The winner of the Best Documentary Feature Award at this year’s Academy Awards – 20 days in Mariupol – is being screened at Spazju Kreattiv Cinema in Valletta.

The film showcases the 20 days that journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues spent within the besieged city of Mariupol in February and March 2022 in the first weeks of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Chernov compiled footage that he collected in Mariupol together with a team from investigative documentary programme Frontline, distributed by the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States and the Associated Press.

A still showing coffins being lowered into a mass grave in Mariupol.

As the only international reporters who remain in the city, the team of Ukrainian journalists capture what later become defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves and the bombing of a maternity hospital among others.

Speaking to Times of Malta, Yevhen Tuzov, one of the documentary’s protagonists, says that correspondents, being at the very edge of events, film what later become historical events.

“We live in a time of information wars. Whoever has the information wins,” says Tuzov. “On this battlefield, the warriors are the journalists.”

A still showing a journalist capturing footage in Mariupol in the first weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking about the role of journalists in capturing information and events, Tuzov said their reliability depends on the way the journalist presents them.

“Unfortunately, there are very few unbiased journalists in our world. But, in March 2022, I was lucky to meet Mstyslav, Vasilisa and Evgeniy. Their work showed everyone that barbarism and ruthlessness can exist even in the seemingly developed 21st century.

“The whole world saw what imperialism looks like and the ambitions that people achieve at any cost, trampling all universal human values. The job of the real journalist is now very important.”

A still showing the destruction inflicted on an apartment complex in Mariupol during the invasion of Ukraine.

The film won the Best Documentary Feature at the 96th Academy Awards, as well as the 2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Public Service, among other awards.

After nearly a decade covering international conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war, for the Associated Press, 20 Days in Mariupol is Chernov’s first feature film.

The film draws on Chernov’s daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war and offers a vivid account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone and the impact of such journalism around the globe.

20 Days in Mariupol is showing at Spazju Kreattiv Cinema on May 4, 10, 19 and 25. Visit the Spazju Kreattiv webiste for more information.