Ukrainian film festival to be held at St Sophia of Kyiv

Announcement for the KinoBouquet festival at the St Sophia of Kyiv National Reserve. Photo: Ukrinform

From August 13 to 16, 2026, the KinoBouquet festival will be held on the grounds of the St Sophia of Kyiv National Reserve, featuring film screenings, exhibitions, and discussions, Ukrinform reports.

One of the festival’s main venues will be the Refectory, which forms part of the complex of the ancient Orthodox shrine. Contemporary films will be screened there, while participants will discuss the war, cultural diplomacy, and so-called “cultural genocide.”

The program will also include projects about veterans, Ukrainian animation, short films, and a photography exhibition. The organizers have chosen “Armed with Beauty” as the festival’s overarching theme, presenting culture as one of the instruments of struggle.

A “Kobzar Glade” will also be set up on the reserve grounds, while some screenings will take place outdoors. Visitors are also being invited to public discussions and other events unrelated to the shrine’s liturgical life.

KinoBouquet will form part of the Bouquet Kyiv Stage festival, which brings together cinema, theater, music, literature, and public discussions. Thus, the space of St Sophia of Kyiv is once again being used not as an Orthodox shrine, but as a venue for a large-scale secular and ideological program.

As the UOJ previously reported, the authorities discussed the development of cultural routes at the Lavra with Dumenko.

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