Ukrainian filmmaker Mstylav Chernov has been named this year’s recipient of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) West’s Paul Selvin Award, in recognition of his writing on the documentary 2,000 Meters to Andriivka.
Chernov will accept the honourary award at the Guild’s awards show in Los Angeles on March 8.
Written and directed by Chernov, 2,000 Meters follows a Ukrainian platoon on a mission to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka. The film won the directing award for World Cinema, Documentary at last year’s Sundance and is currently nominated for the best documentary Bafta and the WGA’s documentary screenplay award. Last week it brought Chernov the Directors Guild of America award for documentary feature direction.
A war correspondent and novelist as well as documentarian, Chernov won the documentary feature Oscar in 2024 for 20 Days in Mariupol. 2000 Meters was a surprising omission from the list of nominees for this year’s documentary feature Oscar.
Chernov commented: “I mostly am seen as a documentary filmmaker, but in my heart I’m a writer. So, when it comes to the WGA, when it comes to the recognition of my writing, that’s incredibly precious, because that’s where it all started. I think sooner or later I’ll end up in a little cabin somewhere, just writing, writing, writing because that’s the most precious art there is for me.”
Named for the late general counsel to the WGA West, the Paul Selvin Award recognises a script that “best embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties that are indispensable to the survival of free writers everywhere.” Previous recipients have included Barry Jenkins, Dustin Lance Black, Alex Gibney, Michael Mann and Tony Kushner.
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