The First Lady of Ukraine opened the reception of the Ukrainian Cinema Foundation at Adlon Kempinski Hotel Berlin Tuesday night.

About 300 industry representatives and journalists attended the event which was organised with the support of Nemiroff Vodka Company. Kateryna Yushchenko underlined the importance of film promotion for the development of a national film industry.

The First Lady said that after a collapse in the post soviet years, we now witness the rebirth of Ukrainian Cinema. She remembered the cooperation that the "Ukraine 3000" Fund has started a few years ago with Kyiv International Film Festival Molodist. Festival director Andriy Khalpakhchi is the country´s ambassador for cinema and the First Lady honoured his constant activity for the evolvement of the national film industry. She sees the new Foundation as a logical follow up of this work.

Andriy Khalpakhchi wants the new Foundation to absorb the experience of successful national cinema promotion agencies like Unifrance, German Films or the Polish Film Institute.

He said he was particularly happy that beside state institutions also private partners support the national film development - the presentation of Ukrainian Cinema Foundation is held in cooperation with Nemiroff Vodka Company. He also thanked the Berlin Film Festival for the opportunity to present the Foundation to a broader audience and promised to be back with more Ukrainian films next year.

The event at Adlon (where also the country´s Minister of Culture Vasyl Vovkun and Polish director Andrzej Wajda took part) was the first international presentation of the new Ukrainian Cinema Foundation. At the Berlinale Ukrainian films were screened in several market screenings and the catalogue and DVDs are still available at the stand of the UCF (#535 EFM Exhibitor Offices).

The Ukrainian Cinema Foundation was founded in 2007 as a private enterprise with the aim of acquainting film professionals and audiences with Ukrainian films. The UCF activities include also restoration of film prints of classical Ukrainian movies and DVD collections of short and full-feature films.

Up-to-date information on Ukrainian Cinema Foundation can be accessed at http://www.ucf.org.ua/. For further information or photo requests please contact us via ukraine-at-berlinale@bs-pr.de.