20 Days in Mariupol

20 Days in Mariupol () is a 2023 Ukrainian documentary film with footage from the first several weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine directed by Mstyslav Chernov.

The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition. The film has received critical acclaim and was named one of the top five documentary films of 2023 by the National Board of Review. It was selected as the Ukrainian submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards, but it was instead nominated in the Best Documentary Feature Film category and went on to win the award. The film was also nominated for two BAFTAs and won one of them, also won a Directors Guild of America Award and Ukrainian National Film Academy Award.

The film was screened at the start of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

Synopsis The film tells the story of the twenty days Chernov spent with his colleagues in the besieged city of Mariupol in February–March 2022 in the first weeks of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Chernov compiled footage that he collected in Mariupol together with the team from PBS's Frontline and the Associated Press (AP).

Production As the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022, the Associated Press team documented the Russian siege and the resulting humanitarian disaster, war crimes by Russian forces, including mass murder of civilian casualties. In particular, AP was the first to show the consequences of Russia's bombing of Mariupol maternity hospital No. 3. Materials were periodically sent to the editorial office from the only place in Mariupol where there was still an online connection – under the stairs near the crushed grocery store, so it was possible to transfer ten percent of the filmed material. The rest of the material, in particular 30 hours of Mstislav Chernov's video, was taken out of Mariupol by the AP team on 15 March 2022 through the humanitarian corridor. By that time, Chernov's AP crew were the last journalists in the city.

The film from the materials of Chernov was created by the PBS's Frontline team.

Release UK-based documentary film-distribution company Dogwoof oversees international sales rights, and handles all worldwide sales excluding North America, where PBS Distribution has acquired rights.

The film was released in selected theaters in the US on 14 July 2023. In Ukraine, the film was released in selected theaters on 31 August 2023. Pre-premiere screenings took place in various cities throughout Ukraine, including in Kyiv (Bouquet Kyiv Stage 2023 festival) and Lviv (NGO "Lviv Media Forum"). On 21 April 2024 film was released on Netflix.

Screening controversy in Serbia In October, the film was to be shown at the Serbian Beldocs festival at the Lazarevac Cultural Center in the suburbs of Belgrade. On 10 October, far-right ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party called for the cancellation of the screening of the "anti-Russian propaganda film of the Kyiv regime", which is "an attempt by the West to change the attitude of the Serbian people towards brotherly Russia". On 12 October, festival administration canceled the screening, stressing that "Beldocs is not behind this decision and did not participate in it". Eventually, the film was shown in Belgrade on 21 February 2024.

Box office

On the first weekend of September 2023, the film collected more than 530,000 UAH (c. US$15,000) at the Ukrainian box office, becoming the highest-grossing Ukrainian documentary in history. Overall by March 2024, the film's box office was $20,500."20 Days in Mariupol (2023)". Box Office Mojo. 2023.

Critical reception On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 70 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "20 Days in Mariupol offers a grueling but vital look at the devastating impact of war." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100 based on nineteen reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote that "This is bleak but essential viewing", and that "this nonfiction feature may not have a simple narrative arc, but the director's unpretentious first-person narration and the intensity of the war-crimes evidence compiled make it riveting nonetheless." Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that 20 Days in Mariupol "is a particularly immersive example of the genre, chronicling the weekslong siege of the titular Ukrainian city by Russian forces. [...] What comes through most vividly, other than the human tragedy on display, is the vital importance of war correspondents and the courage and ingenuity they must possess in order to work under such life-threatening conditions." Randy Myers of The Mercury News gave the film 3.5/4 stars, calling it a "grim, essential piece of journalism" and "an immersive account from Ukrainian journalists at the AP who spent nearly three weeks embedded in a port city that was targeted by Russia and mercilessly attacked."

Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, stating that "It goes on a short list of great documentaries that the viewer will never want to watch again. ... This is a dispatch from hell on earth. The fragmented, chaotic, imprecise nature of it is a revelation."

Accolades 20 Days in Mariupol was included in competition of the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary category. The world premiere took place at the festival in January 2023. The film won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary category.

