The opening ceremony of the second SUNNY BUNNY film festival will be held on April 19.
The closing film of SUNNY BUNNY will be Ethan Coen's new film Drive-Away Dolls (2024).
With his older brother, Joel Coen, Ethan wrote, directed, and produced a series of films that gave this duo a cult modern directorial status. Coen brothers edited some of their movies, referring to themselves as Roderick Jaynes. The most famous films of Ethan and Joel Coen are The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, The Big Lebowski, Bridge of Spies (screenplay), and, of course, Fargo, which won two Oscars, two BAFTA Awards, and the Cannes Film Festival.
Ethan Coen's solo project stars Margaret Qualley (Poor Things, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Maid, The Leftovers), Pedro Pascal (Mandalorian, The Last of Us), Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, Ocean's Eleven, The Talented Mr. Ripley), Geraldine Viswanathan, and Beanie Feldstein.
The film follows Jamie, an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian, who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way. Ethan Coen co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Tricia Cooke. The idea was first pitched back in the early 2000s.
Main Jury
Oksana Cherkashyna — Ukrainian theater and film actress, director, and performer.
Golden Dzyga winner, two-time National Film Critics Award Kinokolo winner for her roles in Bad Roads and Klondike. As a theater actress, she works with Powszechny Theatre and TR Warszawa. She was honored with two of the most important prizes in Polish theater in 2019: the Main Acting Award of the All-Polish Contemporary Art Competition and the second prize for Best Actress at the Divine Comedy Festival in Kraków. Oksana was also included in the list of the 50 most courageous women in Poland, together with Agnieszka Holland and Olga Tokarczuk, according to "Wysokie obcasy" magazine.
Pavel Bicek — Mezipatra queer cinema festival director and founder of distribution brand Queer Kino, which helps to promote queer cinema distribution on TV and streaming services.
Pavel has been a part of the Mezipatra queer film festival team since 2011. He became Mezipatra's director in 2015. In his work, he focuses on the promotion of queer films beyond Prague and Brno and hosts screenings in educational institutions that thousands of school students attend. He launched a successful distribution brand Queer Kino that assists in distributing queer films to cinemas, TV, and streaming services. Aside from Mezipatra, Pavel also worked with the One World Human Rights Film Festival and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. He also worked on film post-production.
Romas Zabarauskas — Lithuanian film director, screenwriter, author, and producer.
Romas Zabarauskas has established himself as a provocative Baltic narrator with a deep political and visual heritage. Zabarauskas got his Bachelor’s degree at Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis (2009-2012), studied at New York's Hunter College for a year, and completed a Master’s in communication at Kazimieras Simonavicius University (2014-2016) in Vilnius. Now, Romas lives together with his fiancée Kornelijus in Vilnius.
Union of the Ukrainian Film Critics Jury
Oksana Volosheniuk. Head of NGO, Union of the Ukrainian Film Critics since 2023. A teacher of the film studies department at Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University. The author of film criticism works and film articles for «History of Ukrainian Cinema Vol.2» (co-author), «Oleksandr Dovzhenko: between totalitarianism and the national idea. Encyclopedic dictionary. Vol.1» (co-author, 2023), and programs and manuals for media literacy and civic education. A member of FIPRESСI, National Film Critics Award Kinokolo, and National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine.
Oleksandr Gusev. A film critic and festival selector. A film reviewer of Ukrinform Agency. The Union of the Ukrainian Film Critics member.
Valeryi Mirnyi. Film review of New Voice magazine, journalist, producer. The Union of the Ukrainian Film Critics member.
Union of Film Critics of Ukraine is a Ukrainian non-profit organization created in 2018 to unite Ukrainian film critics and promote film culture development in Ukraine. Jury of UUFC collaborates with Ukrainian film festivals and provides special prizes and awards for achievements in film.
Pitching of short LGBTQIA+ films and pitching jury.
SUNNY BUNNY Film Festival together with Jägermeister announces Ukrainian LGBTQIA+ short films pitching.
The winner of the pitching will receive 80,000 hryvnias. Until April 18, the festival will receive films of any genre and medium (documentaries, animation, feature films, experimental), duration of up to 30 minutes.
Production country: Ukraine or co-production with Ukraine.
You may submit applications for projects in development or WIP projects.
Pitching will be held on April 24 in Zhovten Cinema, Classic Hall.
Registration link for an audience to attend the Pitching: https://forms.gle/bJbDtTDHEJABtQMK8
Pitching Jury
Zhanna Ozirna — Ukrainian director and screenwriter.
Berlinale Talents 2020 participant, Cité Internationale des arts та Les Récollets (2022) and Marathon Screening (2023) resident. Currently, works on two full feature films Ground Zero and Honeymoon.
Darya Bassel — Ukrainian film producer of independent documentary and feature films, the curator of industry platform, and head of the program at Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.
Alex Perera — Brand Manager Jägermeister, co-founder and resident of LGBTQIA+ events Stezhka.
The queer-cinema festival SUNNY BUNNY will run from 19 to 26 April.
You can buy a Festival Pass and tickets: https://ticketsbox.com/sunny-bunny/
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Festival Partners:
Heinrich Böll Foundation
International Renaissance Foundation
UN
The Embassy of Italy
The Italian Institute of Culture in Ukraine
Ukrainian software company appflame
Jägermeister
Outright International
Ukrainian State Film Agency
České centrum Kyiv
USAID «Transformation of Communications» project (TSA) - implementing innovative communication initiatives
Tech company Hexagon
Public organization Fulcrum UA
The platform of public associations Rizni.Rivni
Non-Governmental Organization “Women Association Sphere (Kharkiv, Ukraine)”
Non-profit educational and preventive project Drugstore
Ukrainian-Danish Youth House
Youth movement Teenergizer
Public organization Insight
Marsh Zhinok
Ilta
Zhovten Cinema
Omelia Atelier
Ukrainian fashion brand FROLOV
Ukrainian socks brand Noskar
HVLV bar
Community Cafe
Modern Ukrainian cuisine restaurant «Hlek»
Café-bistro tisto.kyiv
Craft donut shop Ponchyk Boy
Modern art Eye Sea Gallery
Mediapartners:
UA: Suspilne
Suspilne Culture
TyKyiv
Liroom
DTF Magazine
The Village Ukraine
New Ukrainian Cinema
Svidomi Media
Detector Media
Bazilik Media
Zaborona
