You're reading: An Oscar for Ukraine?

If “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” wins the Oscar for Best Documentary on Feb. 28, director Evgeny Afineevsky promises there will be no James Cameron “Titanic” moment in his acceptance speech.

Cameron, who won the 1997 Best Director award for the “Titanic,” gave what is considered to be one of the worst acceptance speeches in the history of the Academy Awards. He boasted “I am king of the world” and failed to mention the 1,500 people killed in 1912 when the ship sank.

Afineevsky said that he will dedicate the victory to Ukraine, its slain heroes and the 28 Ukrainian cinematographers who gave him the footage to make the 98-minute film about the epic, 93-day revolution that culminated in ex-President Viktor Yanukovych abandoning office on Feb. 22, 2014.

In a Skype interview, the Los Angeles resident said the documentary is dedicated to the Ukrainian people and “those who are no longer with us – in their memories – who gave their lives to make this happen, to those who stood up under the bullets.” More than 100 people, mainly demonstrators, but also police, were killed in murders that remain unpunished.

Ukrainians have every reason to cheer him on to victory, because if “Winter on Fire” wins, it will become another first for Ukraine – the first movie filmed and co-produced in Ukraine to win an Oscar.
When it comes to thanking people individually, however, the director will have a tough time naming everyone.

The movie credits list has the names of more than 100 people or companies, including 28 cinematographers alone, involved in the production. Afineevsky praised the bravery of the camera operators, in particular, who got the footage and were “not thinking about bullets flying over their heads.”

Among those high on the list of credits are writer and co-producer Den Tolmer and six Ukrainian co-producers — Lina Klebanova, Kostyantyn Ignatchuk, Galyna Sadomsteva-Nabaranchuk, Pavlo Peleshok, Yuri Ivanyshyn and Eduard Georgadze. He also names three Ukrainain editors in the credits: Mikhail Kuznetsov, Victor Greenchuk and Alina Gorlova.

At least seven of the Ukrainians plan to go to Los Angeles for the ceremony, said Afineevsky, 33, an American citizen of Russian-Israeli descent.

The “special thank you” section also includes Mohammad Zahoor, the publisher of the Kyiv Post, who provided post-production editing equipment. His wife, singer-actress Kamaliya, appeared in the documentary as one of the volunteers who supplied demonstrators with food and other items.

Afineevsky said that Netflix, the American online streaming company that owns rights to the documentary, doesn’t want to disclose the movie’s budget.

But it’s much less than it could have been because all the cinematographers and three TV stations – Channel 5, Espreso TV and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – provided footage for free.

“They wanted the story out,” Afineevsky says, comparing the teamwork of the cinematographers to the teamwork of the protesters that brought EuroMaidan to victory.

Many who lived through the revolution consider the documentary, which mainly tells the story in chronological order, to be an accurate depiction of events. Some criticize it for being too sympathetic to the demonstrators.

Afineevsky arrived in Kyiv soon after the start of the revolution on Nov. 21, 2013, and stayed in Ukraine for the next six months. He released a documentary chronicle “Pray for Ukraine” in 2014.
He said that friends in the business led him to Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer of Netflix, who liked the documentary idea.

Afineevsky has directed 12 films, according to an online biography, including the 2009 “Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!!” But this is his first Academy Award nomination.

Afineevsky screened the movie in Kyiv on Nov. 21 for an audience that included President Petro Poroshenko and relatives of the Heavenly Hundred, the name for the demonstrators killed in the EuroMaidan Revolution.

He knows that he faces stiff competition from the other four nominees in the Best Documentary category.

But just as Ukraine won the revolution, “of course I would love to win the Oscar,” he said.

Best Documentary Nominees at 2016 Oscars:
“Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” (Evgeny Afineevsky): The story of the 93-day EuroMaidan Revolution that prompted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to flee power on Feb. 21, 2014.
“Amy” (Asif Kapadia): The story of the English singer, Amy Winehouse, who died at age 27 in 2011 of accidental alcohol poisoning.
“What Happened, Miss Simone?” (Liz Garbus): The story of singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone, the American singer who died at the age of 70 in 2003.
“Cartel Land” (Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin): The story of the fight against Mexican drug cartels.
“The Look of Silence” (Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen): The story of a man who confronts his brother’s killers in Indonesia.