23 August 2025
(Screening of the movie. PHOTOS: America House Odesa)
The Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) has announced that the Irish Ukrainian-language film Sanatorium has been selected to represent Ireland in the International Feature Film category at the upcoming 98th Annual Academy Awards.
This was announced by Screen Ireland, the Irish state film development agency.
The International Feature Film category of the Oscars is a separate category for films shot in a language other than English. Each country can submit only one film to this category to represent their country. "Sanatorium was selected by the IFTA 2025 committee.
The world premiere of the film took place in Copenhagen as part of their main international competition DOX:AWARD at the end of March 2025. Subsequently, it was screened at international festivals including Visions Du Reel in Switzerland, Edinburgh International Film Festival, DocuDays UA, Melbourne International Film Festival and Galway Film Fleadh, where it won the award for Best Irish Feature Documentary of 2025.
Finally, the film premiered in Odesa as part of the PORUCH Contemporary Culture Festival. The film is Gar O'Rourke's debut feature film.
Gar O'Rourke is an Irish documentary filmmaker who has won a number of prestigious awards. In his debut feature film , Sanatorium, he tells the stories of the employees and visitors of a Soviet-style health center in war-torn southern Ukraine.
"Kuyalnyk was one of the first sanatoriums in the world to use mud therapy. In the summer of 2018, it celebrated its 185th anniversary. The sanatorium now has a clinic with a gym for exercise therapy, a brine pool, a massage room, physiotherapy and other treatment rooms. Mud therapy is available all year round.
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