Ukraine picks film on women surviving Russian army violence for Oscars 2027
A still from the film Traces
Ukraine has selected the film that will represent the country at the 99th Academy Awards. The national contender in the Best International Feature Film category is the documentary Traces, directed by Alisa Kovalenko and co-directed by Marysia Nikitiuk.
What the film Traces is about
The documentary centers on Ukrainian women who survived sexual violence and torture as a result of Russian aggression but refused to remain silent about what they experienced.
One of the featured women is former prisoner Iryna Dovhan. After her release, she became an activist and began documenting the testimonies of other women who had suffered in the de-occupied territories of Ukraine.
Through the women’s personal stories, the filmmakers speak not only about trauma, but also about solidarity, the search for justice, and recovery after what they experienced.
Director Alisa Kovalenko herself experienced Russian captivity at the beginning of the war in Donbas and has publicly spoken about conflict-related sexual violence.
Her personal experience and human rights work became one of the driving forces behind the creation of the film.
Commenting on the selection, the Ukrainian Oscar Committee called Traces an honest and profound work about an experience that is extremely difficult to talk about, and also praised the filmmakers’ delicate cinematic language.
For Kovalenko, the film’s selection is also an opportunity to draw international attention to Russian war crimes and amplify the voices of women who have suffered.
The film has already received recognition at international festivals
The world premiere of Traces took place in February 2026 at the Berlin International Film Festival.
The film was presented in the Panorama Dokumente section, where it won the audience vote among documentary works. A total of 26,500 viewers took part in the vote.
The film later received an award at the Movies That Matter festival in The Hague, was presented at Millenium Docs Against Gravity, and made it into the top 20 audience favorites at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto.
The Ukrainian premiere took place at the Docudays UA human rights documentary film festival.
The film was produced by 2Brave Productions and Message Film in cooperation with Arte France, SEMA Ukraine, and the Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation. The producers were Olga Bregman and Natalia Libet.
