The American Film Academy has announced the shortlists for the 2026 Oscars in 12 categories. Among the selected works are four films related to Ukraine, including Mstislav Chernov’s documentary 2000 Metres to Andriivka and Anastasia Falileeva’s animated documentary I Died in Irpin.
The Ukrainian-American film 2000 Metres to Andriivka was shortlisted in the Feature Documentary category. This is the latest work by Mstislav Chernov, director of the Oscar-winning film 20 Days in Mariupol. The film is dedicated to the battles of the Third Assault Brigade for the liberation of the village of Andriivka near Bakhmut during the Ukrainian counteroffensive in 2023. Filming began in September 2023, and production lasted almost a year and a half.
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The film has already received international recognition. It won the award for Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival, was named Best International Documentary at DocAviv in Israel, and was named one of the five best documentaries of 2025 by the National Board of Review. Ukraine also submitted the film in the International Feature Film category, but it did not make the shortlist for this nomination.
In the “Animated Short Film” category, the work “I Died in Irpin” by director Anastasia Falileeva was included in the shortlist for the 2026 Oscars. The 11-minute animation is based on the author’s personal story and tells about the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion. Falileeva and her partner spent ten days in besieged Irpin and managed to leave the city with the last evacuation convoy. The film has already received a number of international awards, including the Emile Awards 2025, the Clermont-Ferrand Festival Award for Best International Animation, and the Innsbruck Film Festival Award.
Another project with Ukrainian participation appeared on the shortlist in the Best Short Animation category. This is the French film The Shyness of Trees, co-directed by Ukrainian Sofia Chuikovska. The film tells the story of a forty-year-old woman who visits her mother in the French countryside and gradually notices her unusual connection with nature.
In addition, the British film Rock, Paper, Scissors by director Franz Böhm has been shortlisted in the Best Live Action Short Film category. The film is based on the real events of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and tells the story of Ivan and his father, who set up a makeshift hospital on the front line. The leading roles are played by Ukrainian actors Oleksandr Rudynskyi and Serhii Kalantay.
The shortlist is not the final list of nominees. The final nominations for the 2026 Oscars will be announced by the American Film Academy on 22 January 2026. The awards ceremony is scheduled for 15 March 2026.
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