The film received more than 20 awards and was nominated for BAFTAs in 2 categories, and won in one of them, Academy Awards in one category and won Directors Guild of America Awards. It also was awarded the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 2024.

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Sundance Film Festival 29 January 2023 World Cinema: Documentary Competition 20 Days in Mariupol World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary Cinema for Peace Awards 24 February 2023 Most Valuable Documentary of the Year Cleveland International Film Festival 1 April 2023 Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Award Doc Edge 3 June 2023 Best International Feature Best International Director Mstyslav Chernov Best International Editing Michelle Mizner DocuDays UA 8 June 2023 DOCU/UKRAINE Competition Jury Award 20 Days in Mariupol Audience Award Sheffield DocFest 19 June 2023 Tim Hetherington Award Athens International Film Festival 9 October 2023 Best Documentary Best Documentary – Special Mention Critics' Choice Documentary Awards 12 November 2023 Best Documentary Feature Best First Documentary Feature Best Political Documentary Best Narration Mstyslav Chernov Best Editing Michelle Mizner Gotham Independent Film Awards 27 November 2023 Best Documentary Feature 20 Days in Mariupol National Board of Review 6 December 2023 Top 5 Documentary Films Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards 10 December 2023 Best Documentary IndieWire Critics Poll 11 December 2023 Best Documentary Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 12 December 2023 Best Documentary Film Indiana Film Journalists Association 17 December 2023 Best Documentary 18 December 2023 Best Documentary Film Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association 18 December 2023 Best Documentary Film Toronto Film Critics Association 17 December 2023 Allan King Documentary Award San Diego Film Critics Society 19 December 2023 Best Documentary 23 December 2023 Best Documentary Alliance of Women Film Journalists 3 January 2024 Best Documentary Astra Film and Creative Arts Awards 6 January 2024 Best Documentary Feature National Society of Film Critics Awards 6 January 2024 Best Non-Fiction Film Seattle Film Critics Society Awards 8 January 2024 Best Documentary Feature San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Awards 9 January 2024 Best Documentary Film Austin Film Critics Association Awards 10 January 2024 Best Documentary London Critics' Circle Awards 4 February 2024 Documentary of the Year 12 January 2024 Best Documentary Feature Cinema Eye Honors 12 January 2024 Outstanding Non-Fiction Feature Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson Rath and Derl McCrudden Outstanding Debut 20 Days in Mariupol Audience Choice Prize Outstanding Editing Michelle Mizner Outstanding Production Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson Rath and Derl McCrudden Houston Film Critics Society 22 January 2024 Best Documentary Feature 20 Days in Mariupol Kansas City Film Critics Circle 27 January 2024 Best Documentary Directors Guild of America Awards 10 February 2024 Outstanding Directing – Documentary Mstyslav Chernov British Film Editors Cut Above Awards 16 February 2024 Best Edited Single Documentary or Non-Fiction Programme Michelle Mizner Best Edited Current Affairs Satellite Awards 3 March 2024 Best Motion Picture – Documentary 20 Days in Mariupol British Academy Film Awards 18 February 2024 Best Film Not in the English Language Mstyslav Chernov and Raney Aronson-Rath Best Documentary Producers Guild of America Awards 25 February 2024 Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures 20 Days in Mariupol American Cinema Editors 3 March 2024 Best Edited Documentary (Theatrical) Michelle Mizner Academy Awards 10 March 2024 Best Documentary Feature Film Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath Peabody Awards 9 May 2024 Documentary 20 Days in Mariupol Edward R. Murrow Award 19 August 2024 Feature Documentary — Network TV 20 Days in Mariupol International Broadcasting Convention Award 29 August 2024 International Honour for Excellence Mstyslav Chernov for 20 Days in Mariupol Golden Dzyga 12 September 2024 Best Film20 Days in Mariupol Best Documentary Grierson Awards 7 November 2024 Best Current Affairs Documentary20 Days in Mariupol Best Cinema Documentary Polish Film Awards 10 March 2025 Best European Film Mstyslav Chernov

20 Days in Mariupol

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