Frame from the film "The Guide"
Firstly, based on the results of the still ongoing film festival, it can be noted that many observers singled out Oles Sanin's magnificent work "The Guide" from the general mass, calling it the most promising film of the Odesa festival. This is a film about the 1930s. The plot is about how a blind kobzar saves the son of an American communist who came to build a factory.
The 5th OIFF continues the trend of showing a large number of films directed by women. The female film trend was already noticed at the Cannes Film Festival, did not surprise at the Sochi Kinotavr. It was accepted, already as a tradition, at the Moscow International Film Festival.
The Moscow Film Festival was remembered for the fact that the main director's prize went to Valeriya Gai Germanika for the film "Yes and Yes". OIFF did not lag behind the Moscow festival – here they singled out Nana Jorjadze, and besides her, seven more female directors.
OIFF will be remembered for traditional film screenings on the famous Potemkin Stairs, known worldwide through the work of a master of Soviet cinema. This is always a very large outdoor event. It is reported that Alfred Hitchcock's film "Blackmail" will be shown outdoors, and up to 15,000 viewers are expected to watch it. OIFF will close on July 19 with a comedy film starring Pierre Richard (those who have seen it claim that "Paper Souls" is something out of the ordinary). Many colorful enthusiastic epithets are added. In short – a masterpiece.
And the 5th OIFF began with the leader of Italian box office, "The Human Capital", a film by Paolo Virzì. The selectors screened about a thousand films over the year. From this huge list, 76 films were selected for screening from directors from three dozen countries on all continents except Australia.
At OIFF, not only film screenings, but also world-class leading directors such as Darren Aronofsky give online filmmaking lessons. Sergei Loznitsa surprised with the theses of his lecture on documentary cinema. Peter Webber gave a lecture "Death of Cinema". All in all, the film school showed its very high level.
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