The first newsreels were made and shown in 1896, by A. Fedetsky, artist and photographer from Kharkiv. Their regular production began in 1907.
An animated cartoon studio was set up in Kharkiv in 1927 and later transferred to Kyiv. Among its directors were V. Levanovsky, I. Lazaruk and others.
During World War II Ukrainian film-makers made trips to the front. They showed war films about the country’s heroic defence.
O. Dovzhenko is one of the founders of Ukrainian cinematography. O. Dovzhenko became an important figure in national and world cinematography. His motion pictures “Arsenal”, “Earth” were named among the best films of all times. He worked for the Odesa and Kyiv studios. Since 1946 he stayed to work at the Mosfilm Studio. Apart from a number of feature films he made documentaries. Besides he wrote script-like stories and plays. The Kyiv Studio bears his name nowadays. The Dovzhenko prize was instituted in 1983.
There are four state film studios in Ukraine now. Bohdan Stupka, Ada Rohovtseva, Olha Sumska – these and many other names are very popular with movie and theatre-goers. They have successfully appeared in domestic and foreign productions.