Denis Ivanov: Last News

The spectre of the war in Ukraine loomed large at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) on Tuesday as it hosted the annual Work in Progress showcase of the Ukrainian Odesa International Film Festival (OIFF).

EXCLUSIVE: Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov spent more than five years in prison in Russia for opposing its annexation of his native Crimea in 2014. 

Marta Balaga Ukrainian industry players gathered in Cannes are determined to show they can provide a variety of new content, as well as stories that look beyond the current Russian invasion.“I have been repeating this since 2014 — it’s a trap to be only associated with war,” says producer Julia Sinkevych, now behind Marysia Nikitiuk’s upcoming feature “Lucky Girl.”Presented at the Cannes Market as part of the Ukrainian Features Preview, it shows a successful TV star who has everything, until she is diagnosed with cancer.As noted by Ukrainian Institute’s Natalie Movshovych, several projects focus on the 1990s, including “When We Were 15” — awarded at Meeting Point Vilnius in April — “Do You Love Me?” by Tonia Noyabriova, Philip Sotnychenko’s “Lapalissade” and “Rock. Paper.

Film producers are often used to facing challenging situations but for Denis Ivanov, he never could have anticipated the dramatic diversion his job would take when, on February 24th, Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of his home country.

Christopher Vourlias Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and producer Denis Ivanov are teaming up again after their last collaboration, the ‘90s-set crime drama “Rhino,” premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar last year.The new feature, “Shining World,” centers on a mother and her young son living in a small American town in the 1960s. Described by Ivanov as a “fairy tale” with echoes of Wes Anderson’s whimsical tone, it unspools in both the real world and in the imagination of its young protagonist after he learns an amusement park is being built nearby.“Shining World” was written by Sentsov while imprisoned on what his supporters insist were trumped-up charges after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Cannes Film Marché has unveiled the full lineup of its Ukraine in Focus program which will provide Ukrainian filmmakers and producers with networking, pitching and co-financing opportunities over two days during the Cannes Film Festival, on May 21 and 22.Under the program, key market initiatives such as Goes to Cannes, Cannes Docs Showcase and the Producers Network will be skewed towards projects and executives from Ukraine in order to support the country which was invaded by Russia on Feb. 24 and has been at war since then.

Russian premier Vladimir Putin has delivered a TV address in which he claimed the West is “trying to cancel” his country.

EXCLUSIVE: Influential Ukrainian film producer Denis Ivanov, whose credits include Sergey Loznitsa’s Donbass and Oleg Sentsov’s Rhino, says the lack of support from major film festivals for a boycott of Russian culture is tantamount to complicity in Vladimir Putin’s war.

The Czech Republic’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) has added to the film community voices addressing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The three key side events of the Cannes Film Festival – Critics’ Week, ACID and the Directors’ Fortnight – will not be joining the boycott of Russian cinema.

Oleg Sentsov, the Ukrainian filmmaker and activist whose latest feature was the 2021 Venice premiere Rhino, has released a full statement from the frontline of the war backing the boycott of Russian cinema. Scroll down to read it.

Denis Ivanov, the Ukrainian producer whose credits include films with Oleg Sentsov and Sergei Loznitsa, has penned an open letter while fighting on the front line of the war backing the proposed boycott of Russian cinema. Read it in full below.

Christopher Vourlias Denis Ivanov, the Ukrainian producer of critically acclaimed films including Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s “The Tribe,” Sergey Loznitsa’s “Donbass” and Oleh Sentsov’s “Rhino,” has penned an impassioned letter against Russia’s war in Ukraine, describing it as a “genocide against Ukrainians” and accusing the Russian military of war crimes.In the letter, Ivanov gave his full-throated support to a boycott on Russian films, demanding “no more ‘business as usual’ with Putin’s Russia.”“I think some festival selectors, film professionals and cultural managers just do not get what is happening in Ukraine,” he wrote, in light of an ongoing campaign by the Russian military that has escalated in recent days. “This war of aggression by the Russians has turned into a war on independence and a war for values and rights.