We are starting to process applications for the 16th International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA, which will take place in Kyiv on March 22-30, 2019.

The Festival’s competition program consists of three sections: the two international competitions DOCU/WORLD and DOCU/SHORT and the national competition DOCU/UKRAINE, which features documentaries created in Ukraine or in co-production with Ukraine.

This year, we are introducing an application fee for the DOCU/WORLD and DOCU/SHORT sections. Applications for the DOCU/UKRAINE competition will remain free until November 20. From November 21, the application fee for this section will be 10$.

“For many years, the Docudays UA audience has been able to enjoy our high-quality selection of the best documentaries of the world. However, as the festival grows, the number of applications to select from increases every year. We constantly work on improving the quality of the selection, so that we don’t miss any really important and interesting works. Now we are increasing the number of our selectors who will watch the submissions. Based on this preliminary selection, we form our internal shortlist, which the Selection Commission then discusses. This work is very responsible and rather exhausting. It starts nine months before the next festival. And within several months, we need to watch about a thousand films,” says Gennady Kofman, the program director of Docudays UA.

“Learning from the experience of our colleagues — because this is how most international film festivals work — we dared to do the following this year: the money from the application fees will be used to pay for the work of the team which works on the preliminary selection with us, looking for new discoveries and new names. And this is another progressive step in the development of the film festival, an improvement of the quality of the selection and of the general level of the festival program.”

Winners in all competitions and nominations will receive monetary awards. In particular, from next year, a special DOCU/RIGHTS Jury will award the Festival’s special award to the winner among the films nominated for this award. The participants in this nomination will be selected by the Selection Committee from all competition programs.

The final application deadline is December 10, 2018. The first 20 applications are received and considered free of charge (PROMO CODE is 20HAPPYFILMS).

See more about the deadlines and criteria for application at the Festival Regulations page.

We are looking forward to seeing your new films!

Header photo: Docudays UA-2018