Programme 2026

International Competition #1

Lviv International Film Festival invites you to the screening of the first selection of the International Competition!

Screening date: September 23, 6:30

Screening location: Lviv Art Palace, 17 Kopernyka str.

The project is supported by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. Festival partners: ZMIN Foundation, Ukrainian State Film Agency, M-Rental, Morshynska, America House Lviv, Lviv City Council, Megogo, Morshynska, Lviv Film Hub, Suspilne Culture, Sebto Media, Zahid.Net

Films in the programme

6 films · 95 min

  1. 01

    THE RECCE

    Daniel Mann, Germany, United Kingdom 2026 · 15′

    Drawing on a location test filmed in Uganda and an email exchange with the location scout, The Recce captures cinema’s ties to land and its entanglement with colonial imaginaries, binding the fiction of filmmaking with the fiction of state-building.

  2. 02

    AUGUST AND THE WAR

    Leandro Netzell Cerón, Samori Tovatt, Sweden 2026 · 15′

    August, who lives in the small town of Blomstermåla, cannot do military service. But as Sweden rearms and Preparedness Week reaches the his small community, he is given the chance to explore both his own and others’ willingness to defend, in a disarming and humorous portrait of one of the defining questions of our time.

  3. 03

    STIINA

    Elisabeth Kužovnik, Estonia 2026 · 15′

    STIINA (28) is a single mother raising her daughter EMMA (9) by herself. While Stiina is working, Emma is often left home alone. What Stiina doesn't know is that Emma has an imaginary friend who keeps her company and comforts her when bad things happen. What neither of them know, is that Emma's friend is actually more connected to them than they realise.

  4. 04

    THE DREAM IS A SNAIL

    Thiên Ân Nguyễn, South Korea, Vietnam 2026 · 15′

    A young artist develops an addiction to snails after landing a bizarre gig: serving as a motionless human racetrack for snails during a rejuvenation therapy workshop for seniors.

  5. 05

    2000

    Renata Lučić, Chroatia 2026 · 20′

    Lela and Vid are sister and brother growing up in a toxic family environment filled with violence and emotional weight. They are each other’s allies in dealing with their parents. But an incident leads to a conflict between them.

  6. 06

    HOW TO FALL OUT OF LOVE

    Varvara Zarytska, Poland, Ukraine 2025 · 15′

    Agata has just gone through a painful breakup and, digging through the dusty corners of her memory and video archives, she desperately tries to piece together the reasons for her romantic failure.

    If our memory is a creation, then what is film?

More in the programme

Full programme