On 26 April, the award ceremony for the winners of the second SUNNY BUNNY-2024 Queer Film Festival took place at Zhovten Cinema.
This year’s festival programme included 60 films from 35 countries, which were presented in 8 programmes. Special screenings and educational events were also held throughout the festival.
The prize for the best film in the International Feature Film Competition and a cash prize of USD 2000 went to All This Silence by Diego del Rio (Mexico, 2023).
“Deep queer characters. Powerful emotional beats. Virtuoso sound design. A hopeful statement about the power of art to change people. All of this and more led to our choice of the winner of the competition,” the jury said in its statement.
The Special Mention in the International Feature Film Competition went to Egghead and Twinkie by Sarah Cumbie Holland (USA, 2023).
“We suddenly wanted to go back to our youth and watch this film again when we were growing up. It would have made our lives much easier. Its queer wit, clever representation and instruction on how to cope with the overwhelming world of social media deserve a Special Mention,” the jury members wrote in their rationale.
The winner of the international short film competition and the winner of the cash prize is Dildotectonics by Tomas Paula Marques (Portugal, 2023).
“This amazingly visual hybrid short film pays tribute to the beauty of cinema and queer sexuality. With this combination, everyone wins, so it’s our winner,” the jury said about the best film of the International Short Film Competition.
The Special Mention of the International Short Film Competition went to Bolero by Nance Laborde-Jourd (France, 2023)
“This short film fascinated us so much that we became closer and spent a warm evening together in Kyiv. Our special mention goes to the dance, which reminded us of the power of art,” the jury commented on their decision.
The main jury of the festival evaluated the International Feature and International Short competitions:
Oksana Cherkashyna – theatre and film actress, director, performer (Ukraine)
Pavel Bicek – director of the Mezipatra Queer Film Festival, founder of the Queer Kino distribution label (Czech Republic)
Romas Zabarauskas – film director, screenwriter, author and producer (Lithuania).
The Audience Award went to the competition film And Then Love Came by Katel Killevere (France, Belgium, 2023).
Also, for the first time, the jury of the Ukrainian Union of Film Critics (UFC) worked at the SUNNY BUNNY festival: Oksana Voloshenyuk, the head of the Union’s board and film historian, film critic and festival selector Oleksandr Husiev, and film critic and producer Valeriy Mirnyi. The jury of the Ukrainian Union of Film Critics awarded the diploma for the best film of the International Feature Film Competition to Levan Akin’s The Passage. The film All This Silence by Diego del Rio received a special mention. The Ukrainian film critics also evaluated the Ukrainian short film programme of queer films. The film Crimea by Kateryna Khramtsova received a diploma in this category.
In addition, the winner of the first Ukrainian pitching of short films on LGBTQIA+ topics was announced, who will receive 80 thousand hryvnias from the festival sponsor Jägermeister. The best film project was Serpanok, directed by Yura Katynskyi and produced by Kateryna Gradnova-Savytska and Oleksandr Chubko.
The pitching jury awarded two film projects with special mentions:
“History, directed by Vadym Mochalov, produced by Vadym Mochalov and Diana Nazaruk;
“Lono, directed by Alyona Shylova, produced by Valeria Sochyvets, Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema (CUC).
The pitching jury included:
Zhanna Ozirna – film director and screenwriter, Ukraine.
Participant of Berlinale Talents 2020 (Berlin, 2020), resident at Cité Internationale des Arts and Les Récollets (Paris, 2022) and Marathon Screenings (Los Angeles, 2023). She is currently working on two feature films, Lower Horizon and Honeymoon.
Darya Bassel is a film producer of auteur documentaries and fiction films, curator of the industry platform and programmer of the International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA, Ukraine.
Alex Perera is a brand manager at Jägermeister, co-founder and resident of the LGBTIQ+ event series STEZHKA, Ukraine.
This year’s festival programme included 60 films from 35 countries, which were presented in 8 programmes. In addition, special screenings and educational events took place throughout the festival.
The ceremony was attended by representatives of the LGBTQIA+ Military organisation Petro Zherukha, Pavlo Lahoyda, Andriy-Lelia Chelyakha, Vladyslav Aprelov and Oleh Zhabinets.
“I am very pleased that today I am among such people, and that I can represent the LGBTQIA+ military community. It is very important to talk about us. We exist, and we are also fighting for our rights and yours,” Pavlo Lahoyda addressed the audience from the stage.
The closing film of SUNNY BUNNY-2024 was Ethan Coen’s The Dolls Move On.
The evening was hosted by film critic and film blogger Inna Gordeeva (@chechevitsaaaa).
The festival closing ceremony was also attended by honoured guests: Volodymyr Zavadiuk, Head of Production at Big Brave Events 1+1 Media, Monroe the Impetuous, actress Myroslava Filipovych and others.
The festival was financially supported by the Ukrainian State Film Agency, the International Renaissance Foundation, the European Union, the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Ukraine, Jägermeister, the Ukrainian food IT company appflame, Outright International, and the Ukrainian-Danish Youth House.
The festival was supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Italy in Ukraine, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain, the Embassy of Argentina, the Italian Cultural Institute in Ukraine, the French Institute in Kyiv, and the Czech Centre in Kyiv.
Festival partners
Ukrainian clothing brand OMELIA
Digital agency Hexagon
Public organisation “Fulcrum of Ukraine”
Platform of public associations Different.Levels
Official dealer of “Ilta on Pechersk”
Ukrainian brand of socks “Noskar”
NGO “Kharkiv Women’s Association “Sphere”
Youth movement “Teenergizer”
Insight NGO
Women’s March
Non-profit educational and prevention project Drugstore
Ukrainian clothing brand FROLOV
Eye Sea Gallery of Contemporary Art and Sur art space
Zhovten Cinema
USAID Communications Transformation Project – implementation of innovative communication initiatives
National Democratic Institute
KharkivPride
KyivPride
Gender Zed
association of LGBT+ military personnel
Starlight Media Group
Film UA
Hospitality partners
Restaurant of modern Kyiv cuisine “Glek”
Cafe-bistro in Podil tisto.kyiv
Craft donut shop Ponchyk Boy
HVLV bar
Community Cafe
Kultmotiv
Media partners
Public broadcasting
Public Culture
TiKyiv
Lirum
DTF Magazine
New Ukrainian Cinema
Conscious
Detector Media
Bazilik Media
Prohibition
The Village Ukraine
Source: Kinowar
