Kyiv hosted the Molodist film festival, which in 2025 was held for the third time since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Founded in 1970 as a showcase for student films, it has grown into a major international event and retained all of its main prewar sections.
The festival unfolded under wartime conditions, which organizers and participants viewed not only as a cultural event but also as an act of civic resistance. Screenings were halted during air raid alerts, audiences were sent to shelters, and power cuts with a switch to generators caused several sessions to be canceled on one evening.
Over a week and a half, the festival presented 160 films from 59 countries across 14 programs. The main venue was Kyiv’s Zhovten cinema, while some non-competition screenings were held at the House of Cinema. Foreign guests included Beau Willimon, the showrunner of House of Cards and Andor, who presented the documentary If We Never Meet Again about the war in Ukraine.
The film’s inclusion sparked debate because it was co-created by Petr Verzilov. Social media criticism argued that a Ukrainian festival should not give the floor on the subject of war to a person of Russian origin. Program director Bohdan Zhuk said through the media that Verzilov holds Canadian citizenship, had long faced persecution in Russia, and is fighting on Ukraine’s side, while the selection decision was made by a team that included two Ukrainian service members.
For the second year in a row, the festival’s Grand Prix went to a Ukrainian film. The winner was Tired, the directorial debut of cinematographer Yuriy Dunay, about the psychological rehabilitation of war veterans. The Belgian film We Believe You won best feature in the international competition, while the audience award went to Renovation by Lithuanian director Gabriele Urbonaite, featuring a notable performance by Ukrainian actor Roman Lutskyi.