Communities and clubs

Three communities where we bring genre film creators together: an open Telegram channel, a closed screenwriters’ club and a closed Discord community where people write and shoot horror. All three run in Ukrainian.

open community

SHOYAKSHO Telegram channel

This is where it all began.

The channel was started by Anton Skrypets, a screenwriter, director and producer. 10+ years in the industry: mainstream TV content, web series, the film Stay Online, winner of FANTASIA 2023.

An open community for Ukrainian screenwriters: pitchings, contests, a screenwriting lab. Anyone can write. The closed club ZKS, The Horror Contest and the film company itself all grew out of it.

From the very beginning we believed that the script is the foundation. That’s where time and effort should go until the decision is made to put bigger money into a film. This philosophy is still with us: script first.

Join the channel →

closed club

ZKS — the closed screenwriters’ club

19 writers, experienced and new. Every Monday someone shares a script or other material, and by Sunday everyone writes them a detailed breakdown. Once a month: a group call.

Feedback is the heart of the club.

Any script gets better with feedback: the more honest outside views, the stronger the next draft. So a breakdown here isn’t politeness but a house rule: everyone writes one for everyone. And at the writer’s request the other members give scores, to better understand the quality of the material.

20: writers in the club
35+: pieces reviewed since February

Club members

Zhenia
TunikThe First Swallows, In Her Car
Artem
KobzanSilent Nava
Tamara
HrantovskaThe Guardians of Christmas
Anton
SkrypetsStay Online
Vlad
Storytellera blog about storytelling
Oleksii
ProkazovYouTube channel “Oleksii Makes KINO”
Anhelina
Turskawinner of the Svit TV 2025 pitching
Pavlo
Romankonovelist; In the Realm of the Vodianyk, honoured at the Coronation of the Word awards
Sasha
FedinTalent Assistant at SHOYAKSHO
Slava
Balabanovadvertising strategist, documentaries for Memorial
Leonid
Hronayoung, ambitious director
Vitalik
Dolynskyiyoung, ambitious writer of the script Babai from the SHOYAKSHO lab
Ania
Ivinskascreenwriter and documentary producer
Sasha
NykonovychSHOYAKSHO contest finalist, went through the SHOYAKSHO lab, writing a film about Telesyk
Katia
Paperovskayoung, ambitious director, student at the Karpenko-Kary Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television
Zhenia
Pliasovawinner of the first SHOYAKSHO pitching with the comedy Don’t Buzz!
Ira
Siedovatwo feature scripts, episodes of a new TV series
Anastasiia
Tytarenkotheatre director and playwright
Ania
Shcherbynamusic video and commercials director

Discord · closed community

Horrormakers

A community of horror makers who write and shoot horror. It began with The Horror Contest.

We went looking for horror writers outside the film industry, and that’s where we found them. Experience and credits didn’t matter: all it took was a story and the will to write it.

1000+: stories submitted
~170: writers made it to stage 2
~150: wrote finished scripts
76%: first-timers: fewer than three finished scripts before the contest

Supported by

KOVALSKYI
Zahin Kinomaniv
Ukrainian horror
Fincher Kubrykom
Kulturnyi Didko
Vlad Storyteller
WELL MOVIE
Oleksii Makes KINO
BABAI literary community
Nika Karuso
FANCON
MOVIE MOVA
...and Action!
SHUPETT
Almanakh-Putivnyk

Stage 1One-pagersuntil 24 August
Stage 210–30 min scriptsuntil 30 September
Judging7 judges, 3 rounds5–30 October
Final stageFinalists31 October

More than a contest

A free writers’ intensive

While the stage 2 participants were writing their scripts, we ran a 20-day intensive for them, “Tips for the Screenwriter”. Plus the closed Horrormakers Discord community and access to translated cult scripts.

8.1 / 10that’s how 140 participants rated how much the intensive helped them with their script

Our judges

Endless gratitude

to the people who care what Ukrainian cinema will become. Seven judges read hundreds of scripts, wrote the writers honest breakdowns and advice, and believed in new writers before the industry had seen them.

Alex Malyshenko Programme director and co-founder of Mykolaichuk OPEN
The person who every year gathers the youngest and freshest Ukrainian cinema under one roof.
Artem Kobzan Screenwriter, head writer of the series Silent Nava
Knows the genre from the inside and can talk about the craft plainly and simply.
Valentyn (WELL MOVIE) Film blogger: horror reviews and breakdowns
Watches horror like a viewer, but takes it apart like a professional.
Vlad Storyteller Screenwriter, author of the first Ukrainian-language blog about storytelling
Has taught storytelling to thousands of people in Ukrainian. Really! And Vlad’s feedback is always concise and straight to the point.
Iryna Pasko Writer, editor of the horror community Babai
Has been nurturing Ukrainian literary horror for years. Ira is a fine connoisseur of the genre, widely read and widely watched.
Nika Karuso Gaming YouTuber, horror fan
That Nika Karuso! Has played through hundreds of horror games with her audience and knows exactly what makes a viewer flinch.
Oleksii Prokazov Screenwriter, YouTube channel “Oleksii Makes KINO”
Writes and explains film for a large audience. Knows a lot of good cinema. Oleksii combines the eye of a creator and a viewer, and generously shares both!

Thank you for being with us. — Team SHOYAKSHO

What it looks like now

Horrormakers todayclosed Discord community

Home to our horror makers: screenwriters from The Horror Contest with finished horror scripts, script breakdowns, discussions and new crews. There’s no way in off the street: only through our contests or by personal selection.

Find a scriptaround 150 finished horror scripts from The Horror Contest
Find a crewcinematographers, actors, editors, directors, production designers: they’re all here
Be among your ownlive talk about horror, creativity and how films get made

170+horror makers already inside