Every child can find happiness and fulfill themselves creatively at DYTIATKO Festival
This very conviction expressed a member of professional jury, program director of GURO Kids International Film Festival (GUKIFF) Peter Ahn, before completion of the X DYTIATKO International Children’s Television Festival.
The Festival was held in Kharkiv (Ukraine) from 5 to 8 September. 176 projects from 48 countries of the world were selected for official selection of the anniversary tenth DYTIATKO Festival. The majority of showcases became Ukrainian premiere, and some films were demonstrated in Europe and the world for the first time ever. "We have watched films different in terms of both genre and topic from children and for children," - noted the member of jury, the president to ASIFA HELLAS - Hellenic Animation Association and Animasyros International Animation Festival + Agora, member of Board of Directors of CIFEJ, Vassilis C. Karamitsanis.
DYTIATKO Festifal was founded by Kharkiv Regional Council in 2009. "Ten years flew past like a flash, - emphasized the chairman of Regional Council, the president of DYTIATKO International Children’s Television Festival Sergii Chernov. - For this period children grew up, some of them choose cinematographic art as an occupation of their life. And now among our graduates we already have professional filmmakers".
DYTIATKO Festival is a qualitative festival with a strong level of organization, - asserts a screenwriter, director and film producer Javier Navarro Montero. - Having seen projects performed by children and youth, I was surprised that their authors address to social and societal topics". It is important, because, working on a certain topic, children are digging into separate issues and enhance their own perception of reality.
Hamed Soleimanzadeh, Head of International Department of the International Film Festival for Children and Youth (ICFF), advised the participants of the festival to follow the voice of their heart. “With your sincere works you can create a world without wars, cruelty and environmental concerns,” he said.
This year representatives of 10 more counties joined to Dytiatko family, among which Island, Cuba, Paraguay, Luxembourg, Tanzania and others. And the most lucky this year were the participants of animation sector. Organizers prepared for them four master classes from special animation creators. During six hours the festival participants together with RIDNI Animation studio professionals plunged into the wonderful world of stop motion animation. Children along with experts created their own plasticine characters, learned the secrets of their "animation" and various tricks of shooting. "One of the secrets of good video creation is the principle of exaggeration, - animation artists assure. - That is if a character has to take a swing with a hand, its gesture must be maximally sweepy. Then the animation will look interesting. Knowledge of physics is also essential so as to make a drop fall naturally, not bouncing on the table, when making a video, for instance, about a drop falling. Of course, unless it is required according to author's artistic conception.
Work of animation artists is very painstaking, since they often contrive characters, their temper and appearance themselves. "You have to be extremely attentive, remember all details, - emphasizes the expert in the industry of 3D visualization Tomas Kuchera. - As, for instance, creating a dragoon from several details at the beginning you have to take into account that their number may eventually increase to millions. In order to make the dragoon move and in order that it looks as naturally as possible, you have to use best endeavors at each stage of work".
But first of all you must have IDEA. "Idea in filmland is the thing, which moves events and film characters, - asserts the director of animated cartoons Manuk Depoyan. - You may find inspiration and idea watching life. For example, walking along a park or as you go or on the subway, you may note something interesting, which will become a point of departure for your film idea".
Animation artists were in for a surprise in the form of retrospective show of Ukrainian animation on the occasion of its 90th anniversary. Among others, the participants of the festival watched animated cartoon "About straw bull-calf" - the first Ukrainian animated film, which unfortunately, has not remained to the present day, but was reconstructed by modern Ukrainian animation artists.
By the way, at the festival much attention annually is given to the movie and animation history. This year with the aid of DYTIATKO International Children’s Television Festival a two-volume book "History of Ukrainian Cinema: 1896-1930", which presentation took place during the festival, was issued. The participants of the festival could step into a time capsule and watch mute films accompanied by a film scorer, and besides listen to true hit movies performed by symphony orchestra. To the strains of flutes, violins, guitars, drums and many other instruments the attendees could immerse into the atmosphere of favorite films: "Pirates of Caribbean Sea", "Star Wars", "Pink Panther", "Scent of a Woman" and others.
Historic reenactment club "Golden Wyvern" helped to immerse the participants into the time even deeper, as its representatives vividly demonstrated variants of stage and actual combat, explained, how to use them more efficiently in future projects. Experts advised to thoroughly study character traits and mindset of the chosen time inhabitants, their social principles and dominating morality: "You can't just turn round and transfer your characters and habits, theoretically speaking, to the 14th century, it will look absolutely unconvincingly". 
During the course of festival the participants have to perform terms of creative engagement, in particular, to shoot a video (up to three minutes) on the topic, received upon coming to Kharkiv. So ideas for their films participants looked for not only at the camp of their staying, but also at the golf-club and at the airfield.
Airmen of Kharkiv airclub named after V. S. Hryzodubova organized for young filmmakers an excursion to the museum of aircraft engineering, told, how aircrafts are made and what keeps them in the air, narrated the stories of winged machines, standing at the museum, and unlocked secrets, kept by a cockpit. And what is more important - took children on a helicopter Mi-2 ride.
"At the festival children and adults, newcomers and professionals co-operate for the sake of future. Children study, adults are inspired of such creative urge and creativity of thinking. I don't doubt that every participant of the festival spent these unforgettable days efficiently and usefully. Enjoyed meeting with old friends and found a lot of new ones", - added up the president of the festival Sergii Chernov.
A member of jury, filmmaker Natalia Morozova on behalf of colleagues thanked all participants and organizers: "I also would like to say all those who did not win today, - you are already heroes because you film for children. Thank you for this. Many thanks to all organizers of the festival. I do not know about you, but for me it was an incredible festive occasion.”