The documentary section of the 9th Odesa International Film Festival will host 8 features coming from 11 countries

Established in 2016 as one of the main competition programs of Odesa International Film Festival, the European Documentary Competition aims to focus on new voices from across Europe. The curator of the program, Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Sergiy Bukovsky, has announced the selected features.

For the 9th Odesa International Film Festival, 8 documentaries hailing from 11 countries – Netherlands, Norway, Ukraine, France, Poland, Austria, Spain, Belgium, United Kingdom, Turkey, and the USA – will compete for the Best European Documentary Film Award that will be handed by the international jury, comprising Dorota Lech, Ostap Kostyuk, and Galia Bador.

In details the features participating in the European Documentary Competition are:

• Distant Constellation (USA / Turkey / Netherlands) by Shevaun Mizrahi, a dream-like landscape, featuring the inhabitants of a Turkish retirement home where pranksters, artists and old casanovas seduce us to confront the true nature of time. Special Mention at 2017 Locarno’s Filmmakers of the Present and winner of the of the FIPRESCI prize at the Vienna Film Festival.
• 69 Minutes of 86 Days (Norway) by Egil Håskjold Larsen, the film tells the story about childhood, family relations, hope and a world that is difficult to understand, presented by 3 year old Lean.
• Home Games (Ukraine / France / Poland) by Alisa Kovalenko, the story of Alina, a poor 20-year-old girl from Kyiv who has a chance to be saved by football.
• Animals and Other People (Austria) by Flavio Marchetti, Austria, a careful observation of the nature of animals and a critical view on human carelessness
• Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle (Spain) by Gustavo Salmerón, a film chronicle with elements of absurd humor that serves as a madcap allegory for the contemporary situation in Spain against the backdrop of the financial crisis.
• Michail and Daniel (Ukraine / USA) by Andrei Zagdansky, Michail is an artist. He is working on a series of paintings called “Franz Kafka’s Diary”. His son Daniel is thirty-four, yet his life is barely separable from the life of his father. A documentary saga about the relationship between an elderly father and a son who seems to never grow up.
• Rabot (Belgium) by Christina Vandekerckhove, the story of a social housing block on the brink of demolition. Both building and residents must go, marking the end of a turbulent era.
• The Eyes of Orson Welles (UK) by Mark Cousins, an exclusive new perspective on one of the 20th century's greatest creative figures, whose art and life continue to fascinate audiences today. Nominee for the Golden Eye at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival for the best documentary film.

We remind you that recently the 9th Odesa International Film Festival has announced its International and National Competition Programs.