Venice Film Festival to host Ukrainian Day

Ukrainian Day will be celebrated on September 6 at the Venice Film Festival 2023.

The organisers will host a series of panels and meetings to support war-torn Ukraine and its film industry, Variety reported.

With this event, which follows an analogous initiative on the Lido last year, the fest’s parent organization, the Venice Biennale Foundation, “reaffirms its solidarity with the Ukrainian people and the tragedy they are experiencing.” It segues from similar initiatives to support Ukraine organized by the Biennale during its visual arts and architecture sections.

The Venice Fest’s Ukrainian Day will be held at the Venice Production Bridge’s Spazio Incontri at the Hotel Excelsior.

It will include an introduction by the president of the Biennale, Roberto Cicutto, and artistic director Alberto Barbera.

The first panel will be titled “The Ukrainian Film Industry During the War” and feature a presentation of the state of affairs by Marina Kuderchuk, head of Ukraine’s state agency for cinema.

Another panel titled “Filming With Ukraine: Support and Cooperation” will also take place at the festival.

Premiering in Venice’s Horizons Extra section this year is Forever-Forever (Nazavzhdy-Nazavzhdy) by Ukrainian first-time director Anna Buryachkova which completed principal photography in Kyiv just two months before the city faced Russia’s full-scale attack war against Ukraine.

The 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival will take place from August 30 to September 9.