"2000 meters to Andriivka": Screening with Director Mstyslav Chernov

Commonwealth Club, San Francisco

Chernov is a war correspondent, videographer, and writer from Kharkiv. After Russia launched a full-scale invasion, he and a team of Associated Press journalists created the documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, which highlighted the war crimes committed by Moscow's troops in the city. In 2024, the film won an Oscar.

On August 28, Chernov's next film, 2,000 Meters to Andriivka, was released. The film has already received high critical acclaim: The Times called it “the most important film of the year,” while Metacritic and Letterboxd recognized it as the highest-rated documentary premiere of the year.

The film documents the journey of the 3rd Assault Brigade to liberate the village of Andriivka near Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast. The village is separated from Ukrainian positions by two kilometers of mined forest. The more the soldiers move through the ruins of their land, the more they realize the challenge they face.

The Ukrainian Oscar Committee has selected 2,000 Meters to Andriivka as the official Oscar nominee in the category “Best International Feature Film 2026.”

The film was created by cinematographer Alex Babenko, two-time Grammy winner Sam Slater (“Chornobyl,” “Joker”), and producers Michelle Minzer and Rainy Aronson-Rath, who also worked for 20 days in Mariupol.

In May, the BBC Ukraine documentary Enemy in the Forest, about the defense of Kharkiv from Russian troops, won the 2025 BAFTA TV Award in the Single Documentary category.