Ukraine’s path to the Oscars: from technical awards to best documentary film
11 March 2024 12:32
EXCLUSIVE
Today, Mstislav Chernov’s documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, which tells the story of the first three weeks of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Mariupol, won one of the most prestigious awards in the world of cinema – the Oscar. Kommersant Ukrainskiy 
looked into whether this Oscar is really the first for independent Ukraine and why our films have previously been left without the coveted statuette.
Technical Oscars for Ukrainians
The first person to win two Oscars in independent Ukraine was Anatoly Kokush, the founder of Filmotechnik. It was he who in 2006 became the winner of the Scientific and Technical Academy Award (Scientific and Technical Academy Award, – ed.) of the American film academy Oscar.
The first statuette he received personally for the creation and development of a system of shooting cranes “Cascade”. The second Oscar was awarded to Anatoly Kokush, Yuri Popovsky and Alexey Zolotarev for the development of gyro-stabilising operator crane “Autorobot” and flying panoramic head “Flight Head”. Thanks to his developments the famous “Titanic”, “Ocean’s 12 Friends”, “War of the Worlds”, “The Da Vinci Code”, “Transformers”, “Harry Potter” – 5 and others were filmed.
Oscars for immigrants
In its time, the winners of the most prestigious film awards became and Ukrainian emigrants, among whom was Kharkiv resident, who emigrated to the United States, Eugene Mamut. He received an Oscar for his work on the film “Predator” with Arnold Schwarzeneger.
another native of Kharkov Varvara Karinskaya won an Oscar in 1948. She was the costume designer for the film “Joan of Arc”, starring the legendary Ingrid Bergman.
Received “Oscar” and Americans of Ukrainian descent, in particular – Jack Pelens (Vladimir Palagniuk – ed.), who was born in a family of Ukrainian immigrants. He became known for his roles in the films “Dracula” and “Batman”, the hero of westerns – in 1992 he received a film academy award for the film “City Dudes”.
In 2004 in Los Angeles during the festival “Russian Nights” under the patronage of President Vladimir Putin, an event that best describes Jack Pelens. He was scheduled to be awarded the title of People’s Artist of Russia, but he did not receive the title, moreover, he also left the festival.
“I am Ukrainian, not Russian. My parents came from Ukraine and I have nothing to do here. It would be better if I left.”
– he said, protesting against the Ukrainophobic Russian film “72 Metres”.
“Best foreign language film”: 16 attempts by Ukraine
Since the first years of its independence, Ukraine has tried 16 times to get into the nomination “Best Foreign Language Film” (from 2019 the name of the category has been changed to “Best International Feature Film” – ed.), but – in vain: in the main competition these tapes have not passed.
Thefirst film that Ukraine nominated for consideration for the Oscar in the category “Best Foreign Language Film” was the film “Dead Man’s Buddy “, released in 1997. It remained one of the most successful domestic film projects for a long time. Today it occupies the 65th – 67th position in the list of 100 best films in the history of Ukrainian cinema.
Other famous Ukrainian films that weresubmitted for Oscars were “Mamai”, “Illusion of Fear” based on the novel by Oleksandr Turchynov, “Winter in Fire: Ukraine’s Struggle for Freedom”, “The One Who Walked Through Fire”, “The Guide”, “Atlantis” and others.
“House of Splinters” VS “Navalny.”
Oscar-winning history in 2023 tried to change the film “House of Splinters” co-produced by Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Ukraine. It was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Feature Documentary category.
The film was shot in Lysychansk Centre for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children, 20 kilometres from the front line (now Lysychansk is under occupation – ed.). Despite this, Navalny won the victory.
In social networks, this victory caused serious outrage, but was not withdrawn. After the announcement of the winner of the nomination, Navalnaya took the stage and said that she dreams that her husband will be released and Russia will become a free country again, but as it turned out, dreams are still dreams.
Author: Alena Kaplina
