Ukrainian film 20 Days In Mariupol leads in nominations at Cinema Eye Awards

The Cinema Eye Awards for achievements in non-fiction and documentary films and TV series have announced this year's nominees. The film 20 days In Mariupol, which Ukraine nominated for an Oscar, is among the leaders in terms of the number of nominations.

The leader in the number of nominations at the 17th Cinema Eye Awards is Kokomo City directed by D. Smith, which received six nominations. The work of Mstyslav Chernov, war correspondent, photographer and videographer, filmed in Russian-occupied Mariupol, received five nominations. The same is true for the films 32 Sounds and The Eternal Memory.

In particular, the film 20 Days In Mariupol is nominated for awards in the following categories: Best Documentary, Best Editing, Best Production, Best Debut and Audience Award.

Mstyslav Chernov shared the news of being included in the long list of the last nomination, the Audience Award, on his Facebook page at the end of October.

"20 Days In Mariupol has been nominated for the Audience Award at the prestigious Cinema Eye Awards. It's like Eurovision. But it's for documentaries," Chernov wrote then.

Now, thanks to the viewers' votes, it has been shortlisted in this nomination as well.

20 days In Mariupol is a documentary film based on footage shot during the first days of the Russian attack on Mariupol. The film consists of footage that Chernov and his colleagues sent to the world media, describing the events in the besieged city: the deaths of children and adults, the appearance of mass graves, constant bombing, a maternity hospital destroyed by a Russian missile, and other Russian war crimes.

The world premiere of 20 Days In Mariupol took place at the Sundance Film Festival, in the World Cinema Documentary Competition section. It won the Audience Award there. The Ukrainian premiere took place at the Docudays UA festival in June 2023. Here, the film won two awards: the main prize of the DOCU/UKRAINE competition and the Audience Award.

In September this year, the Ukrainian Oscar Committee decided that 20 Days In Mariupol would represent the country at the 96th Academy Awards.

About the Cinema Eye Awards

The Cinema Eye award was established in 2007. It was created to recognize excellence in nonfiction filmmaking. This award was the first and remains the only international documentary award that celebrates the entire creative team: it annually awards directing, producing, cinematography, editing, composing, sound design, visual design, etc.

Statuette awarded to the winners

The 17th Cinema Eye Awards will be held on 12 January 2024 at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem.

Two years ago, in 2021, the film The Earth Is Blue as an Orange by Iryna Tsilyk won an award at Cinema Eye.

In 2019, the award went to The Distant Barking Of Dogs, directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont and filmed in Donbas.

Oleh, the main character of The Distant Barking Of Dogs, with the award

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