20 Days in Mariupol earns two BAFTA nominations

The award website shared the list.

Mstyslav Chernov's documentary about the first weeks of fighting in Mariupol at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been nominated for the BAFTA Film Awards. 20 Days in Mariupol is nominated in two categories: Best Documentary and Best Foreign Language Film. The film was also made by photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and media specialist Vasilisa Stepanenko, who were in Mariupol with Chernov. 

In each nomination, the Ukrainian director's film was among the top ten, chosen from 60 applicants.

The long list in the Best Documentary nomination is as follows:

• 20 Days In Mariupol
• American Symphony
• Beyond Utopia
• The Deepest Breath
• High & Low - John Galliano
• Little Richard: I Am Everything
• Mad About The Boy: The Noël Coward Story
• The Pigeon Tunnel
• Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
• Wham!

The list of contenders for the Best Foreign Language Film category:

• 20 Days In Mariupol
• Anatomy of a Fall
• The Boy And The Heron
• The Eight Mountains
• Fallen Leaves
• Past Lives
• Society of the Snow
• The Taste of Things
• The Teachers' Lounge
• The Zone of Interest

The BAFTA shortlists will be announced on January 18, and the award ceremony will take place on February 18.

Mstyslav Chernov's documentary 20 Days in Mariupol was ranked 4th in the list of the best films in the UK and 6th in the US by The Guardian.

IndieWire, an outlet specializing in the film industry and film reviews, also named the best feature films and documentaries of 2023. It gathered the opinions of 158 film critics from around the world, and 20 Days in Mariupol was named one of the top 10 best documentaries of the year.

In November, the Ukrainian documentary 20 Days in Mariupol by Mstyslav Chernov won the Audience Award at the IDFA 2023 International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.

The film will also represent Ukraine at the 2024 Oscars.