The project “Cinema for Victory!” has won one of the world’s most prestigious communications awards, the SABRE Awards

The Ukrainian large-scale project “Cinema for Victory!” has won one of the world’s most prestigious communications awards, the SABRE Awards. The award recognizes campaigns and agencies that demonstrate the highest level of strategic planning, creativity and business results. This year’s winner in the category “Ukraine and Other Independent States” was the National Tour “Cinema for Victory!”.

“Cinema for Victory!” is a unique project that allows Ukrainian films to be seen by Ukraine’s defenders in military units and tens of thousands of viewers in communities without cinemas.

The project started on August 6, 2022, and is still ongoing. It is being implemented in several formats: a special film truck visiting towns and villages during the warm season; technical team visits to provide technical support for film screenings; remote screenings in cooperation with local activists and at the request of military units, medical institutions, boarding schools, etc. As part of the film tour, the organizers arrange numerous meetings with filmmakers, and pre-premiere screenings of Ukrainian films with the participation of directors, actors, and film crews are organized especially for the military.

“The project’s ambassadors are well-known actors: Ada Rogovtseva, Irma Vitovska, Bohdan Beniuk, Akhtem Seitablaev, and Oleksiy Tritenko, who regularly travel to film screenings. More than 30 well-known filmmakers have also visited the Tour to present their films. As part of the Tour, we have already organized more than 1150 screenings in 231 settlements in 21 regions of Ukraine. So winning such a prestigious festival is an important confirmation that we are doing everything right. It motivates us to continue and develop the project,” commented Andriy Rizol, the ideologist of the initiative, the Tour’s producer and the head of the Watch Ukrainian!

The project became possible thanks to the joint efforts of a number of co-organizers: The Office of the President of Ukraine, the State Film Agency of Ukraine, the National Guard, the National Police, and others.

One of the partners who supported the project and applied for the SABRE Awards was  «MHP-Gromadi» Foundation. The Foundation, together with the Association “Watch Ukrainian!” Association in 2021 co-organized the National Open Air Cinema Tour and did not think twice about joining the already updated project during a full-scale war.

“Culture is part of our struggle in the war against russia. Since the beginning of russian aggression in Ukraine, more than 6 million people have left their homes and migrated to other regions of our country. That is why we aimed to unite people around national values, identity and culture, to motivate them and support them with this tour. For us, the SABRE Awards is another opportunity to tell the world about the resilience of Ukrainians. Despite the shelling and blackouts, we continue to hold the cultural front. We are grateful to the jury members for recognizing this among 2,000 other campaigns,” said Tetiana Volochai, director of the «MHP-Gromadi» Foundation.

The «Cinema for Victory» tour continues. The project is expected to run until the end of October.

The project “Cinema for Victory!” is implemented at the initiative of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the State Film Agency of Ukraine, the Association “Watch Ukrainian!” with the support of the MHP-Hromada Foundation and Deloitte in Ukraine, with the assistance of the Babylon Company, the NGO UkrKinoFest, the NGO Union of TV and Film Industry Entrepreneurs, individual units of the Armed Forces and the National Guard of Ukraine in cooperation with regional military-civilian administrations and the National Police of Ukraine.