Two Rounds of Member Voting: The Golden Dzyga and the Ukrainian Film Academy

Ukraine’s filmmakers have a prize with which they choose the year’s films: the “Golden Dzyga” (Золота Дзиґа, “golden spinning top”). It is given by the Ukrainian Film Academy (Українська кіноакадемія), an organization of film professionals. On July 25, 2026, its tenth award ceremony was held in Kyiv.

Drawing on the bylaws the Academy publishes on its official website (the 2026 award regulations, the membership regulations, and the member list), each edition’s announcements, and the rules of the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for 2026, this article sets out how the prize is decided and the record of its first ten years. It does not assess the merits of the winning works.

An Organization Launched in 2016

The Academy describes itself as “an organization of professionals in cinema and filmmaking,” and states that its founding was launched in 2016 at the initiative of the Odesa International Film Festival. Legally, it is a public organization (ГО) named the “Ukrainian Film Academy.” It is run by a board (Правління) and a supervisory council (Наглядова рада); as of September 2026, the board’s chair, per the official website, is producer Pylyp Illienko, and the supervisory council’s chair is Viktoria Tigipko, president of the Odesa International Film Festival.

The work the Academy lists on its official website includes awarding the national film prize, events to promote Ukrainian film, support for production, and film education.

Who Votes?

The membership regulations (approved by the supervisory council on September 23, 2026) divide members into four categories.

• Category 1: filmmakers (directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, production designers, composers, producers, actors, and others) who since 1991 have taken part in making at least one feature film or three shorts (limited to works screened in Ukraine or shown at a film festival running for at least five years). Voting rights.
• Category 2: people who have made a major contribution to Ukrainian film through distribution, criticism, or running international film festivals. Voting rights.
• Category 3: patrons who support Ukrainian film. No voting rights.
• Category 4: honorary members. Voting rights.

Admission is decided by the supervisory council, based on an application through the official website, an invitation from the Academy’s governing bodies, or the recommendation of two or more members. The Academy’s published member list (dated April 14, 2026) carries 620 names.

How the Prize Is Decided

Under the regulations for the tenth prize, approved January 26, 2026, eligible works are: feature narrative and animated films shown theatrically in Ukraine for at least one week between March 1, 2025, and February 28, 2026; documentaries and shorts shown theatrically in that period, or entered in the competition of a juried festival running for at least five years; and series first shown on television or online in that period. Foreign-language dialogue must carry Ukrainian subtitles or dubbing. It is also a condition that no Russian, Belarusian, or Iranian professionals took part.

Voting takes place in two rounds.

• Round one (March 19-May 7, 2026): all members choose up to three nominees per category (up to five for Best Film).
• Round two (May 14-June 19, 2026): all members choose one winner per category, except for five categories — costume, makeup, sound, editing, and special effects — which the board and supervisory council decide.

The regulations list 23 categories. Separately, “Discovery of the Year” is chosen by the board and supervisory council in a closed meeting, and the “Contribution to Ukrainian Film” award is chosen by the Ukrainian Filmmakers’ Union. The regulations state that any category with fewer than three nominees is dropped from the vote, and according to the Academy’s announcement, winners were decided in 21 categories at the tenth prize in 2026. The directing award is named for director Yurii Illienko (Illienko’s films are covered in our article on poetic cinema).

Where the Name “Dzyga” Comes From

“дзиґа” (dzyga) is the Ukrainian word for a spinning top (per the 11-volume Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language). The Academy explains that it chose the “golden top” statuette as the prize’s symbol because it represents “speed, constant development, and endlessness.”

Ten Years of Awards on Record

The prize has been given continuously since 2017, though its form has changed with the pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion. Arranged from the Academy’s own announcements, the record is as follows.

How to Count the Years With No Ceremony

“How many years had no award ceremony” depends on what one calls a ceremony. In 2022, no edition’s awards were given at all. The Academy describes the 6th edition as one that “was to be held in 2022, honoring the previous year’s films, but the members’ voting was delayed a year by the start of the full-scale invasion.” In 2023, the winners of both the 6th and 7th editions were announced online in sequence. The 4th edition, in 2020, was an online broadcast with no audience gathered at a venue. Because two editions were announced in 2023, the number of editions across the ten years from 2017 to 2026 comes to ten.

Who Chooses the One Film for the U.S. Academy Awards?

The U.S. Academy Awards’ International Feature Film category allows each country to submit one film. The rules of AMPAS’ 99th awards (2027) define that submission as an official national selection made “through a committee approved by the Academy,” requiring that at least 50% of the selecting body’s members be filmmakers. The same rules also grant eligibility, without a national selection, to films that have won at designated international film festivals.

Selection in Ukraine falls to the “Ukrainian Oscar Committee.” Under the Committee’s regulations, dated July 17, 2026, it was formed by five bodies — the State Film Agency, the Ukrainian Filmmakers’ Union, the Ukrainian Producers’ Association, the Ukrainian Film Academy, and the state institution “Ukrainian Institute” — and works as follows.

• The committee has 14 members, chosen from among the Ukrainian Film Academy’s members by a vote of the members.
• To be eligible, a person must be a Ukrainian citizen who is a member of the European Film Academy, AMPAS, or the International Federation of Film Critics, or who has taken part in or won an award at one of the 22 film festivals the regulations list. A member may serve for six years in total at most.
• At least half the committee’s members must work on the production side (directors, screenwriters, producers, cinematographers, and others).
• The committee’s membership is subject to AMPAS’ approval. The chair of the sub-committee that counts votes is a representative of the State Film Agency, and the secretariat is run by a representative of the Film Academy.

According to the Academy’s announcement, there were eight submissions in 2026, and a 12-member committee chose director Alisa Kovalenko’s (co-directed with Mariya Nikituk) documentary Traces (Сліди) as Ukraine’s entry for the 99th awards (announcement of September 16, 2026). This is fewer members than the 14 the regulations specify, but the announcement does not explain why.

Its Link to State Support for Film

The Academy is not a state body, but the notice for the 10th prize lists the State Film Agency as a supporting sponsor, and at the 10th ceremony State Film Agency head Andrii Osypov gave a speech. The mechanism for state film funding is covered in our article on the film support law and pitching sessions, the Kyiv international film festival in our article on Molodist, and the range of what “Ukrainian film” means in our article on the five things “Ukrainian film” can mean.