President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, when asked about the need for a cultural product to normalize LGBT issues in Ukraine, stated that society must speak openly about everything.
"I believe that we must speak openly about everything with society. And that is absolutely normal. We are all here together; we are defending the state. We are equal, and we have absolute equal rights, regardless of any, I don’t know, absolute prejudices, forgive me, from the 15th century. We are modern people," Zelenskyy said during an event launching the selection of projects for the Thousand Spring initiative in Kyiv on Thursday, answering a question from the head of the NGO "Ukrainian LGBT Military for Equal Rights" about whether cultural products are needed now to normalize LGBT issues in Ukraine and increase tolerance and inclusion among the population.
In turn, Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture of Ukraine Tetiana Berezhna noted that the Thousand Spring project has experts on inclusivity.
Applications for the Thousand Spring program closed on June 4. A total of 2,634 applications were submitted for the project. The commission accepted 1,151 applications in seven categories totaling UAH 10.8 billion, 17% of which are debut projects.
The leading categories by the number of applications are: audiovisual shows and social media content (270 applications), feature films and series (238 applications), and non-fiction (documentary) films and series (180 applications).
A technical selection process will continue until June 12, during which competition commissions from the Ministry of Culture, the State Film Agency, and the State Agency of Arts will verify that documents for all candidates are filled out correctly. Projects that meet the requirements will then move to the second stage: expert evaluation.
Lists of participants who pass the technical selection and move to the second stage will be published on the websites of Thousand Spring, the Ministry of Culture, the State Film Agency, and the State Agency of Arts.
Expert evaluation begins on June 17 and will last until July 28. During this stage, over 120 government-approved experts will conduct a comprehensive professional assessment of the submitted projects.
The distribution of applications among experts in each category will be broadcast publicly. Each project will be evaluated by five independent experts based on ten criteria, including: relevance to the program’s theme; alignment of the budget with the creative concept; team professionalism; audience engagement potential; artistic and substantive value; originality of the idea; social significance and potential impact; inclusivity and accessibility; feasibility; and the team’s experience in implementing similar projects.
Based on the evaluation results, a list of participants moving to the next stage, the pitching session, will be formed.
Final pitches in a festival format will take place from August 12 to 16. Participants will present their projects to experts and competition commissions, who will determine the program’s winners.
