Contemporary Ukrainian Animation
Screening: Sun, Oct 4 · 1:00 PM
12+ | Time: 58 min
Opens the festival checkout. Scroll down for individual tickets to this screening.
This program presents a selection of contemporary Ukrainian animated short films, featuring recent works that reflect the spirit and complexity of present-day Ukraine. Through different animation styles, the films explore wartime realities, while also leaving room for humor, creativity, love, and personal reflection. Together, they show how animation can be a powerful tool for approaching complex subjects with imagination, sensitivity, and creative freedom.
Petrivka Requiem
Kateryna Voznytsia | 5:38' | 2018
Adventures of a disoriented subject under the chaotic decommunization. An instant of toposonic confusion when habitude is broken. The film was inspired by the official renaming of Petrivka metro station. The name, which derived from the surname of the Soviet communist Petrovsky was replaced with an ancient hydronym Pochaina. The renaming led to re-recording of all Kyiv metro announcements with a new voice, while the old one had gone for good.
Labyrinth
Stepan Koval | 8:04' | 2017
What about the labyrinth, except that it is a labyrinth?
The history of Ukraine in 5 minutes
Sashko Danylenko | 5:37' | 2019
The brief history of Ukraine from the Big Bang to nova days
About the Heart
Anna Hryhoruk | 1:54' | 2023
A young doctor is in a hurry carrying a heart in an ambulance. Suddenly, a fox jumps out of the bushes and causes an accident. The heart together with broken glass falls out of the car. The fox and the doctor start a fight.
Borscht, or Fried Shoes
Hanna Beskrovna | 2:18' | 2025
The Carrot Warrior, upon discovering his enslaved kin, performs a magical ritual and urges them to open their eyes to their complete lack of rights in this cruel world. Who is he? A half-mad Don Quixote defying the eternal plant-animal dualism? Or a warrior-prophet pointing others toward the path of salvation in an open field of possibilities? The choice is left to the viewer.
Life in between
Iryna Lytvynova | 3:55' | 2025
A cheerful artist wakes up to the reality of war. She tries to escape to a quiet haven, only to be met by her own destructive emotions. This is a story about struggle — and strength.
Dreamtracks
Margaryta Winkler | 2:23' | 2025
This hand-drawn short film is both the director's love letter to train travel through Ukraine born of a deep longing for home and an attempt to capture the dreamlike state of being suspended between destinations.
The Weird
Roman Dzvonkovsky | 3:28' | 2021
Didko (aka the devil) is a character of Ukrainian folk demonology. The narrative conveys that didko is waiting for everyone who misbehaves and will torture them.
Only this work doesn't depict them in a traditional way, with little horns upon the pig's face, with goat legs and covered in fur. Instead, it suggests their appearance as humans, implying that anyone could be a sinner and anyone could be a devil.
I died in Irpin
Anastasia Falileieva | 11:22' | 2024
On February 24th in the morning my boyfriend and I decided to go from Kyiv to Irpin to see his parents. It is hard for me to recall the chronology of those days, my mind blocks and minimizes all the memories, erases them, but the only thing I know for sure is that every day everything rapidly became worse.
Deep Love
Mykyta Lyskov | 13:58' | 2019
Deep love has finally happened in Ukraine