Two films about war in Ukraine win awards at Sheffield DocFest 2023 Film Festival
Two documentaries about the war in Ukraine – In the Rearview by Macek Hamela and 20 Days in Mariupol by Mstyslav Chernov – have won awards at the Sheffield DocFest 2023 festival in the UK.
The winners of Sheffield DocFest 2023 were announced on Sunday, 18 June.
In the Rearview (literally "From Where to Where") won the Grand Jury Award in the International Competition.
"Crafted with intimacy and delicate respect, we as a jury were stunned by the brilliant simplicity of this film which makes us fellow-passengers upon a universal odyssey of survival and exodus", the jurors said, explaining their choice.
"We are speechless and overwhelmed with joy. Every festival selection, every award and international recognition is another opportunity to continue raising awareness of the war that is still ongoing. Glory to Ukraine!" was the production team’s response to their victory.
In the Rearview is a Polish-Ukrainian-French film directed by Macek Hamela, who has been engaged in evacuating Ukrainians since the very first days of the Russian invasion. The film is based on stories of the people he saved.
The premiere of In the Rearview took place in May of this year at the Cannes Film Festival.
20 Days in Mariupol was also honoured at Sheffield DocFest 2023, receiving a special Tim Hetherington Award (Tim Hetherington was a British-American photojournalist who was killed while covering the fighting in Libya in 2011).
"The winner of the 2023 Tim Hetherington Award, the film that most embodies the spirit and legacy of the journalist for which it’s named, is a work of astonishing courage and moral clarity, which brings moving context to familiar images", the jury noted.
20 Days in Mariupol depicts the Russians’ attack on the city on 24 February, 2022. War correspondent Mstyslav Chernov, the cameraman, documents the events of the 20 days that followed: the bombing of homes and maternity hospitals, the lives of people in the besieged city, and so on.
In January 2023, Chernov's film was shown in the competition programme at Sundance, one of the world’s largest independent film festivals. The film won an Audience Award.
The documentary about Mariupol recently won two awards at the Docudays human rights documentary film festival, including the main prize in the DOCU/Ukraine competition and an audience award.
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