Did the movie 20 Days in Mariupol bring Ukraine its first Oscar? Two-time Oscar winner from Crimea recalled online

The 96th Oscars will forever go down in the history of Ukraine as the day when our country won the first prestigious film award in the history of its independence. The film 20 Days in Mariupol won in the Best Documentary category, and its director, Mstislav Chernov, once again told the world about Russian terror and the devastating war in his homeland. Meanwhile, the network reminded that in 2006, Anatoliy Kokush, a Ukrainian from Kerch, received two engineering Oscars.

"The Engineering Awards are presented for achievements that demonstrate a high level of engineering excellence and are important for the development of the industry. Anatoliy Kokush, who was born in Crimea and worked at the Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kyiv, received two such awards at once. OBOZ.UA will tell you about the outstanding compatriot.

Due to the unpopularity of the engineering Oscar, which awards slightly different statuettes than the classic ones we are used to, few people know about Anatoliy Kokush. And this is a huge omission, because the Ukrainian's inventions are not only in great demand in Hollywood, but they once contributed to the emergence of the most iconic films in the history of modern world cinema.

Anatoliy Kokush is the creator of the Kaskad series of cranes and one of the developers of the Autorobot gyro-stabilized crane. It was for these cranes that the film engineer received two Oscars in 2006. As we mentioned above, Kokush started his career at Dovzhenko Film Studio.

The Ukrainian's equipment was used in such legendary films as Titanic, The Matrix, Troy, The Fast and the Furious, Ocean's Twelve, Batman, The Da Vinci Code, Mission Impossible 3, X-Men, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, and many other blockbusters.

In particular, thanks to Kokush, it was possible to shoot one of the most famous scenes in world cinema, when Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as Jack and Rose stood on the bow of the Titanic to Celine Dion's song My Heart Will Go On.

Of course, one cannot say that Kokush's Oscar is the first Oscar in the history of independent Ukraine. Still, this role remains with the movie 20 Days in Mariupol. Nevertheless, the engineer who made such a great contribution to the development of the global film industry is the pride of Ukraine, so his name should be heard and be a reason to be proud of the talented Ukrainian nation. In 2020, by the way, Anatoliy Kokush was included in the National Register of Records of Ukraine, and in 2021, the documentary Kokush. U.Сrane ("Obsession") directed by Svitlana Sokolenko and Andriy Zazharsky was released in 2021.

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