The Children's Film Festival has opened in Odessa

The 13th Children's Film Fest—a Ukrainian film festival for children and teenagers—will take place from June 12 to 21, both in person and online, and has now kicked off.

As Yevgen Dvorsky, the festival’s regional coordinator in Odesa, told an Intenta correspondent, the festival’s highlight in Odesa for the second year in a row is an eco-initiative to collect plastic—caps and bottles— in order to participate in the “Plastic Saves Lives” campaign. 

Children’s Film Fest is an annual international film festival for children and teenagers that introduces young Ukrainian audiences to both the latest European films and world cinema classics. The festival’s annual winning film is determined by a direct vote of the audience—at the entrance to the cinema, each visitor receives a ballot to rate the film. The festival is organized by the film company "Arthouse Traffic" in collaboration with the NGO "The Art of Cinema."

Festival jury members: 

• Anastasia Falileeva — animation director and stop-motion animator. The first Ukrainian animation director to be shortlisted for an Oscar with the film “I Died in Irpin.” She is also known for the series “Patron the Dog.”
• Volodymyr Yatsenko — Ukrainian film producer, founder of the advertising production company Limelite and the film production company ForeFilms. He is a full member of the Ukrainian and European Film Academies and a veteran of the industry. In 2025, he was awarded the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic.
• Alisa Kovalenko is a Ukrainian documentary filmmaker, human rights activist, and veteran. Her work combines documentary filmmaking with civic activism, focusing on themes of resilience, justice, and the human dimension of war. After Russia’s full-scale invasion, Alisa volunteered to go to the front lines and later returned to filmmaking with her personal film “With Love from the Front.” Her documentary "Traces" premiered at the 2026 Berlinale and won the Audience Award in the Panorama section for Best Documentary.

Кирило Бойко