Ukraine wins its first ever Oscar with ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ documentary

According to Ukrinform, Mstyslav Chernov's documentary about the first days of the Russian siege of Mariupol city in the Donetsk region, was also nominated for Best International Feature Film.

This film was created in collaboration with the Associated Press and American documentary filmmakers from Frontline. The film was shot inside the besieged city of Mariupol during the first days of the Russian invasion.

According to Suspilne, at the award ceremony, Mstyslav Chernov said: "This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history, and I’m honored. Probably I will be the first director on this stage to say I wish I’d never made this film, I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine.”

He was joined on stage by photojournalist Evgeniy Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko, who worked with the director in besieged Mariupol in 2022. "This is the first Oscar in history to be awarded to the authors of a Ukrainian film," the report says.

The Oscar ceremony was broadcast in more than 200 countries. In Ukraine, the exclusive broadcast was provided by Suspilne Culture.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Ukrainian documentary “20 Days in Mariupol”, which tells the story of the besieged city from February 24, 2022, is a debut of war correspondent photographer, videographer and writer Mstyslav Chernov. The film involved the works of Evgeniy Maloletka and producer and journalist Vasilisa Stepanenko. They won the Pulitzer Prize for their work in Mariupol.

In addition, Maloletka, Chernov and Stepanenko won the Shevchenko Prize for their series of journalistic materials about the siege of Mariupol (reports, photo and video reports, investigations and the film 20 Days in Mariupol).

The film was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, an independent-film festival held in the United States, in the World Cinema Documentary Competition section, and won the Audience Award.

The Ukrainian premiere took place at the Docudays UA festival, where 20 Days in Mariupol won the best film in the National Competition and the Audience Award.

The film also won awards at the Cleveland International Film Festival (USA), DocAviv (Israel), Sheffield DocFest (UK), DocEdge (New Zealand), Cinema for Peace (Germany), and the Royal Television Society (UK).

In its first week of release in Ukraine, 20 Days in Mariupol raised over UAH 530,000 and became the highest-grossing Ukrainian documentary film in history.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky noted the important role of the documentary 20 Days in Mariupol in countering Russian propaganda and thanked its creators.