Biography
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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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and awards
Experience
As a film director made about
30 documentaries, serials, TV films including
- 1987Tomorrow is a Holliday 35 mm, b/w, 20 min, 1987 • Grand Prize, Molodist Film Festival (Kyiv, Ukraine, 1987) • Showcase of the festival Glasnost in the USSR (USA, 1989) • Independent Film Days (Augsburg, Germany, 1990) • International Film Festival Diploma (Krakow, Poland, 1997) • Available at the U.S. Library of Congress
- 1988The Night was Dark 35 mm, b/w, 30 min, 1988 • International Film Festival Diploma (Bilbao, Spain, 1988)
- 1989Dream 35 mm, color, 55 min, 1989 • Diploma, Documentary Film Festival (Leningrad, USSR, 1990)
- 1990Roof 35 mm, color, 20 min, 1990 • Grand Prize “Golden Dove,” International Film Festival (Leipzig, Germany, 1990) • Days of Independent Cinema (Augsburg, Germany, 1992)
- 1992Hyphen 35 mm, color, 59 min, 1992 • Artsalon Grand Prize (Potsdam, Germany, 1992) • Grand Prize of the Mediawave International Film Festival (Győr, Hungary, 1993) Special Critics Diploma, International Film Festival “Message to Man” (St. Petersburg, Russia, 1993) • Official Internetional Competetion, International Film Festival (Nyon, Switzerland, 1992) • Official Internetional competition, International Film Festival (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1992) • INPUT: International Symposium on Public Television (Nantes, France, 1998)
- 1992Dislocation 35 mm, color, 09 min, 1992 • Jury’s Choice Diploma, International Film Festival (Krakow, Poland, 1992) • “Panorama” International Film Festival (Oberhausen, Germany, 1993)
- 1993Landscape. Portrait. Still live. 35 mm, color, 20 min, 1993 • Critics’ Choice Award, Mediawave International Film Festival (Győr, Hungary, 1994)
- 1995To Berlin! 35 mm, b/w, 29 min, 1995 • Special Prize of the Jury, International Film Festival (Leipzig, Germany, 1995) • INPUT: International Symposium of Public Television (Guadalajara, Mexico, 1997)
- 1996Ten Years of Isolation BETA SP, 35 min, 1996 • Grand Prize, International TV Festival “Velvet Season,” 1996
- 1999Bridge BETA SP, 35 min, 1999 • Grand Prize, Ecofilm International Film Festival (Szczecin, Poland, 2000)
- 2000Vilen Kaljuta. Genuine light BETA SP, 59 min, 2000
- 2001Terra Vermelha (Red Land) 16 mm, 30 min, 2001
- 2002War. Ukrainian account BETA SP, 9 films (26 min each), 2002-2003 • Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine, 2004 • Teletriumph National Television Award for Best Documentary, 2004
- 2006Spell Your Name 35 mm, 90 min, 2006 • Special Jury Diploma (Jerusalem, Israel, 2007) • Official Program of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival (Yerevan, Armenia, 2007) • Official Program of the International Film Festival “Go East” (Wiesbaden, Germany, 2008) • Official Program of the Margaret Mead Film Festival (New York, USA, 2008) • Screenings at universities in USA, France, Germany.
- 2007Everyone must die (fiction TV serial) HD, 90 min, 2007
- 2008The Living HD, 75 min, 2008 • Special Prize “Silver Apricot” at International Film Festival (Yerevan, Armenia, 2009) • Grand Prize of the International Media Forum (Geneva, Switzerland, 2009) • Perspectives Program, Vision Du Reel International Film Festival (Nyon, Switzerland, 2009) • In total, the film was presented in official programs at 10 international film festivals and shown in 15 countries
- 2011Ukraine. Starting Point HD, 75 min, 2011 • Intermedia-globe GOLD Prize, InterMedia Festival (Hamburg, 2012) • Nominated for TRT Award (Istanbul, Turkey, 2102) • Special screenings in Berlin, Toronto, New York
- 2016Leading Role, 2016, DCP, 63 min, 2016 • Zolota Dzyga (Golden Whirlwind) of Ukrainian Film Academy Award for Best Documentary (2016) • Golden Duke Award for Best European Documentary, Odessa International Film Festival (Odessa, Ukraine, 2016) • Golden Duke Award for Best Actress Nina Antonova, Odessa International Film Festival (Odessa, Ukraine, 2016) • Nomination for MDR prize of the international competition LeipzigDOK (Leipzig, Germany, 2016)
- 2020“N. Silvestrov” (3-part film) 2020, 140 min • Special event of the Molodist (Youth) Film Festival, 2020 • National premiere at the Arvo Part Center (Tallinn, Estonia)

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