Oscar-winning 20 Days in Mariupol breaks records on Ukrainian streaming platforms
Mstislav Chernov’s Oscar-winning documentary 20 Days in Mariupol has achieved significant success on Ukrainian streaming services, setting new records for views and sales. According to Forbes, it became the most watched movie on Takflix ever and set sales records on Kyivstar TV, outselling even global blockbusters. “In the first weekend after its release, the film outsold such well-known films as My Thoughts Are Quiet and Ivano-Frankivsk Heat and Power Sings,” the report reveals.
The film was watched by about 18% of users on the Volia TV platform, “in total, in just three days, the film has collected five times more views than all other films on the online cinema,” the platform added. Megogo also celebrated the film’s unprecedented success, reporting over 21,000 openings of the film, including pre-orders, setting a record for a documentary on the service.
The film 20 Days in Mariupol also showed excellent results in theaters, becoming the highest-grossing documentary in Ukraine with 2.2 million hryvnias as of early March. International audiences have the opportunity to watch the movie on such platforms as Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Microsoft Movies & TV, and others.
This film not only won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, but also became the first Ukrainian film to do so. The film tells in detail about the siege of Mariupol by the Russian occupation forces in February-March 2022, documenting the humanitarian catastrophe, the work of doctors, the Russian bombing of the maternity hospital, mass graves of dead civilians, and other crimes of the Putin regime. According to director Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Yevhen Malolietko and producer Vasylisa Stepanenko, who won the Pulitzer Prize for their work, the film’s goal was not only to document the events but also to draw the world’s attention to the unfolding tragedy.
