"20 Days in Mariupol" won the "Best Documentary" award at the 96th Academy Awards

The documentary film "20 Days in Mariupol", directed by Mstyslav Chernov, depicting the early days of russia's invasion of Mariupol, has won the "Best Documentary" award at the 96th Academy Awards (Oscars) at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on March 11, 2024.

This marked a historic achievement as the first Ukrainian film to qualify, be nominated, and win an Oscar.

The team of the film "20 Days in Mariupol" - Yevhen Maloletka, Vasylisa Stepanenko, Michelle Mizner, Mstyslav Chernov, Raney Aronson and Derl McCrudden on the red carpet of the 96th Oscars.

The film provides a portrayal of the initial weeks of the fighting in Mariupol, the Donetsk oblast, during russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The team behind the film includes director and photographer Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Yevhen Maloletka, and producer and journalist Vasylisa Stepanenko. They were among the last journalists covering the onset of russia's destruction of Mariupol and received the Pulitzer Prize for their coverage.

"20 Days in Mariupol" premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January 2023, winning the Audience Award. The film was simultaneously nominated in two categories at the 2024 Oscars – Best Documentary and Best International Film. It became the highest-grossing documentary in Ukraine in the previous year, earning 500,000 UAH in the opening weekend.

The documentary, available on American YouTube, received global acclaim, winning 28 awards at various international film festivals, including the Cleveland International Film Festival, the National Board of Review in the USA, and a BAFTA award for Best Documentary.