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Mstislav Chernov's 20 Days in Mariupol received Greatest Documentary for the journalist's first-person account of the Russian invasion.
Ukrainian officers have praised the nation's first Oscar-winning movie for “displaying the reality about Russia's crimes.”
Mstislav Chernov's 20 Days in Mariupol received greatest documentary on the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday for its harrowing first-person account of the early days of Russia's invasion in 2022. An Related Press (AP) journalist's movie focuses on the assault on the southern metropolis. Which began two years in the past in February.
“That is the primary Oscar in Ukrainian historical past and I really feel honored,” mentioned an emotional Chernov as he accepted the award in Los Angeles. “I’ll in all probability be the primary director on this platform to say that I want I had by no means made this movie. I would like Russia to by no means assault Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was reportedly barred from attending the ceremony by organizers, mentioned in a publish on his Telegram channel on Monday that the movie “exhibits the reality about Russian terrorism”.
Different officers additionally joined in praising the movie, praising it for highlighting the brutal devastation of conflict and for the message Chernov despatched to the world from one of many world's largest platforms.
“The primary Oscar in (Ukrainian) historical past. And the way vital it’s now,” Andrey Yermak, head of the Presidential Workplace, mentioned on Telegram. “The world has seen the reality about Russia’s crimes. Justice all the time prevails.”
Chernov, together with AP colleagues Evgeny Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko, arrived an hour earlier than Russia started bombing the port metropolis of Mariupol.
Two weeks later, he was the final journalist working for a world outlet within the metropolis to point out the wide selection of the assault, together with casualties amongst civilians of all ages, the digging of mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and extra to the surface world. Ship vital messages. Destruction.
Chernov, producer and editor Michelle Mizner and producer Renee Aronson-Rath have been awarded statuettes for a movie that was a joint manufacturing of the AP and the present Frontline on the American tv community PBS. The Oscar – and nomination – was a primary for each AP video journalist Chernov and the 178-year-old information group.
Yermak thanked the film-making workforce for “reminding the entire world that the conflict continues and evil continues to be alive”.
Ukraine's human rights chief Dmytro Lubinets praised the documentary for displaying “the reality to the entire world”.
“This awards ceremony is a chance to deal with thousands and thousands of individuals. “That is what the movie director did by mentioning the occupation, the POWs, the homicide of Ukrainians by Russia and the unlawful abduction of civilians,” he wrote on Telegram.