Since 2012, the main location of the event has been  the Festival Palace of Odesa Theater of Musical Comedy  with 1,260 seats.

For the first two years, the main prize of the Odesa Film Festival was awarded based on the jury's decision.

[4] At the third Odesa Film Festival in 2012, the screenings were attended by about 100,000 spectators, about 4,500 guests and 700 accredited media representatives.

The audience of the opening and closing ceremonies was about 3 million people, the program featured 85 films from 40 countries.

During the 8th OIFF within the Film Industry Office section, in addition to the traditional pitching of feature films and presentations of motion pictures at the Work in Progress stage, the Odesa IFF ScripTeast Series Projects competition and Actor's Workshop took place.

[13] The films allowed to participate in the European Documentary Competition are selected from  feature-length documentaries, which were made in full or within the framework of international co-production with production entities from the following countries: Austria, Albania, Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Georgia, Denmark, Israel, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Kosovo, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, Finland, France, Croatia, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, Estonia.

The International Competition Program selects new feature films completed after 1 January of the current year, and whose premieres have not yet taken place on the territory of Ukraine at the time of the beginning of the festival.

New feature films shot between 1 January of the previous year and which have not yet been shown in Ukraine are selected for the competition.

The National Competition will feature Ukrainian short-length and feature-length films completed after 1 January of the previous year.

During the first OIFF, crowds of viewers marveled at Sergei Eisenstein's masterpiece "Battleship Potemkin"[17] to  the accompaniment of a live symphonic orchestra.

During the 6th OIFF, in 2015, there was a screening of the film "Man with a Movie Camera" by Dzyga Vertov, and in 2016 – "Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Bertelet to the music of Donald Sosin accompanied by a symphony orchestra.

During the 8th OIFF, the Potemkin Stairs screened Julien Duvivier's 1930 film "The Ladies' Delight" based on Émile Zola`s novel of the same name.

The show was accompanied by the music of  Canadian composer Gabriel Thibodeau, vocal parts were performed by soloist Sophie Fournier.

[20] At the festival in 2014, a fundraiser was held for Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, illegally convicted and imprisoned in Russia.

On 13 July, the cult film "Cossacks" (1928) produced by MGM was shown to the audience at the Potemkin Stairs.

In the course of the first Odesa Film Festival master classes were given by Hollywood actors Rutger Hauer and John Malkovich;[22] directors Krzysztof Zanussi, Otar Ioseliani, Vadim Perelman, Kira Muratova, Darren Aronofsky, Christian Petzold, Jos Stelling.

However, master classes and creative meetings are held during the festival and entry is simplified – you can reserve a seat with  any type of accreditation.

The venues offer varied and exciting entertainment from elite jazz evenings to public concerts of popular bands and DJs.

Geng Jun, the director of "Free and Easy" that took part in a competitive program in 2018, said: “During the presentation of my film, I paid attention to Ukrainian subtitles and felt a great pleasure.

"[27] Commenting on the 6th OIFF (2015), the director and founder of the Ukrainian Film Club, Professor of Linguistics at Columbia University (USA) Yuri Shevchuk in his article "Odesa International Film Festival: a parade of Russian glamor" in the  Telekrytyka magazine explores OIFF strategies, its program, language, and image policy.

"[28] Later, in a comment to Hromadske Radio, Shevchuk noted that “the Odesa festival lacks self-awareness in the non-provincial dimensions.

[30][31] Tigipko later stated that her words were "interpreted out of context" and that she was only trying to use terminology familiar to foreign festival guests.