Still from the feature film "Babylon 20"

Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has earmarked 100,000 UAH ($US 12,500) to hold film festivals in Canadian urban centers with major Ukrainian communities to mark the 120th Anniversary of the first Ukrainian immigration to that country. The Derzhkino (State Film Administration) has been charged with the task of holding such festivals this fall. Its current director Ms. Kateryna Kopylova turned to the Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University for help. Derzhkino will provide a program of both classical and most recent films feature narratives and shorts at no cost with a one-time permission to charge viewing fees during the run of the festival in order to defray the costs related to the screening.

Among the films to be screened are newly restored masterpiece by Leonid Osyka "Stone Cross," 1968, based on a Vasyl Stefanyk story about a family in Western Ukraine emigrating to Canada to escape from poverty, films with or by the actor and director Ivan Mykolaichuk: "Annychka," "Vavylon 20," "The Lost Petition," a program of feature shorts by young Ukrainian directors, as well as brand-new feature narrative films to be released within a month and directed by Mykhailo Illienko - "Firecrosser," a story of a Ukrainian man who becomes a chief of native Canadian tribe, by Valentyn Vasianovych - "An Ordinary Case," a tragicomedy from the life of modern-day Kyiv. This is to be the first such large-scale educational film festival to visit Canada in years. The dates and cities in which it will take place will be announced later.