First ukrainian lgbtqia+ film

FeSTIVAL

Aimed at representing the scope of international queer filmmaking (with a special place for Ukrainian films), voicing topical issues in global and national contexts, representing the community and being its mouthpiece, in artistic as much as social and political dimensions.

FESTIVAL

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.

AWARDS AND JURIES

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.

Daria Badior

Editor-in-chief of re/visions magazine

Critic, editor, film curator from Kyiv. For several years, she headed the Culture department at the Ukrainian online publication LB.ua. Member of the preparatory committee of the European Press Prize, co-curator of the Kyiv Critics' Week film festival. Co-editor of the collection We Who Have Changed (ist publishing, 2024).

Isabelle Stever

German film director, screenwriter

German filmmaker whose award-winning films premiered at international film festivals, in Berlin, Toronto, Locarno and Busan. She was a jury member a.o. at the Berlinale Shorts. Stever’s upcoming film, I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming, realized with her wife, Ukrainian scriptwriter and novelist Anna Melikova, was filmed 2024-2025 in Ukraine.

Jad Salfiti

British-Palestinian journalist and writer

Based between London and Berlin, Jad Salfiti is a British-Palestinian journalist covering culture and politics. He has written for The Guardian, The Nation, and Al Jazeera English. His video work includes Germany’s Palestine Problem, which won Best Use of Video at the 2023 WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards Middle East. He previously co-hosted ARTE’s Europe Weekly and was a Queer Palm juror at Cannes in 2024.

Photo: Piotr Wojsznis

Regulations 2026

The LGBTQIA+ SUNNY BUNNY Film Festival will take place in Kyiv for the third time from April 17 to April 24, 2026.

The festival's goal is to be a significant representative of the Ukrainian and international LGBTQIA+ community, play a visible role in political and social representation, and catalyze change on the path to equality in Ukrainian society.

The objectives of the festival include analyzing key trends in addressing LGBTQIA+ themes in the works of filmmakers worldwide, especially emerging directors;

Establishing and expanding creative contacts among these filmmakers; integrating Ukrainian films into the global process of cinematography and industry, promoting the work of Ukrainian filmmakers with LGBTQIA+ themes;

Presenting and unveiling the cinematic heritage with LGBTQIA+ themes from around the world, including Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

For the full regulations and film submission, visit:

Submit

Team

Festival President

Andriy Khalpakhchi

Director

Bohdan Zhuk

Financial Director

Iryna Chykolovets

Technical Director

Maksym Voitenko

Programming Team

Andriy Khalpakhchi
Igor Shestopalov
Bohdan Zhuk
Viktor Hlon
Sasha Prokopenko

Coordinator of industry events

Aleks Dolottsev

Head of the communication department

Maryna Kryvoruchko

Head of the press department

Tasia Pugach

SMM coordinator

Kateryna Naberezhna

Director of trailers editing

Liudmyla Khivrenko

Head of translation department

Anastasiia Perun

Head of guest departament

Yaroslav Melnyk

Accreditation coordinator

Yulia Kremen

Ticket service coordinator

Yeva Makovetska

Volunteer Coordinator

Vladyslava Safronova

Embassy communication coordinator

Kateryna Kuznetsova

Online catalog editor

Anastasiia Illichova

Webeditor

Dmytro Skriabin

Driver-expeditor

Yurii Prydvorov