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    Call for the Protection of Ukrainian Film Heritage

    The Dovzhenko Centre is the largest and internationally well-recognised film archive of Ukraine, which currently holds more than 10,000 titles of feature, documentary and animation films, more than 24,000 archived documents on the history of Ukrainian cinema, and more than 400 museum exhibits.

    The Dovzhenko Centre team informs us that the Ukrainian State Film Agency has now issued an order to re-organise the Dovzhenko Center. All films are to be transferred to the State Scientific Centre of Cinematography, copyrights for Ukrainian animation films, currently owned by the Dovzhenko Center, to a newly created state enterprise called ‘Ukrainian Animation Studio’.

    The beforementioned State Scientific Centre of Cinematography, however, has never been active since its foundation in 2011 during the presidency of Victor Yanukovych.

    The European Film Academy is worried that the responsibility for the unique cinematographic heritage of Ukraine is being transferred from a well-known, well-respected and experienced institution to an unknown entity that has no appropriate staff, no relevant competencies, and no website. This does not mirror appropriate respect for the cinematographic art as an important part of our culture.

    The European Film Academy therefore joins the Dovzhenko Centre team in demanding:

    1. To invalidate the Ukrainian State Film Agency’s order to №100 from 5 August 2022 about the re-organisation of the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre.

    2. To create law mechanisms for protecting Ukrainian film heritage from similar assaults in the future, for this we recommend mentioning Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Center as the Ukrainian state film fund in Ukrainian laws.