Ukraine has selected the Sundance competition title 20 Days In Mariupol, from journalist-turned-filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov, as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars.
The film was chosen by the Ukrainian Oscar Committee, headed by Ukrainian film director Valentin Vasyanovych. Alongside 20 Days In Mariupol, shortlisted films included Iron Butterflies by Roman Lyuboy, Pamfir by Dmytro Suholytky-Sobchuk, Terikony by Taras Tomenkom, and Shttl by Adrien Walter.
At Sundance, 20 Days In Mariupol was awarded the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary. Since then, the doc has picked up a series of prizes across the festival circuit, including Sheffield DocFest’s Tim Hetherington Award, Best Film at DocuDays, Best Director at DocEdge, and filmmakers Chernov, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Evgeniy Maloletka, and Lori Hinnant won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service reporting for their work in Mariupol.
A native Ukrainian and Associated Press journalist, 20 Days In Mariupol marks Chernov’s documentary feature debut.
The film was chosen by the Ukrainian Oscar Committee, headed by Ukrainian film director Valentin Vasyanovych. Alongside 20 Days In Mariupol, shortlisted films included Iron Butterflies by Roman Lyuboy, Pamfir by Dmytro Suholytky-Sobchuk, Terikony by Taras Tomenkom, and Shttl by Adrien Walter.
At Sundance, 20 Days In Mariupol was awarded the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary. Since then, the doc has picked up a series of prizes across the festival circuit, including Sheffield DocFest’s Tim Hetherington Award, Best Film at DocuDays, Best Director at DocEdge, and filmmakers Chernov, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Evgeniy Maloletka, and Lori Hinnant won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service reporting for their work in Mariupol.
A native Ukrainian and Associated Press journalist, 20 Days In Mariupol marks Chernov’s documentary feature debut.
- 9/18/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
When he began working on his sophomore documentary feature, “Iron Butterflies,” in 2019, Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Liubyi said he was “making the film as a warning, before the Third World War.”
The film, which world premiered at Sundance, follows the Russian disinformation campaign surrounding the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine in 2014, a tragedy that was determined by a Dutch court in Nov. 2022 to have been caused by a missile supplied by the Russian military to separatists in Eastern Ukraine.
Many Ukrainians thought the tragic event, which killed 289 civilian passengers and crew, would serve as a wake-up call to Europe and the U.S., which had largely turned a blind eye to Russia’s meddling in the region, said the director. But the years dragged on and the long-running conflict in Donbas retreated from the headlines — until an increasingly emboldened Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale assault on Ukraine last year.
The film, which world premiered at Sundance, follows the Russian disinformation campaign surrounding the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine in 2014, a tragedy that was determined by a Dutch court in Nov. 2022 to have been caused by a missile supplied by the Russian military to separatists in Eastern Ukraine.
Many Ukrainians thought the tragic event, which killed 289 civilian passengers and crew, would serve as a wake-up call to Europe and the U.S., which had largely turned a blind eye to Russia’s meddling in the region, said the director. But the years dragged on and the long-running conflict in Donbas retreated from the headlines — until an increasingly emboldened Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale assault on Ukraine last year.
- 3/1/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The European industry has created support initiatives, including for funding, co-production and raising awareness.
How do you keep an industry going when your cities are being bombed, some of your leading directors are fighting on the front line and your local sources of funding have dried up?
This is the question Ukrainian filmmakers have been asking themselves over the last 12 months, since the full-scale invasion by Russia on February 24th, 2022.
To the outside eye, it may seem the industry is doing remarkably well. From Pamfir and Butterfly Vision in Cannes last year to Iron Butterflies and 20 Days In Mariupol in Sundance,...
How do you keep an industry going when your cities are being bombed, some of your leading directors are fighting on the front line and your local sources of funding have dried up?
This is the question Ukrainian filmmakers have been asking themselves over the last 12 months, since the full-scale invasion by Russia on February 24th, 2022.
To the outside eye, it may seem the industry is doing remarkably well. From Pamfir and Butterfly Vision in Cannes last year to Iron Butterflies and 20 Days In Mariupol in Sundance,...
- 2/24/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Liubyi is marking the first anniversary on Friday of Russia’s invasion of his country with a screening at the Berlin Film Festival of documentary Iron Butterflies in its Panorama section.
The director was in London working on digital set design for the Belarus Free Theatre’s Dogs Of Europe production at the Barbican when Russia attacked on February 24, 2022.
“My wife and daughter had been due to fly out that day to join me but obviously that didn’t happen,” he recalls.
Instead, they fled their flat in Kyiv, which had come under heavy missile attack, for what they thought would be the relative safety of Liubyi’s parents’ home in Irpin.
The commuter town northwest of Kyiv would become a hotspot in the early days of the invasion and the site of Russian atrocities.
Liubyi raced back to Ukraine.
Accompanied by This Rain Will Never Stop cinematographer and friend Slava Tsvetkov,...
The director was in London working on digital set design for the Belarus Free Theatre’s Dogs Of Europe production at the Barbican when Russia attacked on February 24, 2022.
“My wife and daughter had been due to fly out that day to join me but obviously that didn’t happen,” he recalls.
Instead, they fled their flat in Kyiv, which had come under heavy missile attack, for what they thought would be the relative safety of Liubyi’s parents’ home in Irpin.
The commuter town northwest of Kyiv would become a hotspot in the early days of the invasion and the site of Russian atrocities.
Liubyi raced back to Ukraine.
Accompanied by This Rain Will Never Stop cinematographer and friend Slava Tsvetkov,...
