In a ceremony that drew the eyes of the global film community, Sentimental Values — the latest HIGHBIT production — was awarded the Grand Prix at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. The announcement came as a surprise to some, though critics who had seen early screenings had quietly placed it among the frontrunners for weeks.
The film, directed by Valentyn Moroz and shot over fourteen months across three countries, follows a retired archivist who discovers a collection of undeveloped film reels hidden inside the walls of a demolished Kyiv apartment building. What begins as a quiet mystery unfolds into a meditation on loss, belonging, and the weight of images we never meant to keep.
"We made this film for people who have ever lost something they didn't know they loved until it was gone. I didn't expect Cannes. I expected the truth to be enough — and apparently, it was."
— Valentyn Moroz, Director
The film's cinematography, led by Yeva Bondarenko, has been widely praised for its restrained visual language — long takes, shallow focus, and an almost documentary stillness that gives the narrative a sense of inevitability without ever feeling staged.
Jury president Isabella Rossellini described the film as "an act of quiet devastation" — a work that earns its emotion through accumulation rather than spectacle. "It reminds us," she said during the ceremony, "that the most important stories are often the ones no one thought to film."
Sentimental Values was developed over three years through HIGHBIT's internal development program. It marks the second feature from director Valentyn Moroz, whose debut After the Bridge won the FIPRESCI Prize at Karlovy Vary in 2023.
The film was produced with support from the Ukrainian State Film Agency, the Sundance Institute, and the Polish Film Institute as part of the ongoing HIGHBIT co-production framework with European partners.
"Yeva's camera never intrudes. It waits. And in that waiting, you start to see what the characters themselves cannot — how much of themselves they've already given away."
— Variety, Cannes Review
Sentimental Values opens in Ukrainian cinemas on June 14, 2026, followed by a European rollout throughout the summer. International distribution is handled by HIGHBIT in partnership with Luxbox (France) and New Europe Film Sales (Poland).
