Ukrainian Film 20 Days in Mariupol Wins Septimius Award in Netherlands
On 20 August, the documentary film 20 Days in Mariupol by Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov won the Best Feature Documentary Award at the Septimius Awards in Amsterdam (Netherlands).
This was reported by Ukrinform.
The film crew of 20 Days in Mariupol was represented by Ukrainian journalist and film producer Vasilisa Stepanenko. She, together with Mstyslav Chernov and Yevhen Maloletka, worked on the film when Mariupol was already surrounded. Stepanenko went on stage with Anastasia, who was lying in the perinatal centre of Mariupol during the bombing.
‘It's a huge honour to be on stage today, and it's a huge honour to be on stage with this family. She (Anastasia - Ed.) was pregnant with her son when the Russians bombed the maternity hospital. Today he is almost three years old, just like the war. The full-scale invasion continues. Now the Netherlands has become a temporary home for them... I came here from Ukraine, and tomorrow I will return to continue reporting and telling these important stories. Thanks to you and the films, we can tell these important stories, and these people will have their voices heard. And people will come together and continue to do their work. I think that this can make this world a better place,’ Stepanenko said on stage in her award speech.
The film 20 Days in Mariupol tells the story of the first weeks of fighting in Mariupol, Donetsk region, during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The film was created by director and photographer Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Yevhen Maloletka, and producer and journalist Vasilisa Stepanenko. They were the last journalists to cover the beginning of Russia's destruction of Mariupol, and all three of them won the Pulitzer Prize for this. In 2024, they were also awarded the Shevchenko Prize.
The film became the highest-grossing documentary in Ukraine last year, raising 500,000 hryvnias in its first weekend alone.
The film also won the Best Documentary at the British BAFTA Awards. And Chernov received the Director's Guild Award (DGA Awards) for ‘Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Film’.
On 11 March 2024, the film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
As The Gaze previously reported, Mstyslav Chernov's film 20 Days in Mariupol was released on the Netflix streaming platform in April.