Four Ukrainian filmmakers selected for residency at Göteborg Film Festival

Four Ukrainian filmmakers selected for residency at Göteborg Film Festival

For the third summer, a group of Ukrainian filmmakers will spend a few months in Göteborg. The residency program is funded by Region Västra Götaland with contributions from the Film Office, the City of Göteborg, and in collaboration with Företagsbostäder. The selected participants will spend August-September in Göteborg, working on their projects at the Göteborg Film Festival office, and networking with the local film industry.

"Last summer's residency program resulted in, among other things, a film that found a co-producer from Göteborg and premiered at the Berlinale in February; a short film that will soon be shot in Ukraine – and a filmmaker who moved to Göteborg permanently. We are now looking forward to welcoming four new interesting filmmakers to Göteborg, whose projects all deal with dedication and resistance," says Camilla Larsson, Head of Göteborg Film Fund at Göteborg Film Festival.

The residency filmmakers arriving in Göteborg in August are:

Olga Chernykh, director, screenwriter, and cinematographer, who will be accompanied by Maryna Brodovska, screenwriter, author, and artist.

Olga Chernykh is educated at Kyiv I.K. Karpenko-Kary National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television. She has directed, among others, the short documentaries The Flood That No One Saw and Tiny Summer Trilogy, and the short fiction The Land of Aliens. In 2023, her feature debut A Picture To Remember opened the documentary film festival IDFA in Amsterdam. The film was also screened at the Göteborg Film Festival 2024.

In Göteborg, the duo will work on the script for Olga Chernykh's feature fiction debut, White Island, a story about art, love, and betrayal during the Soviet era. The film takes place over a few months between the end of 1982 and the beginning of 1983 and is based on the true story of the Ukrainian artists Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko.

”During the last two years only work on my film A Picture to Remember kept me afloat in the storm of events that hit Ukraine and my life as well. The same as characters of the film that I’m currently developing – Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko who struggled all their life to remain in the artistic profession and to do things in which they believed. I feel deep connection to the pain and tragedy of their story and an urge to tell the story of unfairness that they experienced.

I’m working on this project together with my friend – a scriptwriter and visual artist Maryna Brodovska. We know each other for many years and made a couple of short films together.” – Olga Chernykh.

Alina Panasenko, screenwriter, director, and artist

Educated at Kyiv I.K. Karpenko-Kary National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television. She has directed the short films 20-11-7.mp4, Teatralna Station, and Prelude. Co-writer of La Palisiada (winner of the Fipresci Prize at the Rotterdam Film Festival), by Philip Sotnychenko, which received support from the Göteborg Film Fund. In Göteborg, she will work on the script for her debut feature film Skein, an erotic drama set in Ukraine in 2021.

”Currently, writing my debut feature film is a priority for me. The residency is an opportunity to be in a safe environment while working. In the summer in Ukraine, blackouts are planned due to power system malfunctions, which will directly affect my work and my concentration.

(…) The film Skein tells the story of the struggle for existence, for the possibility of existence, on a personal and collective level. Also, in this project, an important component is the line of struggle with developers for cultural heritage, which is urgent, relevant and blatant in Ukraine to this day. In 2023 alone, 19 objects in Kyiv were destroyed or attempted to be destroyed.”

– Alina Panasenko.

Tetiana Symon, director, acting coach, and casting director

Educated at Kyiv I.K. Karpenko-Kary National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television. She debuted in 2015 with the short film Trash. She has worked as a casting director for Klondike by Maryna Er Gorbach, Butterfly Vision by Maksym Nakonechnyi, and Reflection by Valentyn Vasyanovych. Since 2022, she has been working on the War Archive project, run by the DOCUDAYS UA film festival. In Göteborg, she will work on the script for her debut feature film Fucking Sensitivity, about a young journalist with strong social ideals who burns out when the ambition to depict reality becomes too overwhelming.

”The events of the film cover in total the two weeks before the full-scale invasion. It was a stormy and controversial period. Some were seriously preparing for the Russian invasion: they attended courses in tactical medicine, learned the location of the nearest shelter, or even took military training courses. Others, on the contrary, did not even read the news and looked at people who were worried about the invasion as if they were obsessed. In my opinion, it is journalism that most comprehensively covers all aspects of society. That is why the main character is a journalist.” – Tetiana Symon.

48:e Göteborg Film Festival

Jan 24 – Feb 2, 2025