Bohdan Zhuk is the director of the LGBTQIA+ film festival SUNNY BUNNY and a programmer at the Kyiv International Film Festival Molodist, the largest film event in Ukraine (its 54th edition will take place from October 25 to November 2, 2025). Born in Zboriv, Ukraine, in 1989, he holds a degree in linguistics and has professional experience as a translator, journalist, and radio host. He joined the Molodist team in 2014 as a press attaché (until 2015) and programmer. He curates both competitive and non-competitive sections of Molodist and heads SUNNY BUNNY, which was originally launched in 2001 as part of Molodist and is the oldest regular LGBT+ event in Ukraine. In 2023, SUNNY BUNNY became an independent event, establishing itself as Ukraine’s first queer film festival. Its third edition took place in April 2025.
Zhuk is also involved in international Molodist initiatives dedicated to Ukrainian cinema, including programmes at festivals such as Encounters (UK), BEAST (Portugal), Jugendfilmtage (Zurich, Switzerland), Soura (Berlin), QueerScope (Germany and Switzerland), and image+nation (Montreal, Canada), as well as special events like Ukrainian Cinema Days held abroad (in Munich, London, Paris, Porto, Prague, and more). He has also been part of the selection team for the BEAST International Film Festival (Porto) and works as a freelance translator, specialising in film translations for national releases and festival screenings.
Jury member at the Teddy Awards (Berlinale), BEAST IFF (Porto), image+nation (Montreal), TLVFest (Tel Aviv), Crime & Punishment IFF (Istanbul), Mezipatra Queer Film Festival (Prague), Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS, Lovers Film Festival (Turin), Docudays UA Human Rights Documentary Film Festival (Kyiv), Kyiv International Short Film Festival, and Finale Plzeň (Czech Republic).
Anna Machukh is the co-founder and executive director of the Ukrainian Film Academy, the general director of the Odesa International Film Festival, a member of the European Film Academy, and the founder of Dzyga MDB — an innovative platform for the film industry.
She worked at international companies PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte. From 2011 to 2016, she headed the marketing department of the Odesa International Film Festival. From 2016 to 2020, she was responsible for the festival's strategic development, and in 2020, she became its General Director.
In 2017, she became the co-founder and executive director of the Ukrainian Film Academy, which organises the Golden Dzyga National Film Award. In 2019, she founded DzygaMDB, a database of the Ukrainian film industry, and from 2022 to 2024, she served as Secretary of the Ukrainian Oscar Committee.
Oleksandra (Sasha) Prokopenko is a festival programmer, film curator, and translator based in Kyiv, Ukraine. For the past five years, she has been the Head of Programming at the Kyiv International Short Film Festival. Sasha has also participated in several film festivals as a curator, mentor, and jury member.
She has also collaborated with the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival and Ukraine's first LGBTQIA+ film festival, Sunny Bunny. Since 2016, she has worked at the independent film distribution company, KyivMusicFilm. Amongst other projects, Sasha has worked at the 100 Films in 100 Minutes festival, INTRO film festival about music and culture, and Kino Susidiv, the international film festival in Uzhhorod, Zakarpattia. Sasha is the Berlinale Talents (2024, Audience Design) and the Festival Academy (2025, Atelier for Young Festival Managers in Donostia/San Sebastián) alumna.
Anastasiia Verlinska began her career as a project manager at FILM.UA Group, one of the largest film companies in Eastern Europe, where she worked on promoting Ukrainian cinema and animation. In 2014, she joined the LINOLEUM animation festival team as a program coordinator, and since 2016, she has led the festival as its director. Outside the festival, Anastasiia actively organises screenings of Ukrainian and international animation and initiates educational programmes that support the development of the local animation industry. She serves as an expert for the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the State Film Agency of Ukraine and is also a member of the expert group of the RES-POL project — rapid expert support for culture and media policy in Ukraine.
Alex Malyshenko is the program director of Mykolaichuk OPEN, a film journalist, and a communications specialist in film distribution. His work has been published in LB.ua, Moviegram, DTF Magazine, and Vogue Ukraine. His main focus is Ukrainian and international cinema.
Yuliia Kovalenko is the programme director at Docudays UA, a film critic, and a doctoral candidate in cultural studies. She serves as a pre-selector for the Berlinale Forum section. Yulia holds an academic degree and has teaching experience at several universities in Odesa, where she taught theory and history of culture. In 2019, she joined the programming team at Docudays UA, curating the non-competitive DOCU/ART program and other special sections. In 2023, she became the programme director of the festival. As an independent curator, in 2022, she co-curated the Ukrainian cinema programme “Perspectives of Ukrainian Cinema” for the Deutsche Kinemathek (German Cinematheque). As a film critic, her work appears in Ukrainian and international publications such as Kino Raksti and KINO-KOLO. She also runs her own cinema blog, Kinotabs.com. Yuliia is a member of the Ukrainian Union of Film Critics and the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.
Darya Levchenko is a festival programmer, film researcher, cultural manager, and translator. Since 2023, she has been curating the New Talents programme for the PÖFF Shorts section of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. She was also the programme coordinator of Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Kyiv, Ukraine, from 2022 to 2024. Darya's previous film curatorial experience includes programming for the AFI Theatre and Cultural Centre and screening duties for FilmFestDC.
