4th Ukrainian Cultural Festival Returns to New York with Film, Music, Theatre and Literature

The fourth edition of Razom for Ukraine’s Ukrainian Cultural Festival (UCF) is taking place across New York City from October 18 to November 6, 2026, bringing Ukrainian artists and cultural voices to leading American institutions. The programme spans music, cinema, theatre, literature and visual arts, connecting international audiences with contemporary Ukrainian creativity and experiences.

The festival opened at Carnegie Hall with the US premiere of Steel, Violet, Rage, a concerto for piano four hands and orchestra by Ukrainian composer Oleh Bezborodko, inspired by a poem by Ukrainian soldier and poet Maksym Kryvtsov. It will close on November 6 with a joint performance by the Kyiv Lysenko State Music Lyceum Chamber Girls Choir and the Westchester Children’s Chorus.

The film programme, running October 22–26 in partnership with DCTV and QUAD Cinema, features Ukrainian documentaries, fiction and animation. Highlights include Sanatorium, directed by Gar O’Rourke; Nice Ladies, by Mariia Ponomarova; Silent Flood, by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk; Honeymoon, by Zhanna Ozirna; and Cuba & Alaska, by Yegor Troyanovsky. The programme also includes Ukrainian documentary and animated shorts, a screening of Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story with musician Eugene Hütz attending, and a masterclass with animator Sashko Danylenko.

Theatre and literary events include a workshop presentation of The Reckoning, based on verified witness testimony collected by The Reckoning Project, and a discussion of Ukrainian modernist playwright Lesia Ukrainka at the New York Public Library. The October 28 event Poet as Witness will feature Ukrainian poets and soldiers Yaryna Chornohuz and Lesyk Panasiuk.

Organized by Razom for Ukraine’s Connect team, UCF aims to build lasting connections between Ukrainian artists, cultural institutions and American audiences. Full programme details and tickets are available on the festival’s official website.