Ukrainian cinema at the 43rd Jerusalem Film Festival from July 9 to 19, 2026 in Jerusalem

From July 9 to 19, 2026, the 43rd Jerusalem Film Festival is held in Jerusalem—one of Israel’s main film forums and an important platform for international auteur cinema.

This year, the Ukrainian presence at the festival is particularly noticeable: the program features films by Valentyn Vasyanovych and Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, and director Serhiy Loznitsa is included in the festival agenda as one of the key international guests and the president of the jury of the Israeli competition.

The festival takes place at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and Lev Smadar venues, with its opening scheduled for July 9 at Sultan’s Pool.

Ukrainian theme in Jerusalem

For the Israeli audience, Ukrainian cinema today is no longer just stories about war.

It is a conversation about a country experiencing a full-scale invasion but continues to create complex, auteur, and internationally recognized cinema.

The program of the 43rd Jerusalem Film Festival features two different Ukrainian films.

One is a feature drama-dystopia about post-war Ukraine and the internal choice of a person who stays.

The other is a documentary observation of a closed religious community on the banks of the Dniester, into whose life war gradually enters.

Both films speak of different things, but at the center of both is the question of a person’s connection with home, land, memory, and future.

That is why for NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency this program is important not only as a cultural event but also as part of the Israeli-Ukrainian dialogue.

“To the Victory!” — Valentyn Vasyanovych

The main feature Ukrainian film of the festival program is “To the Victory!” directed by Valentyn Vasyanovych.

On the Jerusalem Film Festival website, the film is presented in the International Competition section. It is a production of Ukraine and Lithuania, 2025, with a duration of 105 minutes. The language of the film is Ukrainian, with subtitles in Hebrew and English.

The plot of the film unfolds in post-war Ukraine.

The main character is a director who stays in the country while his wife and daughter start a new life in Vienna. He finds himself between hope and uncertainty, trying to understand what it means to stay when the old life is already destroyed, and the new one has not yet begun.

This description sounds almost like a continuation of the reality in which Ukraine lives after 2022.

But Vasyanovych does not make a direct report on the war. He works with the state after the catastrophe: with emptiness, silence, creative deadlock, family distance, and the painful question of whether it is possible to build a future in a place that has experienced destruction.

Vasyanovych acts not only as the director and screenwriter of the film but also as one of the producers, cinematographers, and editors of the film. The official festival data lists Volodymyr Yatsenko, Valentyn Vasyanovych, Anna Yatsenko, Marija Razgute, Iya Myslytska among the producers.

This is an important clarification because Ukrainian announcements often highlight Volodymyr and Anna Yatsenko separately, known for their work on the film “You Are Cosmos”, but the full producer team is broader.

“To the Victory!” already has significant international recognition: the film received the Platform Award at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival in 2025. TIFF officially announced the winner of the Platform Award as the film To The Victory! by Valentyn Vasyanovych.

For Vasyanovych, this is a continuation of a strong festival trajectory.

His film “Atlantis” won a prize in the Orizzonti program of the Venice Film Festival, and “Reflection” was presented in the competition of the 78th Venice Film Festival. The Venice Biennale separately noted the Ukrainian film Reflection as a work by Vasyanovych shown in the main competition program of 2021.

Screenings of “To the Victory!” at the Jerusalem Film Festival:

July 10, 2026, Friday — 10:00, Cinematheque 3

July 13, 2026, Monday — 15:30, Cinematheque 1

July 15, 2026, Wednesday — 21:45, Cinematheque 2

Tickets – https://jff.org.il/en/movie/94294

The schedule is confirmed by the official page of the film on the festival website.

“Silent Flood” — Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk

The second Ukrainian film in the program is “Silent Flood” directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk.

This is a documentary film produced by Ukraine and Germany, 2025, with a duration of 90 minutes. The language of the film is Ukrainian, with subtitles in Hebrew and English. At the Jerusalem Film Festival, the film is presented in the The Chantal Akerman Prize for experimental documentary section — a competition for experimental documentary cinema.

The film tells about a pacifist religious community on the banks of the Dniester in Western Ukraine.

This community lives almost outside the modern world: without the usual urban infrastructure, without constant connection to external reality, in its own rhythm and by its own rules.

Their life is primarily disrupted by natural disasters — regular floods.

But then comes the war.

