians at War by Anastasiia Trofimova).

The Riga IFF jury awarded the main prize to Zhurba's work in the main feature film competition with the wording: “A film that depicts the brutal reality of war far from the front line with resilience, honesty and dignity.”

The main prize of the Riga IFF in the Short Film International Competition was awarded to Oleksiy Radynski's 15-minute film Where Russia Ends.

The jury's wording on this victory: “Significant work to restore archives and collective memory, assembled with great care, to protect the visibility and history of Russia's indigenous peoples from imperialist erasure and environmental devastation - issues of urgent relevance in today's Europe.”

The Ukrainian-Polish project Zavisa, which will be directed by Valeriia Sochyvets, won the pitching competition at the Riga IFF Showcase. It was defined as “a sharp, tough relationship drama with two strongly written protagonists.”

According to the Riga IFF Showcase jury, this project “promises a new strong female voice in contemporary European cinema, which will be the debut feature film of a young but outstanding Ukrainian director.”

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the 11th Riga International Film Festival is taking place in the historic Splendid Palace cinema in the Lithuanian capital from October 17 to 27.

Photo: facebook.com/RigaIFF