The company's response to a request from the Ukrainian service of the Voice of America reports .
According to representatives of Disney Entertainment, the awarding of the Ukrainian film was not included in the shortened international version of the ceremony due to time constraints, as the broadcast duration was set at 90 minutes. The selection of nominations to be included in the shortened version was determined in advance, several weeks ago.
"However, the overall summary of all missed winners, including '20 Days in Mariupol,' has been included in the shortened version," Disney Entertainment responded.
Suspilne reports.
"On March 11, at 20:30, the Suspilne Kultura TV channel, which is the exclusive broadcaster of the Oscars in Ukraine, scheduled to broadcast the international short version, but after receiving materials for the broadcast from the organizers, the team discovered that there was no award for Ukrainian documentalists," the statement reads.
The team of the Suspilne Public Broadcaster expressed outrage to the organizers of this year's The Walt Disney Company Limited award. Instead of the shortened television version, they will show the full version that was in the live broadcast.
"Our team was shocked and deeply disappointed when we didn't see the nomination for 'Best Documentary Feature' in the international version's editing, where the film '20 Days in Mariupol' rightfully received recognition. Mstyslav Chernov's powerful speech emphasized the unity between Ukraine and the world - making it all the more disheartening to witness the exclusion of this powerful and truthful episode from the version distributed to the world's Oscar licensees," said Executive Producer of the channel, Lukian Halkin.
He also reminded that last year, the moment of awarding the documentary film was included in the telecast, and the victory went to the film about Russian activist Alexei Navalny.
"Let us remind you that last year, for the same nomination, in which the documentary film about Navalny won, there was a place in the shortened version, as well as for the political speech of his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who accepted this seemingly apolitical award. We hope that the organizers of the award will listen to our protest," emphasized Halkin.