“20 days in Mariupol”. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated a Ukrainian film for an Oscar – it is in the top 5

Photo by GETTY IMAGES/YEUGEN MALOLETKA PHOTO

January 23, 2024

The documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” by Ukrainian journalist and photographer Mstislav Chernov was nominated for an Oscar in the category “Best Documentary”.

This was announced on January 23 during a live broadcast.

Films will also compete in this category:

• Bobi Wine: The People’sPresident
• The Eternal Memory
• Four Daughters
• To Kill a Tiger

A total of 167 tapes were accepted for participation in the nomination, later 15 were chosen for the short list.

The award ceremony will take place on March 11 at one o’clock in the morning at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.

“He is painful to watch, he must be watched”

Together with Chernov, photographer Yevhen Maloletka and producer Vasylisa Stepanenko worked on the film.

They, as a team of the Associated Press news agency, arrived in Mariupol an hour before the full-scale invasion of Russia and spent almost a month under siege there.

They remained the only international journalists in the besieged city and documented everything that was happening there – the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Russian siege, war crimes, mass burials of civilians, the work of doctors who desperately registered the deaths of children, from teenagers to infants.

Thanks to Chernov and his team, the world saw for the first time many of the famous poignant photos of Mariupol, including the consequences of the bombing of maternity hospital No. 3.

Photo Caption,

“20 Days in Mariupol” is the debut film of director and photographer Mstislav Chernov

Chernov and Maloletka sent their photos and videos, hiding under the stairs near the crushed grocery store – the only place in Mariupol where communication was maintained.

In one episode of the film, Mstislav Chernov says behind the scenes: “This film is painful to watch, but you have to watch it.”

“20 days in Mariupol” was screened at many international film festivals, it has already received many awards, including the prestigious audience prize at the main Sundance independent film festival.

He received two BAFTA nominations.

It was also a candidate for nomination in two categories of “Oscar-2024” — as the best documentary and international film.

The tape became the highest-grossing documentary film in Ukraine last year, collecting UAH 500,000 in the first weekend of release alone.

Photo by DOCUDAYS.UA

Ukraine has been fighting for the “Oscar” since 1997, first periodically, and then every year, choosing different feature films or documentaries worthy of the main cinematographic award.

For the most part, Ukraine was not lucky, but the breakthrough was in 2016, when the Ukrainian documentary “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Struggle for Freedom” about the Revolution of Dignity was among the top five nominees in the category of feature-length documentaries.

Last year, another Ukrainian film “House of Chips” about the life of children in the front-line zone also competed for the Oscar in the same category. But then the award went to the film “Navalny” by the Canadian documentarian Daniel Roer.

Other nominations

Christopher Nolan’s film “Oppenheimer” won the most nominations, it will compete for the Oscar in 13 categories.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ film “Poor People” won 11 nominations.

Other record holders this year: “Flower Flood Killers” (10), “Barbie” (8), “Maestro” (7). Five nominations each for the films “American Reading”, “Anatomy of the Fall”, “Abandoned” and “Zone of Interests”.

The following films will compete for the most prestigious film award in the main categories.

Best movie:

• “Anatomy of a Fall”
• “Barbie”
• “Abandoned”
• “Killers of the flower full”
• “Maestro”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Past Lives”
• “Poor people”
• “Zone of interests”

Best Director:

• Justine Trier – “Anatomy of the Fall”
• Martin Scorsese – “Killers of the flower full”
• Christopher Nolan – “Oppenheimer”
• Yorgos Lanthimos – “Poor People”
• Jonathan Glazer – “Zone of Interests”

Best Actress:

• Annette Bening – “Diana Naiad”
• Lily Gladstone – “Killers of the flower full”
• Sandra Guller – “Anatomy of the Fall”
• Keri Melligan – “Maestro”
• Emma Stone – “Poor People”

Best Actor:

• Bradley Cooper – “Maestro”
• Colman Domingo – “Rastin”
• Paul Giamatti – “Abandoned”
• Cillian Murphy – “Oppenheimer”
• Jeffrey Wright – “American literature”

Best Supporting Actor:

• Ryan Gosling – “Barbie”
• Sterling Brown – “American Reading”
• Robert De Niro – “Killers of Flower Fullness”
• Robert Downey Jr. – “Oppenheimer”

Best Supporting Actress:

• Emily Blunt – “Oppenheimer”
• Daniel Brooks – “The Color Purple”
• America Ferrera – “Barbie”
• Judi Foster – “Dayana Naiad”
• Da’Vin Joy Randolph – “Forsaken”