Odessa Film Festival 2025: which films might surprise viewers this year?

The Odesa Film Festival 2025 will unveil new films for Ukrainian and international audiences. The programme includes spectacular premieres, bold experiments and stories that make you look at reality in a different way. Find out which premieres are worth paying attention to

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On 24 September, the 16th Odessa International Film Festival will kick off in Kyiv — an event that has long ceased to be merely cultural. Today, it is a platform where reality and art meet, where Ukrainian cinema loudly proclaims itself, and where world-renowned directors share stories that resonate in the Ukrainian context.

Three years ago, it seemed impossible that one of the country's major film reviews would be forced to leave Odesa. But the war changed everything. In 2023, the festival was held in Chernivtsi, and from 2024 onwards, it settled in Kyiv. The move made it symbolic: the capital became a centre where cinema and culture show that Ukrainian identity is alive and invincible.

The organisers emphasise that this year the number of international applications has increased by almost a third. This means that the world is paying closer attention to the Ukrainian context and is looking for opportunities to tell its story through the language of cinema.

What promises to surprise this year

OMKF has always been famous for combining genres and formats. In 2025, the programme will feature documentaries, war dramas, science fiction and even body horror.

Military genre

Ukrainian works attract particular attention: Maria Kondakova's film Second Breath shows Ukrainian veterans who not only survived but defied the impossible by climbing Kilimanjaro. And the film anthology War Through the Eyes of Animals reveals the tragedy of war through the fate of our smaller brothers, which makes the perception even more acute.

Philosophy, biography

The documentary Dovzhenko. The Great Compromise is not just a biography of the classic filmmaker, but an exploration of his constant balancing act between creativity and politics. It is a film about the price of an artist's freedom.

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Fantasy

The Ukrainian film ‘You Are the Cosmos’ transforms the loneliness of a person in space into an allegory of the fate of a country left alone with global challenges.

European premieres

Foreign premieres are no less intriguing. Julia Ducournau's new work Alpha has already been called a ‘shock film,’ while Pierre Richard's philosophical parable The Man Who Saw the Bear Who Saw the Man promises to restore viewers' faith in the goodness and power of nature.

Reminder! A bull figurine from Mariupol, created around 6000 BC, has been included in the Antiquities Coalition's list of the ten most wanted artefacts in the world. This unique exhibit disappeared during the occupation of the city and became a symbol of Ukraine's cultural struggle. Find out why this find is of global significance and how its loss reflects the scale of cultural aggression against Ukraine.

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