The documentary film “2000 Meters to Andriivka” by director, journalist, and founder of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers Mstyslav Chernov will be etched into the history of world documentary cinema as one of the fifteen best films of 2025. The Ukrainian film did not make the list of contenders for the Academy Award announced the day before by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. However, beyond the path to a second “Oscar,” for a full year the creators of the documentary film “2000 Meters to Andriivka” have been carrying the voices of Ukrainian soldiers to the international community on every possible platform so that they are heard. Ultimately, according to Mstyslav Chernov, that is the main goal of the film.
“Of course, an Oscar is an incredible honor and a platform for films like ours, because we seek to draw attention to the war, but it is only one of the ways to achieve this goal. ‘2000 Meters’ was nominated for the Directors Guild Awards, the ASC Awards, and Cinema for Peace, and it also made the BAFTA longlist in the category ‘Best Documentary’. It was included in Variety’s list of the best documentary films of 2025 and topped Financial Times’ list of the best films of 2025, and we are grateful for this recognition. The most important thing is that thanks to all our distributors, millions of people around the world continue to watch the film. More than three million views in the U.S. alone. The work of preserving the history of Andriivka and the heroic courage and self-sacrifice of Ukrainians continues,” the director said in a comment to Suspilne Kultura.
Film festival and film award platforms, as well as selections by the most prestigious publications, are an opportunity not only to strengthen the professional voice of Ukrainian cinema, but also to constantly remind that a brutal war is ongoing in Ukraine.
Special screenings and premieres:
- The world premiere of Mstyslav Chernov’s film took place almost a year ago, in January 2025, at the Sundance Film Festival.
- In March, the film had its European premiere at CPH:DOX — the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, which honors films at the intersection of documentary and investigative journalism.
- In April, a special screening of the film took place at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. It is the largest documentary film festival in North America.
- On May 13, the film “2000 Meters to Andriivka” was presented at the opening ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival and became part of the “Ukraine Day” program dedicated to the Russian-Ukrainian war.
- In June, the film was screened at Romania’s largest film festival, the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF.24).
- The Ukrainian premiere of the film took place at the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in June 2025.
- The first theatrical screenings in the U.S. began on July 25, 2025, and a month later, on August 28, Ukrainian audiences saw the film. The film was screened at festivals in the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands; a special screening took place in Ankara.
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“I see people leaving screenings. I see how the distance between a cinema in Copenhagen, London, Paris, and Bakhmut — two or three thousand kilometers — shrinks. And that is why the film is called ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’. This is a film about distances: not only to Andriivka, but also from Europe to us, to Ukrainian soldiers. Because in fact, they are now defending Europe from Russia’s invasion. When a young person comes out after a screening at a festival in Karlovy Vary and realizes that he has just seen young people just like him, very close to his own city, and that he himself could end up in their place if his country does nothing to help Ukraine — that works,” says Mstyslav Chernov in a BBC interview about Western audiences’ reaction to the film.
“2000 Meters to Andriivka” set a record at the Ukrainian box office. In the first week of screenings, the film was seen by more than 10,000 viewers, and the film’s box office totals nearly ₴2 million. Forbes Ukraine reports this, citing the press service of the film’s distributor, Arthouse Traffic.
Awards and honors:
- In January 2025, for the documentary “2000 Meters to Andriivka”, Mstyslav Chernov received an award for Best Directing in the World Cinema Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival.
- In March, the film won at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.
- In May, Chernov’s film won at the DocAviv documentary film festival in Israel.
- In June at Docudays UA, the film triumphantly won in three nominations: the Grand Prize of the Docu/World international program, the main award of the Rights Now! section, and the Audience Award.
- On October 11, the film received several awards at the “OKO” International Ethnographic Film Festival in Bulgaria: a special distinction from the festival team and the Audience Grand Prix.
- On November 9, “2000 Meters to Andriivka” became the best documentary film by audience vote at the tenth Ukraina! Festiwal Filmowy in Poland, held under the slogan “Cinema of Freedom”.
