Three Ukrainian documentaries nominated for European Film Academy award
Three documentaries about Ukraine have been nominated for the European Film Academy award for Best Documentary, according to the academy’s website.
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The nominees for the Best Documentary are In the Rearview by Polish director Maciek Hamela, co-produced by Ukraine, France and Poland, We Will Not Fade Away by Alisa Kovalenko (Ukraine, France, Poland) and Motherland by Hanna Badziaka and Alexander Mihalkovich (Ukraine, Norway).
In the Rearview is a powerful work by Polish director Maciek Hamela. The film is the result of his volunteer work, when, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he began to transport Ukrainian refugees to Poland. Communicating with his passengers, he decided to document the conversations and what was happening around him.
Hamela created a network of volunteers who searched for, contacted, and organized the evacuation of civilians. The documentary tells the stories of people who were forced to flee the war, lost their homes, relatives, and stable and peaceful lives.
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The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in the ACID section. The film won the Grand Jury Award at the Sheffield DocFest in the UK, the Best Polish Film and the Art Cinema Award at the Polish Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival, and the Best Ukrainian Feature Documentary at the Odesa International Film Festival.
The international premiere of the film We Will Not Fade Away by Ukrainian director Alisa Kovalenko took place in the Berlinale Generation program of the Berlinale Film Festival 2023. The movie tells the story of teenagers growing up in eastern Ukraine against the backdrop of war and an extraordinary journey to the peaks of the Himalayan Mountains.
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Despite the grim reality around them, Andriy, Ruslan, Illya, Liza, and Lera dream, seek adventure, protest and fight against dullness and boredom. While the world around them is falling apart, mines are closing, and the threat of war escalation is growing, they do not give up and try to follow the call of their dreams.
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The film won the Silver Eye Award at the East Silver Market festival, Best Director at the One World Festival international competition, Best Documentary at Artdocfest 2023 in Riga, Crossing Europe festival in Linz, goEast in Wiesbaden, and was awarded at Docudays UA and Docu/World. Alisa Kovalenko was also named Best Director at the Odesa International Film Festival.
The third film, Motherland, is a work by Belarusian journalist Hanna Badziaka and director Alexander Mihalkovich about the protests in Minsk in 2020. In their picture, they show the protests and emphasize the causes and consequences of a decades-long "tradition" of violent abuse, torture and murder as a means of controlling Belarusian conscripts. The film is a co-production of Ukraine, Sweden, and Norway.
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Alexander Mihalkovich made his debut in 2019 with the film My Granny from Mars about the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea.
Earlier, Rita Burkovska, the Ukrainian actor and star of the movie Butterfly Vision, was nominated for Best European Actress at the Septimius Awards, a prestigious awards ceremony that focuses on identifying and encouraging new independent talent, and promoting visionary artists.
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