National Competition #1 Wiz-Art 2026

ON THE SHIELD // 24′ Oksana Artemenko, Ukraine, 2026

55-year-old Yuriy is a driver of the «On theShield» vehicle that retrieves the bodies of fallen soldiers from the battlefield. This time, together with his college he is heading to Pokrovsk to pick up the body of a 25-year-old man — someone just like his missing soldier son.

FAREWELL, MY TREE // 7′, Yelyzaveta Myshkalenko, Ukraine, 2025

What survives war and what doesn’t? For Liza, it is the fractured bond with a grandmother who is both her wound and her home. Moving between present wanderings and archival footage, this cyanotype experimental animated documentary film follows Liza’s attempts to reconstruct her past as she explores the family separation.

COME BACK // 9′, Anton Proza, Ukraine, 2026

Zyma, an exhausted Ukrainian soldier, leaves the war and his unit without authorization. He has decided to return home, but the road turns into a space of pressure, where every phone call forces him to justify his choice again and again. His commander, battalion commander, and fellow soldiers try to stop him through fear, threats, a sense of duty, and their shared combat past.

TELL ME A FAIRYTALE // 22′, Diana Anikieieva, Ukraine, 2026

When 21-year-old Pavlo, an openly gay soldier, shares his story with the media, he becomes a symbol of queer resistance in Ukraine. His boyfriend Vlad soon follows him to the army, and together they become a public couple. But as war keeps them apart, their rare reunions are overshadowed by cameras, interviews, and constant public attention. Distance, jealousy, and emotional pressure begin to wear them down. One of them craves real intimacy, while the other, shaped by past trauma, struggles to open up.

HOMECOMING // 19′, Yarema Malashchuk, Roman Khimei, Ukraine, 2026

A few years after fleeing Ukraine following the Russian invasion, a boy returns home via a robotic dog, his mechanical avatar, which he controls from his room in Poland. Through this remote presence, he relives memories and reconnects with his past — a connection that now depends on a fragile video stream that could be cut off at any moment.

OFF THE CHEST // 14′, Dara Sokolova, Ukraine, 2025

Not about death, not about space, not about the search for logic.
Two poor saps cross paths at the worst possible moment: full of honesty and zero dignity. They’ve got it Off the Chest, finally. The body feels lighter. The soul – still in question.