There’s no point denying the evidence: whatever the competition, the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2024 would always go to 20 Days in Mariupol, by Ukrainian journalist Mstyslav Chernov – because it’s Ukraine, because it’s Hollywood. Its award can, therefore, come directly from the “performative activism” that so often guides the choices and awards of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — especially since the original recipient of the film was never the movie theater, being a production from the American public television service PBS (and it is also on the small screen that we will discover it in Portugal, on the TVCine channel and then on the TVCine Plus service, starting this Friday). But there is in 20 Days in Mariupol something unique, that transcends these simplistic drawers in which we often place things.
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