How The Film Industry Will Honor Ukraine Next Month

Coinciding with Ukraine’s independence day, the Venice Film Festival has announced an initiative to help boost the movie industry of the war-torn country.

What Happened: The Venice Film Festival announced the launch of Ukrainian Day as part of the festival’s Venice Production Bridge initiative, Variety reports.

Ukrainian Day will be hosted Sept. 8, 2022 as part of the 79th annual film festival that runs Aug. 31 through Sept. 10.

The event will kick off with a panel with the president and artistic director of the festival. Other panelists include the ambassador of Ukraine to Italy and the head of the National Cinema Institution of Ukraine.

The director of “Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” Antonio Lukich will also be featured at the event with the film screening in competition at the film festival.

“Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” director Evgeny Afineevsky will also be a featured panelist at the event. The movie will screen at the event but not as part of the competition.

Topics covered at Ukrainian Day include:

• Cooperation between Ukraine and Italy
• The difficult situation for Ukraine’s film industry today
• Co-productions
• The role of artists and filmmakers
• Diversity in the Ukrainian audiovisual industry
• The future of Ukrainian cinematography

Related Link: Zelensky Said Ukraine Reborn When Putin Invaded The Country 

Why It’s Important: The announcement of Ukrainian Day comes as the country celebrates 31 years since it voted to split from the Soviet Union.

The country has been impacted by the war with Russia and the film industry is among the sectors that could see setbacks for years.

“The Guide,” a well-known 2014 movie from Ukraine, was screened in theaters around the world earlier this year to raise money for the country. 

Several companies like McDonald’s Inc MCD and Nike Inc NKE are reopening locations in Ukraine to bring some normalcy to the country.

The special portion of the film festival could help bring partnerships and production deals to Ukrainian media companies to help boost the restoration efforts.

Photo via Shutterstock.