Look Beyond: Events and Exhibitions at OKO—2025

OKO is more than just film screenings. It’s a stage where cultural voices resonate, rituals stir, and memory takes root. It’s a space where we see ourselves — different, yet genuine. Every year, we gather not only to watch films but also to explore what hurts, what fades, and what holds our worlds together.

This year, the International Ethnographic Film Festival team has prepared a series of discussion panels, creative encounters, and photo and art exhibitions in Kyiv and Bolhrad.

Among the speakers are cultural figures, experts, researchers, artists, and thought leaders. Topics of this year’s conversations include:

- Where does the loss of a region begin? The pain and hope of the Odesa region (The voice of regions and national minorities in the information resistance).

- Folk masquerades around the world: How folk theatre preserves culture.

- Inclusion and cinema as a tool for education.

- The war that irritates: What war films resonate with international audiences? The power of cultural diplomacy through films.

- Cultural diplomacy: The soft power of cinema.

- Tradition and gender discrimination: A comparative analysis across time, cultures, and countries based on films.

- Workshop on crafting strong grant applications by House of Europe (Bolhrad).

- Presentation of the Budjak folklore expedition: archival footage, performances by folk ensembles, and master classes by local artisans and musicians — cultural carriers who became protagonists of the expedition (Bolhrad).

In Kyiv, a special creative talk will be held with actress Anastasiia Tsymbalaru — a native of Bolhrad who brings her roles to life with a depth that rivals reality.

This year’s visual concept at OKO is not a backdrop — it’s a record. At its heart are unique photographs of winter rituals from Bulgaria, Bessarabia, and Ukraine. The central images are by Bulgarian artist and researcher Ivan Shishiev, whose works have been published in National Geographic, EUobserver, Vogue US, Le Monde, and more. His photo exhibition will be showcased during the festival.

OKO also collaborates with Ukraïner — a multimedia public-cultural research project that documents and promotes Ukrainian traditions, including those tied to the winter holidays of St. Vasyl and Malanka.

A powerful highlight of the festival week will be two art exhibitions by women who transformed their visions of war into color and form.

• Sylvia Atipova, a Bulgarian artist, journalist, and writer who lives and works across Europe, will present her project "Art Aiding Heroes" — an honest and personal response to the Russian-Ukrainian war from the perspective of an engaged observer.

• Lesia Babliak, Lesia Babliak, a Ukrainian painter, will present her series "The Yellow-Blue Album", inspired by her personal experience living through the war in her home country — a visual reflection of trauma, resistance, and resilience.

OKO is more than a festival. It’s an invitation to look deeper — and to see not only others, but ourselves.