01.10 | 12:00 (UA), UNIT.Core B.8
A discussion with producers who started their path in animation after working with live-action and documentary: what triggered their shift and which first steps they took in animation; which skills from live-action and documentary production proved to be most transferable, and what had to be learned from scratch; how preparing a materials package for an animated project differs from traditional pitch decks; and which risks they have already navigated and what tools they used to mitigate them.
Speakers:
Mira Oietoro is a Ukrainian-born producer of animation, documentary, and fiction films currently based in Wales since 2022. Mira has dedicated over a decade to the development of Ukrainian cinematography. Her work often explores themes of women's rights and the social impact of propaganda. She is an alumna of the EAVE.CHANGE co-production training course (2023-2024), Sheffield Doc Fest's Amplify (2023), VIA University College The Animation Workshop "Animation Production Management" (Denmark, 2024), Global Media Makers Residency in Trieste film festival When East Meets West (Italy, 2025) and graduated from the Kyiv National I.K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema, and Television University in 2017, specialising as a producer.
Daria Bassel previously worked in TV and advertising, and in 2011 joined the Docudays UA IHRDFF team, first as a programmer and later as head of the industry platform. She began her producing career in 2013. She has taken part in Eurodoc, Producers Network (Marché du Film), Ex Oriente, and EAVE, and has served on juries at Visions du Réel, IDFA, Cinedoc Tbilisi, Astra, OIFF, One World Prague, and Krakow IFF. In 2019, together with Vika Khomenko, she founded the production company Moon Man. Her credits include the documentary “Outside” (2022), which had its world premiere at CPH:DOX and screened at over 20 festivals worldwide; the feature “Butterfly Vision” (2022), which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes; the feature “The Editorial Office” (2024), which premiered at the Berlinale Forum; and the documentary “Songs of the Earth That Slowly Burns” (2024), which premiered in the main programme of the Venice Film Festival. She is also a co-producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary “A House Made of Splinters” (2022) and “Peaceful People” (2024), a documentary shown at more than 150 international festivals and nominated for the European Parliament’s Lux Audience Award and the Gotham Awards.
Oleksandra Kravchenko has worked in the film industry since 2011, including as Head of Communications for the Odesa International Film Festival and the distribution company Arthouse Traffic; Executive Marketing Manager at the animation studio Animagrad / FILM.UA Group; and an independent producer (ESSE Production House, DGTL RLGN, Albatros Communicos, Moon Man). From 2019 to 2022 she coordinated projects for the DOCU/PRO industry platform at the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival (Ukraine). From 2022 to 2024 she was an expert and coordinator of the Media Fit capacity-building project by CFI (Canal France International), Department of Media Development (France), dedicated to strengthening documentary production at the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne Ukraine. She is a participant of the Emerging Producers programme and EURODOC 2024, and a member of the European Film Academy. Her work includes the feature documentary “Roses. Film-Cabaret” by Irena Stetsenko (2019; Sheffield Doc/Fest, Docudays UA, Ji.hlava IDFF, and many others); the short art-film omnibus “Dance + City,” co-produced with ARTE France; the fiction feature “The Editorial Office” by Roman Bondarchuk (2024, Berlinale; as line producer); and the feature documentary “My Dear Theo” by Alisa Kovalenko (2025; CPH:DOX, Docudays UA, Dokufest, Camden IFF, and others; as co-producer).