The documentary Mariupol 2 by Mantas Kvedaravičius, who was killed in Ukraine while making the film, has won a European Film Award as best documentary of 2022.
During the awards ceremony on Saturday, the award was accepted by the filmmaker’s daughter, Tėja Kvedaravičiūtė.
“My father lost his life delivering medicine to people. I feel so proud to have had someone like that in my life,” she said.
The daughter of Mantas Kvedaravičius receives the award European Documentary 2022 on behalf on her late father: "My father lost his life delivering medicine to people. I feel so proud to have had someone like that in my life." #europeanfilmawards pic.twitter.com/3jhMKXKhLm
— European Film Academy (@EuroFilmAcademy) December 10, 2022
Another Lithuanian film, Techno Mama by Saulius Baradinas, was nominated for an award in the short film category.
Kvedaravičius was killed in Mariupol at the beginning of April this year while making the sequel to his first film about Ukrainian city.
The film was completed by Dounia Sikhov, an editor who worked with the director on his previous films Mariupol and Parthenon, and his fiancée Hanna Bilobrova.
Mariupol 2 had its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Special Prize for Documentary Film.
The last time a Lithuanian film received a European Film Award was in 1992 when The Land of the Blind, by Audrius Stonys, won the best documentary prize.
This year, the European Film Awards, aspiring to be the “European Oscars”, took place in Reykjavik, Iceland.
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