The First Kyiv International Film Festival

“Kiev International Film Festival is an embodiment of my old dream - to create in Kyiv a reputable world-renowned festival”, - said the president of KIFF Bogdan Stupka.

The First Kyiv International Film Festival was held in the capital of Ukraine since+ May 29 to June 3, 2009.

The competition program was attended by 35 films from Switzerland, Germany, Belarus, Argentina, Russia, Britain, Serbia and Latvia. In the non-competition program - Movies by Takeshi Kitano, Anton Corbain, Steven Soderbergh, Barbara Leibovitz and Eugene Mitt.

Prizes of the Kiev Film Festival
Best feature film – “The tour”, director Goran Markovic (Serbian)
Best director – Paula Hernandez, “Rain” (Argentina)
Best operator - Lol Crawley, “Better things” (United Kingdom)
Best script - “The tour”, director Goran Markovic (Serbian)
Best musical score - Christoph Blaser, Steffen Kahles, “Finnish Tango” (Germany)
Best actress – Svetlana Kryuchkova, Svetlana Svirko, “The moon at the zenith” (Russia)
Best actor – Antonio Birabent, “Tres deseos” (Argentina)
Best supporting actress – Danuta Stenka, “One more time” (Poland)
Best supporting actor - Liubomiras Lauciavicius, “Vogelfrei” (Latvia)

Additional diplomas:

“For a good ensemble cast”, “Finnish Tango” (Germany)
“For a good ensemble cast”, “Cadet” (Belarus)
“For a good ensemble cast”, “The contract” (Ukraine)

The jury was headed by the famous Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi. Also among the members of the jury Ruslana Pysanka, Latvian actor Ivar Kalnins, Russian director Alexander Proshkin, Georgian actor Levan Uchaneyshvili and Belarusian actress Tatiana Bovkalova.
One of the most significant event was the visiting of PeterJohn Greenaway, British filmmaker-postmodernis to KIFF.  His new cinema ` Rembrandt's J'Accuse` was screened at the opening ceremony.
Peter Greenaway`s visit had a great practical benefit for all comers.
There were thousand people who came to his  master-class `New posibilities`in the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre.

Also master-classes were  held by Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi, producer Mark Rudinshtein, artist Oleg Kulik, a Russian director Alexander Proshkin.