Best Documentary: "20 Days in Mariupol wins BAFTA award

The film 20 Days in Mariupol has won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for Best Documentary.

This was reported on the award website. The award ceremony took place at the Royal Festival Hall in London on February 18.

The film's director, Mstyslav Chernov, and producer Vasylisa Stepanenko, who worked with him and photojournalist Yevhen Malolhetka in the besieged Mariupol in 2022, took the stage to receive the award.

Also present at the award ceremony were film producers Michelle Mizner and Renee Aronson-Rath.

The film was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film .

However, the winner in this category was Jonathan Glazer's Area of Interest , which was released in Ukraine on February 22. It also won awards in the Best Sound and Best British Film categories.

BAFTA is an annual film award presented by the British Academy of Television and Film Arts. It is called the British equivalent of the Oscars.

"20 Days in Mariupol" is also nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary. The award ceremony will take place on March 11.

What is known about the movie "20 Days in Mariupol"

"20 Days in Mariupol" shows the horrors of the siege of the Ukrainian city by the Russian army since February 24, 2022. It is the directorial debut of war correspondent, photographer, videographer and writer Mstislav Chernov.

The film was created in collaboration with the Associated Press and American documentary filmmakers from Frontline. The film was also created by photographer Yevhen Malolietka and producer and journalist Vasilisa Stepanenko. They won the Pulitzer Prize for their work in Mariupol.

The premiere took place on January 21, 2023 at the Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the United States, where the film was selected for the World Documentary Competition and won the Audience Award.

As of January 2024, 20 Days in Mariupol has received more than 20 awards and 40 nominations. It was screened before a meeting of the UN General Assembly in September 2023. The film became the highest-grossing Ukrainian documentary.

As we previously reported, on February 11, Mstislav Chernov received the US Directors Guild Award for his film 20 Days in Mariupol. During the award ceremony, he gave a powerful speech, recalling the tragedy in his native Kharkiv on February 9.