20 Days In Mariupol

20 Days in Mariupol
Theatrical release poster
Ukrainian	20 днів у Маріуполі
Directed by	Mstyslav Chernov
Written by	Mstyslav Chernov
Produced by	Raney Aronson-Rath Mstyslav Chernov Derl McCrudden Michelle Mizner
Cinematography	Mstyslav Chernov Evgeniy Maloletka
Edited by	Michelle Mizner
Music by	Jordan Dykstra
Production companies	Associated Press PBS Frontline
Distributed by	PBS Distribution
Release date	20 January 2023 (2023-01-20) (Sundance)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	Ukraine
Languages	Ukrainian English Russian

The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition. It was selected as the Ukrainian submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards, but it was instead nominated in the Best Documentary Feature Film category and went on to win the award. The film was also nominated for two BAFTAs and won one of them, also won a Directors Guild of America Award.

The film has received critical acclaim and was named one of the top five documentary films of 2023 by the National Board of Review. The film was also screened at the start of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

The film tells the story of the twenty days Chernov spent with his colleagues in the besieged city of Mariupol in February-March 2022 in the first weeks of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Chernov compiled footage that he collected in Mariupol together with the team from PBS's Frontline and the Associated Press (AP).

As the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, the Associated Press team documented the Russian siege and the resulting humanitarian disaster, war crimes by Russian forces, including mass murder of civilian casualties. In particular, AP was the first to show the consequences of Russia's bombing of Mariupol maternity hospital No. 3. Materials were periodically sent to the editorial office from the only place in Mariupol where there was still an online connection - under the stairs near the crushed grocery store. So it was possible to transfer 10 % of the filmed material. The rest of the material, in particular, 30 hours of Mstislav Chernov's video, was taken out of Mariupol by the AP team on March 15, 2022 through the humanitarian corridor. By that time, Chernov's AP crew were the last journalists in the city.

The film from the materials of Chernov was created by the PBS's Frontline team.

UK-based documentary film-distribution company Dogwoof oversees international sales rights, and handles all worldwide sales excluding North America, where PBS Distribution has acquired rights.

The film was released in selected theaters in the US on 14 July, 2023. In Ukraine, the film was released in selected theaters on 31 August, 2023. Pre-premiere screenings took place in various cities throughout Ukraine, including in Kyiv (Bouquet Kyiv Stage 2023 festival) and Lviv (NGO "Lviv Media Forum").

Screening controversy in Serbia

In October, the film was to be shown at the Serbian Beldocs festival at the Lazarevac Cultural Center in the suburbs of Belgrade. On 10 October, far-right ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party called for the cancellation of the screening of the "anti-Russian propaganda film of the Kyiv regime", which is "an attempt by the West to change the attitude of the Serbian people towards brotherly Russia". On 12 October, festival administration canceled the screening, stressing that "Beldocs is not behind this decision and did not participate in it". Eventually, the film was shown in Belgrade on 21 February 2024.

On the first weekend of September 2023, the film collected more than 530 thousand UAH (~USD$15 thousand) at the Ukrainian box office, becoming the highest-grossing Ukrainian documentary in history. Overall by March 2024, the film's box office was $20.5 thousand.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "20 Days in Mariupol offers a grueling but vital look at the devastating impact of war." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100 based on nineteen reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote that "This is bleak but essential viewing," and that "this nonfiction feature may not have a simple narrative arc, but the director's unpretentious first-person narration and the intensity of the war-crimes evidence compiled make it riveting nonetheless." Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that 20 Days in Mariupol "is a particularly immersive example of the genre, chronicling the weekslong siege of the titular Ukrainian city by Russian forces. [...] What comes through most vividly, other than the human tragedy on display, is the vital importance of war correspondents and the courage and ingenuity they must possess in order to work under such life-threatening conditions." Randy Myers of The Mercury News gave the film 3.5/4 stars, calling it a "grim, essential piece of journalism" and "an immersive account from Ukrainian journalists at the AP who spent nearly three weeks embedded in a port city that was targeted by Russia and mercilessly attacked."

Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, stating that "It goes on a short list of great documentaries that the viewer will never want to watch again.... This is a dispatch from hell on earth. The fragmented, chaotic, imprecise nature of it is a revelation."

Accolades

20 Days in Mariupol was included in competition of the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary category. The world premiere took place at the festival in January 2023. Film won Audience Award in World Cinema Documentary category.

The film received more than 20 awards and was nominated for BAFTA in 2 categories, and won in one of them, Academy Awards in one category and won Directors Guild of America Awards. It also was awarded the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 2024.

• List of submissions to the 96th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
• List of Ukrainian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film