International Festival of Film and Urbanism «86» has launched a new Eastern European film competition “Palm of the North”. Participants are the short documentaries from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

86 IFFU is a vibrant cultural event focused on documentary cinema and urbanism. It is held in Slavutych, the youngest Ukrainian town built after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster to house the workers of the nuclear power plant. Slavutych was built jointly by eight republics of the Soviet Union, each providing its masterplan, architects and construction materials. As a result, the town consists of a number of districts inspired by different Soviet cities: Yerevan, Tbilisi, Baku, Moscow, Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, etc.

We want to celebrate the unique urban heritage and historical context of Slavutych by bringing together filmmakers from the countries that stood at its origins. We are looking for creative and author-driven documentaries, including experimental docs, docufiction and documentary animation. We particularly welcome films that fit in with the focus of our festival (human-built environment, cities, utopia, nuclear issues), but thematic relevance is not a necessary requirement. Running time of the films applying for competition must be no longer than 45 minutes.

Directors of the selected films will be invited to Slavutych. The winner chosen by the international jury will receive “Palm of the North” award and the cash prize of 1000 EUR.

Submission for this year’s competition is closed. The call for applications for the 2019 contest will be at the end of the fall.