Ukrainian film "20 Days in Mariupol" wins audience sympathy at Amsterdam festival

"20 days in Mariupol". Image taken from the film, courtesy of the film crew

Nina Voronets

The Ukrainian documentary film "20 Days in Mariupol" by Mstyslav Chernov won the Audience Award at the International Documentary Film Festival IDFA 2023 in Amsterdam.

This is reported on the festival's website.

The film is said to have scored an average score of 4.91 out of 5. The audience at the festival voted after watching each tape using a QR code. This year, 142 films competed for the prize of audience sympathy.

The award ceremony will take place at the Royal Tuschinski Theater on the evening of November 18, after which a special film screening will take place. The winner will receive a prize of 5 thousand euros.

Other winners of the IDFA festival in Amsterdam

The award for the best film was won by the documentary film "1489" – the debut work of director Shokagat Vardanyan. The work was filmed entirely on a mobile phone. The movie tells about how Shokagat searched for the body of her 21-year-old brother Sogomon, who died in 2020 during the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. The guy was considered missing, but then the remains were found under number 1489 (which became the name of the film), and DNA identified the person.

The IDFA award for the best director (prize of 5,000 euros) went to Mohamed Jabali for the film "Life is Beautiful" (Norway, Palestine).

^{IDFA Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival winners, November 16, 2023. Photo: IDFA/Facebook}

The IDFA Award for Best Editing (€2,500) went to Anand Patwardhan for The World is a Family (India), and the IDFA Award for Best Cinematography (also €2,500) went to Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan for Twinkling Lights (India).

For reference:

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is one of the leading documentary film festivals in the world, which has been held since 1988. Every year, about 250 films are presented in its program, and more than 3,000 industry representatives participate. This year, IDFA takes place from November 8 to 19.

"20 Days in Mariupol" is the directorial debut of a war correspondent, photographer, videographer, and writer Mstyslav Chernov.