Film about Mariupol receives award at Sundance 2023 festival

‘20 days in Mariupol’, a documentary by Ukrainian photographer Mstyslav Chernov, has won the Audience Choice award at Sundance, one of the largest independent film festivals.

The winners of Sundance 2023 were announced on the evening of Friday, 27 January, in Park City (the USA).

Chernov's film was shown in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

The movie tells the story from the first person about the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine: the Russian attack, the bombing of the Mariupol maternity hospital and the rescue of Chernov and his colleagues from the Associated Press from the city surrounded by the Russian occupiers.

‘20 days in Mariupol’ is based on 30 hours of video footage shot by Chernov and his colleagues in the besieged city.

"I want to thank everyone who believed in us: AP, Frontline, Sundance and the audience that didn't turn away. This is not an achievement, it's a privilege," Chernov said after his work was announced among the winners.

A total of 12 films premiered in the documentary world cinema section, including films about climate change, growing up under apartheid in Africa and the Chopin Piano Competition. The jury's main prize in this category went to the film Eternal Memory that tells the story of a couple suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Sundance Film Festival, the main independent film festival in the US, started on 19 January and will continue until 29 January.

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