And it is the war that forces the closed world to seek contact with the external space, which it previously almost did not want to enter. The official festival description emphasizes that the peaceful life of the community gradually comes under the pressure of regular floods and unexpected war.

In this sense, “Silent Flood” is not an ordinary film about war.

It is a film about how war reaches even those who tried to live outside politics, outside technology, and outside the big historical noise.

Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk is known to Israeli and international audiences primarily as the director of the feature film “Pamfir”, which was presented in the Directors’ Fortnight program at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022.

But “Silent Flood” is a different type of statement.

Here, the important things are not plot twists, but observation, rhythm, space, silence, and the gradual change of the inner world of people who encounter great history, even if they themselves did not strive to become part of it.

The film has already received international awards.

At IDFA 2025, the film received the IDFA Award for Best Cinematography in the international competition. The professional page of IDFA indicates that the award for best cinematography in the International Competition was awarded to the film Silent Flood by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk.

In addition, at the Krakow Film Festival, the director received the Silver Horn for a film of high artistic value. Business Doc Europe cites the jury’s decision, noting the film’s artistic rigor and its faith in humanity even in the darkest moments of war.

Screenings of “Silent Flood” at the Jerusalem Film Festival:

July 14, 2026, Tuesday — 13:00, Cinematheque 2

July 15, 2026, Wednesday — 10:30, Cinematheque 1

July 17, 2026, Friday — 17:00, Cinematheque 4

Tickets – https://jff.org.il/he/movie/94192

The schedule is confirmed by the official page of the film on the festival website.

Serhiy Loznitsa as a separate Ukrainian highlight of the festival

The Ukrainian presence at the 43rd Jerusalem Film Festival is not limited to two films.

One of the most notable international guests of the festival will be Serhiy Loznitsa.

The Jerusalem Post writes that Loznitsa will be an honorary guest of the festival, receive special recognition at the opening ceremony at Sultan’s Pool on July 9, and become the president of the jury of the Israeli competition.

We have already written – Ukrainian director to head the jury of the Israeli film competition at the 43rd Jerusalem Film Festival

The official jury page of the Jerusalem Film Festival also lists Serhiy Loznitsa as the President of the Israeli competition. It notes that he is a screenwriter, director, and producer who has made five feature films and twenty-eight documentaries, including My Joy, In the Fog, Donbass, State Funeral, Babi Yar. Context, and Two Prosecutors.

This is an important moment for understanding the overall framework of the festival.

In Jerusalem, Ukrainian cinema in 2026 is presented not as a random national insert, but as part of a large European and international conversation about war, memory, responsibility, and human choice.

Why this is important for the Israeli audience

For Israel, Ukrainian cinema today sounds particularly close.

The Israeli audience well understands what it means to live next to war, what it means to lose security, what it means to evacuate families, the gap between home and temporary shelter, and the constant feeling that personal life is no longer separate from big history.

That is why the films of Vasyanovych and Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk can be understood not only by Ukrainians in Israel.

“To the Victory!” speaks about a person who stays in the country after the war and tries to understand how to live further.

“Silent Flood” shows people who wanted to be outside the modern world, but the war still came to them.

These two stories are different in form but close in nerve.

One is about post-war emptiness.

The other is about the quiet collision of a closed world with catastrophe.

Together they show Ukraine not through a slogan, but through a person, space, choice, and silence.

Ukrainian cinema as testimony

At the 43rd Jerusalem Film Festival, Ukrainian cinema appears at a very precise moment.

The war is still ongoing.

Millions of Ukrainians remain scattered between the front, the rear, evacuation, and emigration.

But Ukrainian directors continue to make films that receive recognition in Toronto, Amsterdam, Krakow, Cannes, Venice, and now once again resonate in Jerusalem.

This is not just a cultural news.

This is evidence that the Ukrainian voice remains in the international space—not as a background to political statements, but as an independent artistic expression.

The Jerusalem festival gives this voice an important platform.

For viewers in Israel, this is an opportunity to see Ukraine not only in the news feed but on the big screen—through auteur cinema, where war is present not only as an event but as a trace in human life.

Ukrainian cinema at the 43rd Jerusalem Film Festival is a story of presence.

Of the presence of a country that continues to speak.

Of the presence of directors who do not turn trauma into a poster.

And of the presence of the viewer who is ready not just to watch, but to understand.

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