Photo credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Article information
- Author, Diana Kuryshko
- Role, BBC Ukraine
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March 11, 2024
In order to receive the first Oscar in the history of Ukraine, Mstislav Chernov and his team did a huge job and more than once. First, they went to the city, where they still cannot count the number of dead. They risked their lives filming there, and then they risked taking the materials under the car seat through all the Russian checkpoints. One inspection, one shelling, and all this might not have happened.
From dozens of hours of video shot under shelling, they made a film in such a way that Western media journalists wrote that they felt as if they had visited that city surrounded by Russian troops.
“20 days in Mariupol” turned out to be ruthless and honest.
“The human cost of war is revealed,” The Sunday Times wrote regarding the film in its review.
The authors of the film did not just make a strong film, they made the world talk regarding it and watch it.
The Oscar race has never been a film-only story. Just having a good movie is not enough. This is also a competition of promotional campaigns.
Last year, when the film “Navalny” won, billboards regarding it were hung all over Los Angeles.
Thanks to the efforts of the authors of the film and the entire team of the Associated Press and Frontline, “20 Days in Mariupol” has been talked regarding since its first screening – at the legendary Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award a year ago. His first award.
Hundreds of publications in the media, dozens of interviews and inclusions from CNN and the BBC to Esquire and the Hollywood Reporter – Mstislav Chernov’s schedule this winter was painted minute by minute. He talked regarding Mariupol once more and once more.
Author of the photo, Facebook Mstislav Chernov
Special screenings of the film were held at the United Nations and the US State Department, where they were attended by hundreds of diplomats and journalists.
The writers of the film met with audiences all over the world, and in the last month before the Oscars, they practically lived on the road, talking regarding the film in Washington, New York, Oklahoma, Montana, Texas, Michigan and California.
“Difficult conversations, difficult questions, anger and tears,” said Chernov regarding these meetings.
His promotional campaign turned out to be extremely effective. That night, Chernov held the Oscar in his hands and said: “Glory to Ukraine” from the stage of the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles.
“These current victories of Ukrainian culture are bitter. Bitter and painful. But so necessary,” Serhiy Zhadan commented on the film’s victory.
Necessary, because thanks to Oscar, news regarding Mariupol and Ukraine will once once more appear in the world media for a certain time.
Chernov’s powerful speech will be shared on Tiktok, as good Oscar performances often are.
Probably, even more cinemas will rent this film, which means that the film regarding Mariupol will get even more viewers.
This is a victory for Ukrainian cultural diplomacy.
“Mstislav Chernov won for us and the world not only an Oscar, but the right to the truth. Because so many places lost and erased from the earth by war have lost this right,” – write journalist Natalka Humenyuk advises not to be afraid to watch this film, because, despite the fact that there is a lot of grief, “there is a lot of resilience and strength, stories of people who help.”
Author of the photo, Facebook Mstislav Chernov
Photo Caption,
Mstislav Chernov on display at the State Department
