The selection committee behind the projects evaluation included Dennis Ruh, Director Seriesly Berlin, Sergio García de Leániz, Promotion Programme Manager and Project Manager at Eurimages, curator of the Promotion Programme, Elma Tataragić, Screenwriter and Main Programmer of the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Competition Programme, Iryna Kyporenko, Head of the Film Department at the Ukrainian Institute, and Anastasiya Volkova, Head of Arts Programmes at the Ukrainian Institute. 

The selected projects are:  

• Traces, Director Alisa Kovalenko, co-director: Marysia Nikitiuk, producers Olha Bregman, Natalia Libet 

TRACES reveals the testimonies of Ukrainian women who survived conflict-related sexual violence and torture by Russian forces, painting a collective portrait of trauma and documenting war crimes. Since the onset of Russian aggression in Donbas in 2014, this subject has been shrouded in silence and stigma. But in 2019 a former captive, Iryna Dovgan founded SEMA Ukraine, a civil society organization uniting CRSV survivors. With the escalation of war, she expanded efforts to document crimes in liberated areas. Iryna helps newly affected women from Kherson region and Bucha to recover, testify, and transform trauma into post-traumatic growth. The film documents war crimes, but also shows the path to healing, the power of solidarity and joint struggle.  

• To the Victory!, Director Valentyn Vasyanovych, producers Volodymyr Yatsenko, Anna Yatsenko, Iya Myslytska, Marija Razgute, Valentyn Vasyanovych 

Ukraine, in the near future. The war has ended. A film director is out of work, out of luck, and out of touch with his family abroad. While his wife and daughter built a new life in Vienna, he stays behind—confused, restless, and convinced that things will get better. Eventually. Probably. Maybe.   

In 2025, the Ukrainian Institute continues to implement the programme in collaboration with Eurimages, the cultural support fund of the Council of Europe.  

Throughout the year, seven film projects were selected. The winners of the previous 2025 open calls — Timestamp, Queens of Joy, My Dear Théo, Divia, and Silent Flood — already achieved significant festival visibility.