Open Call for Wiz-Art x AHL Film Residency 2026

Valeria Sochyvets

Ukrainian producer, director, film curator, and member of the European and Ukrainian Film Academies. She is the founder of the NGO “CUC” (Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema) and has produced over ten films. Her work includes La Palisiada by Philip Sotnychenko, Glass House and Blindfold by Taras Dron, as well as the documentary Zarvanytsia.

Valeria’s projects and her own directed short films regularly participate in and win awards at Class “A” international film festivals (including Rotterdam, San Sebastián, Clermont-Ferrand, Palm Springs, and Sarajevo). She is a recipient of the Gaude Polonia 2026 scholarship, an alumna of Berlinale Talents and Sarajevo Talents, and possesses extensive experience serving on expert committees and film festival juries.

Zoya Laktionova

Documentary film director and multidisciplinary artist from Mariupol. She works at the intersection of cinema and contemporary art, exploring microhistory, autoethnography, and personal experience of war through artistic metaphors in her work.

Her films and art projects have gained international recognition. They have been screened at leading film festivals (DOK Leipzig, FIDMarseille, Cottbus, Docudays UA) as well as exhibited in renowned global museums, including the Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna (MUMOK).

Zoya is the recipient of numerous awards (notably for her films Diorama and Territory of Empty Windows) and a fellow and resident of prestigious international institutions, such as Columbia University (Harriman Institute), the Global Media Makers program in Los Angeles, and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.

Nikon Romanchenko

Director, screenwriter, and one of the most sought-after Ukrainian film editors. He is a co-founder of the NGO “CUC” (Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema), a member of the Ukrainian Film Academy, and an alumnus of Berlinale Talents.

For his directorial work, Nikon won the “Golden Duke” for Best Director at the Odesa International Film Festival (for his film Leopolis Night) and two “Scythian Deer” awards at the Molodist International Film Festival.

As a film editor, he has worked on landmark Ukrainian films, including Kateryna Gornostai’s Stop-Zemlia (winning the “Golden Dzyga” award for Best Editing and the Crystal Bear at the Berlinale), Roman Bondarchuk’s The Editorial Office, Time Dedicated, and Traces (Grand Prix of the Panorama program at the Berlinale).

Among the films from the 2023 film residency is Storks Always Come Home by Gala Koziutynska (Halyna Koziutynska). This film won the Ukrainian competition at the Wiz-Art Festival 2023, and since Wiz-Art is part of the European Short Film Audience Award network, it was nominated for this award and embarked on a tour across 10 European film festivals.

It also won at the Molodist International Film Festival 2024, and in August 2025, it was screened at the Odense Film Festival in Denmark.

During the 2023 film residency, Kateryna Krokha finalized her film How I “Celebrated” the Day of the russian Language in Kherson. It was included in the Ukrainian competition at Wiz-Art 2023, as well as the Rivne International Film Festival Dream City.

Additionally, the film was screened in more than 10 cities around the world: Buffalo, Portland, Nashville, Grand Rapids, Denver, Chicago, Seattle, Portland (USA), Lisbon (Portugal), Tarifa (Spain), and Barcelona (Spain). It was also nominated for the Wiz-Art 2023 Audience Award.

During the 2025 residency, Zhora Papoyan edited his short film Ferry Crossing (Parom Plyve). The film premiered at the 23rd Docudays UA, where it won the Audience Award in the Docu/SHORT competition. As part of the festival, Zhora was also nominated for the “Best Young Ukrainian Producer (Short Films)” award. The film was selected for the program of the 54th Huesca International Film Festival in Spain, as well as the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival.

Fisherman (Rybachok) is a short film by Oleksandr Roshchyn, which he finalized during the 2025 film residency.

The film was selected for the program of the UK’s Raindance Film Festival—the leading festival for independent cinema in Britain. A victory here qualifies the film to compete for both an Academy Award (Oscar) and a BAFTA.