The festival grows out of the Sunny Bunny strand at Molodist which has been part of the festival since 2001. Molodist (founded in 1970) was the second big international film festival in the world after Berlinale and Teddy to introduce the special award for LGBTQIA+ themed films and launch a dedicated program to it, which then evolved into Sunny Bunny as a competition of full-length fiction films and non-competition screenings of documentaries, short films, and queer classics. Andriy Khalpakhchi and Anatoliy Yerema were the founders of the LGBTQIA+ program at Molodist. Sunny Bunny has been the leading LGBTQIA+ themed cultural event in Ukraine and the Eeastern European region.

Sunny Bunny film festival will maintain the tradition of the eponymous programme at Molodist, while expanding into a wider scope of subjects and representing more films and talents. The main program will be the international competition dedicated to feature-length fiction films. In addition, it will showcase fiction, documentary, short, and classic films in the non-competition part of the festival. 

Sunny Bunny is a competition festival, with the eponymous main prize, awarded to the winner of the international competition of feature-length fiction films. The winner is chosen by an international jury of five members, which includes film industry professionals, artists, activists. The jury may award up to two special mentions in the competition.
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Audience award is presented to one of the films from across the festival’s sections, based on the vote of viewers attending physical screenings in Kyiv.