- On November 29, “2000 Meters to Andriivka” became the best feature-length documentary film at the 8th Kinokolo National Film Critics Award.
Nominations:
- In October, “2000 Meters to Andriivka” was nominated in the category “Best Documentary Feature” at the independent American film award Gotham Awards.
- Chernov’s film was also nominated for the Directors Guild of America (DGA Awards) for 2025 in the category “Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary”. The winners will be announced on February 7 at the 78th awards ceremony in Beverly Hills.
- The film “2000 Meters to Andriivka” made the BAFTA longlist in the category “Best Documentary”.
Among the best:
- According to the American publication Variety, “2000 Meters to Andriivka” is among the 29 best documentary films of 2025.
- The film topped the ranking of the best films according to the British publication Financial Times.
- According to the British publication The Guardian, the film is in second place in the selection of the fifty best films of 2025.
- According to the U.S. National Board of Review (NBR), the Ukrainian documentary made the top five documentary films of 2025. The awards ceremony took place on January 13, 2026.
- Chernov’s film is among the most discussed films of 2025 on Letterboxd, a social network for cinephiles.
The film “2000 Meters to Andriivka” tells the story of a combat mission of a Ukrainian unit near Bakhmut. Ukrainian soldiers, accompanied by a journalist, break through mined forests to liberate the strategically important village of Andriivka in eastern Ukraine from the occupiers. Real footage of combat, filmed on action cameras worn by soldiers during operations, forces the viewer to fight for Ukrainian land alongside them, meter by meter. Just 2,000 meters — but at an enormous cost. This is a reflective film about the price of freedom, so that Ukrainian society remembers, and foreign audiences understand what freedom costs.
The film was possible because both the author and the Ukrainian soldiers understood the importance of documenting and bearing witness, and the combination of cinema and journalism made it possible to achieve the effect of maximum immersion.
“We screened it in several countries — for diplomats and for ordinary people at festivals. First, when there are so many abstract conversations in the political realm about what Ukraine must do for peace, how many kilometers, cities, land it must give up — everyone who sees what each meter of Ukrainian land costs us understands the price of what they are asking us to give up. They understand why Ukrainians want peace, but are ready to fight to the end for cities, for tree lines, for brothers-in-arms, and for their families. And our task was to turn the abstraction of news headlines and political talks into very specific names, very specific places, so that they simply understand. Second, it is memory. To preserve the memory of our friends, to preserve the memory of our loved ones,” the Ukrainian online publication Detector Media quotes the director.
The road to a second “Oscar”
- In August, the film was selected as Ukraine’s official submission in the category “Best International Feature Film” for the 98th Academy Awards.
- In December, the documentary “2000 Meters to Andriivka” made the shortlist of 15 films in the category “Documentary Feature Film”.
Mstyslav Chernov worked on the film together with cinematographer Oleksandr Babenko. The documentary was also joined by producers Michelle Mizner and Rainy Aronson-Rath, and composer and music producer Sam Slater (“Chernobyl”, “Joker”). Filming of “2000 Meters to Andriivka” began in September 2023. The production process took nearly a year and a half. The film was created in collaboration between Frontline and the Associated Press.
“2000 Meters to Andriivka” is the second film by director Mstyslav Chernov to be nominated for an Oscar. In 2024, his documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” won the award in the category “Best Documentary Feature Film”. The film “20 Days in Mariupol” is also the result of a collaboration between Frontline and the Associated Press.
In one of his interviews, Mstyslav Chernov shared his dream of making another film — about the end of the war.
“I have a dream: to make a third film — about the end of the war. I want the film I am making now to be about the end of the war. Whether this will really be the case, we will see, but my dream is alive.”
Worked on the material:
Topic researcher, text author: Yana Yevmenova
Photo editor: Marusia Maruzhenko
Literary editor: Yuliia Futei
