“To the Victory!” awarded at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival

Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s film To the Victory! has won the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), marking an important milestone for Ukrainian cinema.

The film, supported by the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films (ESFUF), was premiered on September 8, 2025, as part of the festival’s official selection. To the Victory! is produced by Anna and Volodymyr Yatsenko at ForeFilms, Vasyanovych and Iya Myslytska at Arsenal Films, with co-production by Marija Razgute at M-Films.

Set in a dystopian post-war Ukraine, To the Victory! follows a filmmaker left behind while his wife and daughter rebuild their lives in Vienna. Deprived of his profession and struggling with isolation, he clings to the belief that things will eventually improve. Combining fiction with autobiographical elements, Vasyanovych reflects on personal loss, uncertainty, and the fragile hope of renewal.

Shot in Kyiv during the full-scale invasion, the production faced immense challenges, including frequent power outages and the limitations of working with a reduced crew. Support from the European solidarity fund for Ukrainian films played a major role in the film’s development and completion. In 2023, To the Victory! was among the first Ukrainian projects to receive an ESFUF development grant. One year later, in May 2024, a finalisation grant was awarded for the finalisation of the film.

Vasyanovych, who also plays the leading role, is an internationally recognized filmmaker whose earlier works include Atlantis, winner of Venice Horizons in 2019, and Reflection, selected for competition in 2022. To the Victory! continues his exploration of the war’s enduring impact on Ukrainian society, both personal and collective.

The selection and subsequent award in the festival’s competitive section Platform, which champions bold directorial vision and distinctive storytelling on the world stage, is another testimony of his directorial success.

Platform is the festival’s only juried competition. Members Carlos Marqués-Marcet (Jury Chair), Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Chloé Robichaud have issued the following statement regarding the film:

“To The Victory! is the unanimous choice for this year’s Platform Award amongst a very strong selection. Bringing cinematic language to its roots and, at the same time, masterfully playing with audience expectations, this film dismantles convention to reveal deeply resonant universal emotions. Director Valentyn Vasyanovych has choreographed a mise-en-scène rendered with masterful precision, arriving at the kind of refined simplicity that can only be achieved with artistic maturity and bold vision. He has deftly used comedy to address a very complicated and complex situation into a work that is both audacious and profoundly beautiful. Ultimately, the film returns us to the very essence of cinema — reminding us why we are compelled to tell stories on film, and why we continue to do so.”

© 2025 FOREFILMS, ARSENAL FILMS, M-FILMS.