Stop The War Against Ukraine!
Berlin - In 20 Years Cinema for Peace has supported humanitarian and social topics through the medium of film with artists such as Catherine Deneuve, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Antonio Banderas, Gerard Butler, Richard Gere, Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Christopher Lee, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Milla Jovovich, Nicole Kidman, Liza Minelli, Sean Penn, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Sharon Stone, Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman, Robert De Niro, Liam Neeson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Adrien Brody, and Lupita Nyongo.
The 20th Cinema for Peace Gala took place in Berlin on the 24th of February 2023, on the 1st anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, and the star of this year's Gala was the Ukrainian people represented by Volodymyr Obidzinskyi, an ordinary man who lost his wife, children, and grandchildren - in essence, all his family members - to Russian air strikes in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk served as the honorary patron of the Gala and had a zoom conversation together with prosecutors from “The Court - of the citizens of the World”, which had just issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin in the Hague on crimes of aggression.
The Gala was presented by the creator of Live Aid and Live 8, as well as the long-term friend of Cinema for Peace, Sir Bob Geldof. Oscar winner Edward Norton presented the nominees and winners of the International Green Film Award, which was started in 2009 by Leonardo DiCaprio and President Mikhail Gorbachev. Further renowned guests at the Gala included Ornella Muti, Kweku Mandela, Pussy Riot, Marina Ovsyannikova, Nastassja Kinski, Jan Joseph Liefers, and Thomas Kretschmann, among others. Olha Velycadivchyna, a Ukrainian singer performed a song called “Mother”, and renowned violinist Daniel Hope performed “Melody“ by Ukrainian composer Myroslaw Skoryk.
50 of the world's leading filmmakers, whose work aims to tackle the perception and resolution of global social, political, and humanitarian challenges of our time were highlighted at the Gala, including personalities such as Maria Schrader, Jasmila Žbanić, Mads Brügger, Marcel Mettelsiefen, David France, Dror Moreh, and, Wolfgang Knoepfler, among many others.
Mstyslav Chernov, the director of the film “20 days in Mariupol” (Sundance Audience Award winner) accepted The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Most Valuable Documentary of the Year 2023 from Kyiv via Zoom. The First Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, who introduced The Cinema for Peace Dove for Justice in 2009, and whose story of bringing Argentina's bloody military dictatorship to justice was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film “Argentina 1985”, accepted The Cinema for Peace Dove for Justice 2023 for the film.
Here are all the films that were honored at the Cinema for Peace Gala:
The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Most Valuable Film of the Year 2023:
“All Quiet on the Western Front” by Edward Berger
The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Most Valuable Film of the Year 2022:
“CODA” by Sian Heder
The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Most Valuable Film of the Year 2021:
“Quo Vadis Aida” by Jasmila Žbanić
The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Most Valuable Documentary of the Year 2023:
“20 Days in Mariupol” by Mstyslav Chernov
The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Most Valuable Documentary of the Year 2022:
“Flee” by Jonas Poher Rasmussen
The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Most Valuable Documentary of the Year 2021:
“The Mole: Undercover in North Korea” by Mads Brügger
The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Most Valuable Documentary of the Year 2021:
“Welcome to Chechnya” by David France
The Cinema for Peace Dove for Justice 2023:
“Argentina, 1985” by Santiago Mitre
The Cinema for Peace Dove for Justice 2022:
“Navalny” by Daniel Roher
The Cinema for Peace Dove for Justice 2021:
“The Dissident” by Bryan Fogel
The Cinema for Peace Dove for Women’s Empowerment 2023:
“She said” by Maria Schrader
The Cinema for Peace Dove for Women’s Empowerment 2022:
“Writing with Fire” by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh
The Cinema for Peace Dove for Women’s Empowerment 2021:
“Nasrin” by Jeff Kaufman
The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Political Film of the Year 2023:
“The Corridors of Power” by Dror Moreh
The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Political Film of the Year 2022:
“Courage” by Aliaksei Paluyan
The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Political Film of the Year 2022:
“The Caviar Connection” by Benoît Bringer.
The Cinema for Peace Dove for The Political Film of the Year 2021:
“Mayor” by David Osit
International Green Film Award 2023:
“All That Breathes” by Shaunak Sen
International Green Film Award 2023:
“The Territory” by Alex Pritz
International Green Film Award 2022:
“Milked” by Amy Taylor
International Green Film Award 2022:
“Eating Our Way to Extinction” by Otto Brockway and Ludo Brockway
International Green Film Award 2021:“David Attenborough: A life on our planet”
by Jonathan Hughes, Keith Scholey, and Alastair Fothergill