The Docudays NGO and the International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA present the ninth edition of the Electronic Catalogue of Ukrainian Documentary Films (2025–2027). The publication introduces contemporary Ukrainian documentary cinema and its professional landscape: films and film projects, production companies, studios, film festivals, distributors, industry professionals, and film curators.

The theme and visual concept of this year’s festival, Simple Structures, remind us that despite the world’s constant change and the ongoing rethinking of what is considered normal, it often rests on fundamental values: equality, democracy, and mutual support. It is precisely these seemingly simple yet deeply layered notions that are frequently captured, explored, and reflected upon in Ukrainian documentary filmmaking.

“Over the past decade, Ukrainian documentary cinema has become increasingly diverse: bold explorations of film language have emerged, and filmmakers have turned to painful and important subjects. Following the start of the full-scale invasion, documentary film production saw explosive growth. By some estimates, the number of documentaries increased by approximately 400–500 percent. It cannot be said that our catalogue has grown significantly in volume, yet its content is strikingly diverse: from intimate and deeply moving personal stories to epic canvases. From emerging filmmakers taking their first tentative steps to Oscar winners.

For me, an important marker of this current stage is the emergence of a new trend in Ukrainian cinema — films made by soldiers. These works are shot in trenches, in the first person, mostly by people for whom filmmaking is not their primary profession today. In this foreword, I deliberately avoid mentioning specific names or titles, as I believe it would be unethical to single anyone out among the many important works collected in this catalogue,” says Gennady Kofman, one of the founders and the first heads of the International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA, and a member of the catalogue’s Selection Сouncil.

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This year, the catalogue received over 100 submissions. The ninth edition includes 61 films, more than 130 film industry professionals, and over 50 organizations.

Each of the featured projects continues the tradition of Ukrainian documentary filmmaking, which not only gained new resonance after the Revolution of Dignity but has a much longer history, despite years of marginalization and appropriation attempts by the Soviet Union. These films are a documentation of the present and an effort to interpret it, inscribing it into our shared history — into the construction of the present and the future.

War and the lived experience of it remain central themes in many of the films. At the same time, filmmakers explore questions of preserving humanity, sensitivity, and solidarity in conditions of prolonged violence. The catalogue also features films on ecology, family, everyday life, human rights, feminism, and queer experiences.

“One of the most prominent postcolonial scholars, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, emphasized that colonial power often speaks on behalf of the oppressed even when it claims to protect them. Therefore, restoring the voices of those who have long gone unheard is a crucial component of decolonization.

For Ukrainian cinema, this thesis is especially relevant. Ukrainian filmmakers have come a long way in being recognized on the international film map as an independent and distinctive cultural phenomenon. At the same time, even today, situations still arise where narratives about Ukraine substitute the voices of Ukrainians themselves.

In a reality where the war has been ongoing for thirteen years, such practices have not only symbolic but also very tangible consequences. This is why supporting local professional communities, national narratives, and Ukrainian cultural institutions is an essential part of the struggle for freedom and agency.

The Ukrainian Documentary Catalogue was created as a way to introduce the international film community to the Ukrainian industry. Over the years, however, it has also become a kind of chronicle of the development of Ukrainian documentary cinema and a tool of cultural diplomacy that helps overcome the colonial lens through which Ukraine is often viewed.

This year, we are pleased to present the ninth edition of the catalogue. This has been made possible thanks to the support of the European Union within the FILMDECO project, which we are implementing together with two European film festivals — One World (Slovakia) and Verzió (Hungary). The project focuses on critically rethinking the legacy of colonial policies in Central and Eastern Europe and on developing practical tools for decolonization for cultural institutions. In this context, the Ukrainian Documentary Catalogue serves as an example of a decolonial practice that supports the visibility of Ukrainian cinema and professional communities at the international level,” says Docudays UA Programme Director Yulia Kovalenko.

For more details on the catalogue selection criteria, please refer to the regulations.

Funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

For inquiries, please contact: [email protected].