"20 Days in Mariupol" Received the Audience Sympathy Award at the IDFA 2023 Festival in Amsterdam
The documentary by Mstyslav Chernov emerged victorious in the audience sympathy category at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.
This information is available on the official IDFA 2023 festival website.
The film "20 Days in Mariupol" achieved an average rating of 4.91 out of 5. This year, 142 works competed for the audience sympathy award. Viewers voted using QR codes after watching each film.
The award ceremony took place at the Royal Theater Tuschinski, followed by a special screening of the film. The winner also received a €5,000 prize.
"20 Days in Mariupol" narrates the story of Ukrainian journalist and photographer Mstyslav Chernov, who found himself in the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukraine, at the onset of the full-scale invasion by Russia.
The documentary captures horrifying facts of the unprovoked, genocidal war initiated by Russia in Ukraine: the presence of Russian tanks on the streets of the peaceful Ukrainian city, indiscriminate bombings, the deaths of civilian children and adults, and the desperate efforts of surrounded and blocked medics to continue saving lives.
Alongside Chernov, the film involved photographer Yevhen Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko. The team was later awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the footage shot in Mariupol.
The prize for the best film at the IDFA 2023 festival in Amsterdam went to the debut film "1489" by director Shoghakat Vardanyan. The movie depicts the director's search for the body of her 21-year-old brother Soghomon, who died in 2020 during the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
"Cinema as a tool of survival—to allow us all, to look at the things we would rather not see. And ultimately, an unforgettable example of cinema as an act of love," noted the festival jury.
Previously, The Gaze reported on 7 films about Russia's invasive, genocidal war in Ukraine.
It's worth remembering that due to Russia's unprovoked aggression, many Ukrainian artists were compelled to defend their homes with arms. Some, like Paris Opera soloist Vasyl Slipak, actor Pasha Lee, musician and founder of the Kyiv Rock School Volodymyr Bulba, writer and public figure Victoria Amelina, and many others, lost their lives.