UKRAINE, Sep. 3 — Over 10,000 people watched the documentary 2,000 Meters to Andriivka made by Mstyslav Chernov in the weekend after its release. Arthouse Traffic, the official distributor that reported the news to Gwara, said this is the highest figure among documentaries released in 2025.

Chernov is a war correspondent, videographer, and writer from Kharkiv. After the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, along with a team of journalists from Associated Press, he created a documentary 20 Days in Mariupol that covered Moscow troops’ war crimes in the city. In 2024, this movie won an Oscar.

2,000 Meters to Andriivka, Chernov’s next film, was released on August 28. The film has already received high critical reviews: The Times called it “the most important film of the year,” Metacritic and Letterboxd ranked it the highest among this year’s documentary premieres.

The film records the path 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 soldiers move through the ruins of their land, the more they realize the challenge they’re facing.

The Ukrainian Oscar Committee has selected 2,000 Meters to Andriivka as an official candidate for the Oscar in the Best International Feature Film category in 2026.

The film was created by cinematographer Alex Babenko, two-time Grammy winner Sam Slater (Chernobyl, Joker), and producers Michelle Minzer and Raney Aronson-Rath, who also worked on 20 Days in Mariupol.

In May, the BBC documentary Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods about defending Kharkiv from Russian troops won the BAFTA TV Awards 2025 in the single documentary category.

Read more

  • Kharkiv National Medical University suffered $1.6 million loss because of damage inflicted by Russian attacks

This August, Gwara celebrated its 10th anniversary. Whatever awaits Ukraine in Russia’s war, our Kharkiv-based newsroom plans to keep reporting on it. Please, support our journalism by buying us a coffee or subscribing to our Patreon.