Sasha Prokopenko

Sasha Prokopenko is a programmer, festival organiser, and translator, based in Kyiv, Ukraine. In 2016, she joined the Kyiv International Short Film Festival and later became the head of programming. Sasha also works at KyivMusicFilm, an independent distribution company operating all over Ukraine. Their team organises several film-related cultural events, such as Kino Susidiv in Uzhhorod and INTRO, a film festival focused on music and cultural phenomena. Sasha is an alumna of Berlinale Talents (2024) and The Festival Academy (2025).

Sasha Prokopenko participated in “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025, a first-ever poll of its kind as a collective love letter to the art of short-form moving image. yanco and Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, in collaboration with Talking Shorts, invited filmmakers, curators, distributors, critics, and scholars worldwide to nominate 10 audiovisual works under sixty minutes that they personally consider the “greatest” of all time. This was Sasha Prokopenko’s submission:

Movie	Original Title	Director	Country	Year
The Black Tower	John Smith	United Kingdom	1987	24’
The most hilariously haunting film… I think about it alarmingly often.
Dyketactics	Barbara Hammer	USA	1974	4’
Heavenly raw, radically sensual and unapologetically disruptive. I couldn't imagine this list without Barbara and her input in shaping (or rather defining) lesbian & queer aesthetics and cinematic language.
A Letter to America Лист до Америки	Kira Muratova	Ukraine	1999	20’
It is somehow touching that I'm filling in this questionnaire on November 5, the day Muratova would have turned 91. A Letter to America captures the eve of a new century, a new chapter in Ukrainian history and the people who were totally unprepared for that.
Du côté de la côte Along the Coast	Agnès Varda	France	1958	25’
I just love Agnes (and who doesn't?), her sharp eye, witty brain and big loving heart.
Kyiv Cake Київський торт	Mykyta Lyskov	Estonia, Ukraine	2025	22’
It might be too soon to include this film in the best of the best list, but let's call it wishful thinking. To me, Mykyta's works have already become a contemporary canon of Ukrainian animation. In this film, not only does he bring his talent, local memes and matured, distinctive style, he manages to throw us headfirst into the chilling, surreal Ukrainian reality and what our lives have become since the beginning of the russian war in 2014.
Stay Awake, Be Ready Hãy tỉnh thức và sẵn sàng	Phạm Thiên Ân	South Korea, USA, Vietnam	2019	14’
I remember watching it for the first time and being utterly enchanted by the incredibly orchestrated nocturnal chaos unfolding on the big screen.
Love	Réka Bucsi	Hungary	2016	15’
I simply admire Réka's works and the cosmic, surreal worlds she creates. Love fills me with warm sadness and tightness in my chest.
Martin Cries Martin pleure	Jonathan Vinel	France	2017	16’
Gaming, violence and male loneliness (before it even became a "thing")... This is another film that I revisit strangely often. Jonathan's (and later, his and Caroline's) films always strike me with their originality, vulnerability, and lyricism.
The Christmas Gift Cadoul de Craciun	Bogdan Muresanu	Romania	2018	23’
It seems to me that this list lacks some Eastern European humour. So here we go.
Kyiv Frescoes Київські фрески	Sergei Parajanov	Ukraine	1965	15’
I feel like wrapping it up with the unfinished work of this enigmatic artist who brought his legacy, heritage and unique aesthetics to Ukraine and became one of the fathers of Ukrainian poetic cinema. Kyiv Frescoes is heartbreaking – both in the topic that it explores (the aftermath of WWII) and its backstory (the film was meant to become a feature but was terminated by soviet russian authorities). Nevertheless, we end up with a mesmerising and haunting collage of Parajaniants' footage, stuck between existing and vanishing.