The Ukrainian Oscar Committee has announced the film that will compete for the chance to represent Ukraine in the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars. It is Мстислав Черновdocumentary ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’. At the 2024 Oscars, Chernov’s debut film ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ won the award for Best Documentary Feature
The events of ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’ unfold during Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive. Chernov accompanies a platoon of Ukrainian soldiers from the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, who are tasked with liberating the strategically important village of Andriivka in the Donetsk region, which is ‘surrounded by mines and accessible only through a tiny sliver of wooded land’.
On August 20, ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’ was released in Ukrainian cinemas.
Commenting on the decision of the Ukrainian Oscar Committee, Mstyslav Chernov said: ‘We will do everything possible to ensure that the voices of Ukraine and Ukrainian soldiers are heard. This now seems especially important, as Kyiv has been under massive shelling early this morning (on the night of August 27–28. — Note from DTF Magazine). I receive the news about the selection while filming how the bodies of civilians are being pulled from the rubble. And this places an even greater responsibility on us — documentary filmmakers, artists — to speak to the world, to shout to it about what is happening, even when it seems pointless.’
Chernov worked on the film together with his colleague, Associated Press photographer Oleksandr Babenko. The soundtrack was composed by Sam Slater, a composer and producer who won a Grammy for his music for the TV series ‘Chernobyl’ and the film ‘Joker’.
The world premiere of ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’ took place at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Directing in a Documentary (World Cinema category).
The Ukrainian premiere of ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’ took place at the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, where the film won the main prize of the international DOCU/World competition.
About other Oscar submissions from Ukraine
A total of eight films competed for the right to represent Ukraine at the Oscars:
‘20,000 Meters to Andriivka’ by Mstyslav Chernov, ‘Bucha’ by Stanislav Tiunov, ‘Divia’ by Dmytro Hreshko, ‘Warning! Life Goes On’ by Anton Shtuka, ‘Summertime in Ukraine’ by Volodymyr Tykhyi, ‘Lift Force’ by Oleksandr Stratiienko, ‘Stepne’ by Maryna Vroda, and ‘Timestamp by Kateryna Hornostai.
The film was selected by a commission of 12 representatives of the Ukrainian film industry through a voting process. This year’s committee included: director and head of the Ukrainian Oscar Committee Dmytro Sukholytkyi-Sobchuk; producer Maksym Asadchyi; film critics Denys Budanov and Dmytro Desiateryk; director Taras Dron; directors Maryna Er Horbach and Maryna Stepanska; director of the Molodist International Film Festival Andrii Khalpakhchi; film critics Oleksii Pershko and Kateryna Slipchenko; and producers Volodymyr Yatsenko and Serhii Zlenko.
About ‘20 Days in Mariupol’
At the 2024 Oscars, Mstyslav Chernov’s ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ won the award for Best Documentary Feature.
‘20 Days in Mariupol’ tells the story of russia’s attack on the city on February 24, 2022 — the bombing of residential neighborhoods and a maternity hospital, the lives of people who lived and worked under the blockade, and how Chernov, together with his colleagues — photographer Yevhen Malolietka and journalist Vasylisa Stepanenko — managed to escape from the city surrounded by russian occupiers.
Read our exclusive interview: ‘Director of ‘20 Days in Mariupol’: ‘We all accepted our deaths in a way’’
