The Informatics Olympiad
Domas has to take over father’s job to prepare his niece for the informatics olympiad.
Domas (35) works night-shifts at a fast food restaurant, struggling with alcohol and gambling addiction. He has cut ties with his family years ago but one day he learns of his father’s illness and impulsively comes home. Domas’s father Kostas (75) was an ambitious computer science teacher who taught Domas programming in his teenage years. Now Domas is asked to help his niece prepare for the informatics olympiad and he stays. He reconnects with old friends, starts an affair with his childhood love in what starts to feel like reliving teenage years all over again. Is this Domas’s attempt to put his life in order or one last chance to prove his worth to his father?
Director's note
Domas (35) is an “eternal boy” type of character. He is intriguing, fascinating to follow, yet he struggles to take responsibility and connect with adult life. This makes his attempt to assume the role of a teacher paradoxical. The character’s troubled nature, his attempt to relive the past, stems from disappointment with the present, unfulfilled expectations, and a complicated relationship with his father.
We only meet Domas's father at the end of the film. Until then, I reconstruct their relationship through computer science problems, Domas’s work at school, and the stories told by other characters. This method allows for a nuanced reflection on their relationship and becomes a metaphor for the impossible communication between the two characters. I want to tell the story of a lost connection indirectly: through references, symbols, through Domas’s sad attempts to win father’s love at slot machines or olympiads.
I write this film using auto fiction approach. I spent my adolescence competing in national and international olympiads, preparing for them together with my father. I know this world, themes of ambition and the necessity of meeting certain standards are close to me. Through personal experience, I seek to create an authentic texture and sense of reality, while the fictional elements dramatise and reflect, helping to distill social issues the film raises.
“Eternal boy” archetype is increasingly relevant today. As technology advances and material living standards improve, maturity is delayed. Today’s generation of people in their thirties face challenges in taking on responsibility, postpone questions of starting a family. We live in an age that celebrates youth, one that frequently distracts us from the natural processes of life.
Producer's note
After producing 4 successful short films together, we are now embarking on the debut feature film journey with director Adas Burkšaitis and his new project Informatics Olympiad. Over the years, our collaboration has grown into a strong creative partnership built on trust, a shared artistic sensibility, and a commitment to telling emotionally honest stories with a distinctive cinematic language.
Adas has already established himself as one of the most promising voices of the new generation of Lithuanian filmmakers through his short films Mėta, Tušinukas, Panaši, and Ramiojo vandenyno salos. His work combines subtle humour, emotional precision, and a unique ability to observe characters caught between vulnerability and absurdity. With Informatics Olympiad, he takes a natural yet ambitious step into feature filmmaking.
As a producer, my goal during the development is to create a solid artistic and financial foundation for the film, as well as building the international distribution strategy at early stages. We are focusing on screenplay development together with script consultant Marija Kavtaradze, assembling a strong creative team, carrying out casting and location research, and developing the visual language through stylistic and technical test shoots that will take place in Fall 2026. We have secured part of development funding from Lithuanian Film Center, that will allow us to do a 2 day test shootings on the actual location and produce a teaser for the project.
At the same time, we are actively seeking co-production partners and positioning the project within the European film industry through markets and co-production platforms. The story’s unique setting — the rarely explored world of informatics olympiads — gives the project a distinctive identity, while its core themes of identity, memory, expectations, and emotional isolation remain universally relatable.
Biography
Greta Akcijonaite is a development producer at Magic Film. With extensive experience in film exhibition, distribution and production, she develops TV series and co-productions.
Profile
Magic Film is a Lithuanian production company, a joint venture of producers Greta Akcijonaite, Aurimas Pukevicius, and Ramojus Petrauskas. It specializes in film, TV, and commercial production.
The producers bring together over two decades of experience in audiovisual production, film distribution, and international co-productions. Magic Film combines creative ambition with high production quality and works across different formats and markets. It has produced award-winning projects and films, and continues to develop a diverse slate of new work.
The company is active across the Baltics and internationally, with a track record in both arthouse cinema, TV production and commercial advertising.