The Association of Non-Fiction Film of Ukraine presentation is an open event introducing the organization’s activities. The Association unites creators of audiovisual works based on documentary material, including documentary, hybrid cinema, and docu-animation. The event program presents an overview of the Association's strategic directions, including initiatives in advocacy, education, promotion of Ukrainian non-fiction cinema, and international cooperation. The event will serve as a platform for dialogue among industry professionals and an opportunity to discuss the community's challenges faces. All interested participants will be invited to join the Association as new members.
Participants:
Olha Bregman, Nadiia Parfan, Yelyzaveta Smith, Ivan Sautkin, Anna Kapustina
Moderator: Maksym Butkevych
Olha Bregman is a Ukrainian producer with more than 15 years of experience in film production. She is a co-founder of a women-led 2Brave Productions.
Her credits include award-winning movies such as Rules of Two Walls (Special Jury Prize at Tribeca FF 2023) by David Gutnik, STOP-ZEMLIA by Kateryna Hornostai (Crystal Bear Generation 14+ at Berlinale 2021), and Intercepted by Oksana Karpovych (Two Special Mention Awards at Berlinale 2024). Olha has also produced Kateryna Hornostai’s Timestamp, which premiered in the Competition at Berlinale 2025, and Collapse. How the Ukrainians ruined the Empire of Evil (2021 Documentary Series for Ukrainian National Channel). Alumni of the Ex Oriente and Eurodoc training programs.
Nadiia Parfan is a film director, creative producer, and curator of cultural projects. Co-founder of the International Festival of Film and Urbanism 86 in Slavutych, Ukraine (2014–2018) and the production company Phalanstery Films. Founder and curator of the Ukrainian online cinema platform Takflix.com. Member of the Ukrainian Film Academy, the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, and the Documentary Film Association. Director and screenwriter of Reve ta stohne on Tour (Special Jury Mention at Docudays UA, 2016), Heat Singers (Golden Dzyga and Kinokolo awards for Best Documentary, 2019), and It’s a Date (Special Mention of the Berlinale Jury, 2023). Producer of the anthology MyStreetFilmsUkraine (2015–2018) and the special project Takflix Original.
Yelyzaveta Smith is a director and screenwriter. Graduated from Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University in 2014 with a degree in narrative film directing. During her studies, she directed short fiction films that were shown at Ukrainian film festivals. She worked for a time as a TV director. Co-founder of the film company Tabor. She began working in documentary during the 2013–2014 revolution. Since December 2014, she has volunteered in Mykolaivka, Donetsk region, leading theatre workshops with schoolchildren. There she co-directed School #3, which won the Grand Prix of the Berlinale Generation 14+ program in 2017. She was the lead director of the socio-cultural theatre project Class Act East-West, and directed documentary plays at the Theatre of Displaced People. Co-director (with Alina Horlova and Semen Mozhovyi) of the upcoming film Militantropos, which will premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Participant in international programs such as Berlinale Talents, TorinoFilmLab, The Write Retreat, MidPoint Feature Launch, Sundance Script Lab, and others. Member of both the Ukrainian and European Film Academies. Recipient of KyivPost’s “30 under 30” award. In 2019, she studied at the Aspen Institute.
Ivan Sautkin is a director, cinematographer, artist, curator of art projects, owner of ZHOVID THE RESIDENCE, and co-founder of #BABYLON’13. He received his film education in Ukraine and the Netherlands. He taught film directing at the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts and the ZHOVID DIRECTORS CAMPUS.
Ivan Sautkin is the director of several film works, including short films produced as part of #BABYLON’13 in 2013–2014, the documentary series The Winter That Changed Us (2014), Stronger Than Arms (2015), and A Poem for Little People (2023). He is now working on the film DNA of the Nation (expected in 2026).
Anna Kapustina is a producer and owns, the ALBATROS COMMUNICOS FILM production company. From 2003 to 2014, she produced commercials, TV programs and international reality shows. Since 2014, she has been the producer of the Ukrainian cinematographic community #BABYLON`13 and NGO HERO.UA. Anna is a member of the European Film Academy and the Ukrainian Film Academy. Her documentary The First Company was awarded the Docudays Audience Award and nominated for the Best Ukrainian Documentary. The Earth Is Blue As an Orange (2020), winner of the Best Director Award in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival 2020, and took part in Berlinale 2020, HotDoc, IDFA, CPH:DOX and more than 100 Festivals and won more than 40 Awards. Her last documentary, A Bit of A Stranger, had its world premiere at the Berlinale 2024.
Maksym Butkevych is a human rights advocate, journalist, public figure, former military serviceman, and former prisoner of war. He is a co-founder of Hromadske Radio and the ZMINA Human Rights Centre, was a board member of the Ukrainian branch of Amnesty International, co-founder and co-coordinator of the organisation No Borders Project, worked on the protection of refugees and displaced persons, fought against discrimination, actively advocated for the release of Ukrainian political prisoners of the kremlin, including Oleh Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko, moderated screenings and events of the Docudays UA festival. He has dedicated over 15 years of his life to human rights work.
From the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion, Maksym joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, took part in the liberation of the Kyiv Region, fought in the East, and in June 2022 was taken prisoner. In occupied Luhansk, the so-called “LPR” court sentenced Butkevych to 13 years in a high-security penal colony as a “war criminal” in a fabricated case. After two years and 4 months of imprisonment, he was released from captivity and returned to Ukraine as part of an exchange on 18 October 2024.