- 2/24/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
In Iron Butterflies, the hybrid doc from director Roman Liubyi, the political ramifications of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17—which was shot down by Russian forces as it was passing over eastern Ukraine—are unraveled and contextualized within broader global events. Dp Andrii Kotliar talks about his experience shooting the film, including one particularly scorching day on the job. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Kotliar: It’s not quite a classic […]
The post “In Hybrid Documentaries, the Classic Rules of the Game Do Not Always Work”: Dp Andrii Kotliar on Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “In Hybrid Documentaries, the Classic Rules of the Game Do Not Always Work”: Dp Andrii Kotliar on Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/30/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
In Iron Butterflies, the hybrid doc from director Roman Liubyi, the political ramifications of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17—which was shot down by Russian forces as it was passing over eastern Ukraine—are unraveled and contextualized within broader global events. Dp Andrii Kotliar talks about his experience shooting the film, including one particularly scorching day on the job. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Kotliar: It’s not quite a classic […]
The post “In Hybrid Documentaries, the Classic Rules of the Game Do Not Always Work”: Dp Andrii Kotliar on Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “In Hybrid Documentaries, the Classic Rules of the Game Do Not Always Work”: Dp Andrii Kotliar on Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/30/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Ukrainian director Roman Liubyi’s Iron Butterflies examines the ramifications of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down by Russian forces as it passed over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers on board. With an intricate nonfiction narrative laid out by Liubyi and Mila Zhluktenko, Iron Butterflies confronts the political aftermath of this atrocity. Liubyi and Zhluktenko discuss the process of cutting Iron Butterflies, as well as their involvement in the Babylon’13 film collective. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your […]
The post “Develop a Workflow to Effectively ‘Play Ping-pong'”: Editors Roman Liubyi and Mila Zhluktenko on Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Develop a Workflow to Effectively ‘Play Ping-pong'”: Editors Roman Liubyi and Mila Zhluktenko on Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/29/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Ukrainian director Roman Liubyi’s Iron Butterflies examines the ramifications of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down by Russian forces as it passed over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers on board. With an intricate nonfiction narrative laid out by Liubyi and Mila Zhluktenko, Iron Butterflies confronts the political aftermath of this atrocity. Liubyi and Zhluktenko discuss the process of cutting Iron Butterflies, as well as their involvement in the Babylon’13 film collective. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your […]
The post “Develop a Workflow to Effectively ‘Play Ping-pong'”: Editors Roman Liubyi and Mila Zhluktenko on Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Develop a Workflow to Effectively ‘Play Ping-pong'”: Editors Roman Liubyi and Mila Zhluktenko on Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/29/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? Covid, and, after that, the expansion of Russian aggression against Ukraine, were pretty strong obstacles. It is a paradox, but we have never felt broken. I remember an expression that art is the material of resistance. This whole project is a search for creative solutions and remaining possibilities against these obstacles. An example is the scene that we shot in […]
The post “We Were Forbidden to Film in the Archive” | Roman Liubyi, Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “We Were Forbidden to Film in the Archive” | Roman Liubyi, Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/29/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? Covid, and, after that, the expansion of Russian aggression against Ukraine, were pretty strong obstacles. It is a paradox, but we have never felt broken. I remember an expression that art is the material of resistance. This whole project is a search for creative solutions and remaining possibilities against these obstacles. An example is the scene that we shot in […]
The post “We Were Forbidden to Film in the Archive” | Roman Liubyi, Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “We Were Forbidden to Film in the Archive” | Roman Liubyi, Iron Butterflies first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/29/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Iron Butterflies.. Roman Liubyi: 'There's the quote from Pina Bausch that when you have no words, the gesture could help, so that’s the case' Iron Butterflies - a name that refers to the shape made by shrapnel from Buk surface-to-air missiles on metal - takes a sensorial approach to considering the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which resulted in the death so 298 people.
Although there are traditional documentary elements that consider the timeline and the aftermath of the crash - after the plane was shot down by a Russian missile, which the country strenously denied - there are also experimental segments of performance art that evoke a more emotional response.
When I catch up with the director Roman Liubyi to talk about the film shortly before its premiere in the World Cinema Documentary competition at Sundance Film Festival, he says he “aiming to be weird”.
He adds: “It’s just,...
Although there are traditional documentary elements that consider the timeline and the aftermath of the crash - after the plane was shot down by a Russian missile, which the country strenously denied - there are also experimental segments of performance art that evoke a more emotional response.
When I catch up with the director Roman Liubyi to talk about the film shortly before its premiere in the World Cinema Documentary competition at Sundance Film Festival, he says he “aiming to be weird”.
He adds: “It’s just,...
- 1/25/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Berlin Film Festival, held every year in February, the cruelest month of the German winter, has never been able to match the Mediterranean flair of Cannes or Venice, or the laid-back indie cool of Sundance. But when it comes to serious movies, few festivals, big or small, can match the Berlinale.
In place of the big blockbuster movies, Berlin has doubled down on political dramas and documentaries that focus on the real troubles of the world. The war in Ukraine — launched by Russia’s invasion a year ago — will be on screens everywhere this Berlinale. Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufmann’s documentary Superpower, shot just before and after Russia’s invasion, and featuring several interviews with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, will have its world premiere in Berlin’s Special Screening section and there are three more Ukraine documentaries — Roman Liubyi’s Iron Butterflies, Vitaly Mansky and Yevhen Titarenko’s doc Eastern Front,...
In place of the big blockbuster movies, Berlin has doubled down on political dramas and documentaries that focus on the real troubles of the world. The war in Ukraine — launched by Russia’s invasion a year ago — will be on screens everywhere this Berlinale. Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufmann’s documentary Superpower, shot just before and after Russia’s invasion, and featuring several interviews with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, will have its world premiere in Berlin’s Special Screening section and there are three more Ukraine documentaries — Roman Liubyi’s Iron Butterflies, Vitaly Mansky and Yevhen Titarenko’s doc Eastern Front,...
- 1/23/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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