Second edition of the Youth Festival of Amateur Films RANOK to be conducted by Zavtra.UA scholarship holders

The 2^nd Youth Festival of Amateur Film RANOK, organized by the winners of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation’s Zavtra.UA scholarship program in cooperation with the students of Vynnychenko Kirovohrad State Pedagogic University, will take place on April 4–6, 2012, in Kirovograd. The mission of the festival is to draw attention to the most crucial social problems and encourage young people to solve them. In addition, the event promotes revival of amateur film and forms a nucleus for amateur film enthusiasts in Ukraine.

This year more than 180 films have been submitted for the contest, coming from young independent filmmakers of Ukraine, Belarus, Great Britain, Israel, Iran, Portugal, Russia, Syria and the United States. The films are united by a common idea of ​​shedding light on social problems of modern society, such as human rights, animal welfare, environmental protection and etc.

Volodymyr Zhyvytsky, Festival Coordinator, "Zavtra.UA" scholarship holder: "RANOK Film Festival has proved that young people’s interest in social problems of a modern society is not subsiding - on the contrary, it’s encreasing. There remains a lot of open issues related to environmental problems, alcoholism, drug addiction, AIDS, handicaped people, homeless children and so forth. A necessary condition for solving these problems is an open dialogue between fil amateurs and the public. Film Festival RANOK and will continue to be a platform for such dialogue, bringing together all concerned young creative people to realize their most daring ideas."

Irina Gutsal, "Zavtra.UA" Project Manager: "We are glad to support individual initiatives of our scholarship holders, because by doing so we give them an opportunity to develop both in professional and creative way. Also, it’s very important for us that in addition to providing financial support, we encourage young people to express their public position and help them understand that in order to change the world, we need to start with ourselves.”

This year’s festival will be held under the patronage of the governor of Kirovohrad region S. Larin and supported by the People’s Deputy V. Yanukovych.

Social project "Youth Festival of Amateur Film RANOK" was developed and implemented as part of the Program to support individual initiatives of ZAVTRA.UA scholarship winners, backed by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. The first edition of the festival was held in April 2011 in Kirovograd, and presented 97 films from Ukraine, Russia and Israel.