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Sergey Bukovsky was born in 1960 in Bashkiria, the autonomous republic of the former Soviet Union. His father is a film director Anatoly Bukovsky, and his mother, actress Nina Antonova. Since his childhood, he’s living in Kyiv.

“There was always a crowd of guests in our one-room flat; they were my parents’ friends. They would come together to celebrate either the first or the last day of filming, or the presentation of a film to the State Film Committee of the USSR, or dubbing, additional filming, or the long-awaited start of distribution. My first childhood memories are associated with a trip to Baturyn (Chernihiv district, Ukraine), where my father shot the film “Buryan” (“The Weeds”). I remember the sugary-sweet smell of makeup, the noise of the lighting trucks, and my father shouting, “Action!” I remember crying when a heroine was “killed” and yelling, “Vermin!”

Sergey Bukovsky studied directing in the Film Department at the Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv State Institute of Theatrical Arts. After serving in the Soviet Army, he worked at a Ukrainian Documentary Film Studio for more than a decade.

The 20-minute black-and-white film “Tomorrow is a Holiday”, shot in the first years of perestroika, received critical acclaim from the press, the film community, and audiences. 

During his 35-year film career,  Bukovsky made approximately 30 films.  Some of them received awards at prestigious international film festivals. They include:  “Tomorrow is a Holiday” (1987), “Roof” (1990), “Dislocation” (1992), “The Hyphen” (1992), “To Berlin!” (1995), “Vilen Kalyuta. Real Light” (2000), “Terra Vermelha. Red Land” (2001), and the 9-part documentary series for television “War. The Ukrainian Account,” which was awarded the National Taras Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine in 2004.

“The difficulty in talking about this film (“War. The Ukrainian Account”) is that it is not only important as a cinematographic or television event… In Sergey Bukovsky’s film, for the first time, Ukraine acquired its own history of War World II.   The history that was not rolled up into the ideological asphalt for a military parade… The history that was not hastily fastened with white threads of politics… It is a genuine documentary epic, in which history is presented accurately: as the tragedy of millions of human lives bloodied by the tornado of war. It is a history of total betrayal. It is a history of a nation betrayed by its authorities. It is a history of a nation that betrayed its own past”.
(Anna Sherman, “Telekritika” / 08.11.2002)

From 1998 to 2003, Bukovsky taught courses in documentary directing at the Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv State Institute of Theatrical Arts. His student Igor Strembitsky got Palm D’Or in Cannes in 2005 for his short documentary.

In 2014 he established THE SERGEY BUKOVSKY FILM PROGRAM as a postgraduate program for young filmmakers.

MEMBERSHIPS

European Film Academy

National Academy of Arts of Ukraine

National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine

Ukrainian Film Academy

Member of the jury of international film festivals in Leipzig (Germany), Lisbon (Portugal), Győr (Hungary), Tirge-Mures (Romania), Yerevan (Armenia), Molodist (Kyiv, Ukraine), Docudays UA (Kyiv, Ukraine), Odessa International Film Festival (Odessa, Ukraine)

AWARDS

2021   State Merit Award

2008               National Distinguished Artist of Ukraine

2004               Taras Shevchenko National Award of Ukraine for Achievement in the Field of Literature and the Arts

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Experience

As a film director made about
30 documentaries, serials, TV films including

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