 FESTIVALS: * Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition * MoMA Doc Fortnight * Zurich Film Festival 2020 AWARDS: * Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize - Seattle International Film Festival * The Stefan Jarl International Documentary Award for the best international documentary - Tempo Dokumentärfestival * The Spotlight Award of Cinema Eye Awards - New York * BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - International Documentary Association Awards * ZIFF Grand Award for Best Film - ZINEBI International Film Festival * BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM - The National Film Critics Award - Kinokolo Ukraine * DMZ Arts Contribution Award - South Korea * Special Prize of the Jury - International Competition - Millenium Documentary Film Festival Jury's note : "A delicate and intimate immersion, without ever feeling an imposition by the camera or the director, into a family inter-relations, complicated by the Savant’s syndrome affecting Sung Ho and his mother determination to empower him. The empathic, powerful film construction, captures very well the intricacies of the relationships. The viewer is captured, feels close to the characters and can clearly sense their emotions, especially those of the two brothers. » * Jury's Prize and Press Jury's prize for Best film at Al Este Film Festival (Peru) * Biografilm - Bologna, Italy 
* Winner of the HUMAN RIGHTS DOC@DOKUFEST XIX Statement: Best Human Rights Film goes to THE EARTH IS BLUE AS AN ORANGE for its craftful interplay between content and form. A subtle, intimate portrait of a matriarchal family during wartime and the will that endures in the vacuum it creates. The film, at once observational and reflexive, offers more than a glimpse at persistence; it gives us a taste of resistance (creativity, mutual support, self-expression). * THE MILLENIUM GRAND PRIX - Millennium 17th Docs Against Gravity The jury decided - unanimously - to award the main prize to a film that tells an original and powerful story, with great empathy and a strong sense of form. It is about a family which uses film-making as a tool for surviving and staying sane in the middle of a war zone. Avoiding emotional rhetoric and exaggeration, the director has made a deeply moving and at the same time universal film about the survival of the human spirit in dark times…”. 
* BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - Millennium 17th Docs Against Gravity The jury justified their selection thusly: “For a natural visual style that organically supports the intimate story of a vulnerable and yet strong family struggling to survive in the collapsing reality of war through the art of cinema, we would like to give the Cinematography Award to Earth is blue as an orange directed by Iryna Tsylik with cinematography by Viacheslav Tsvietkov”. * Best Film- MajorDocs Press Review […] It is a “reactive” documentary, made special by the characters’ will to shoot a film about what they have experienced (and are still experiencing) in their shattered hometown and its surreal surroundings. […] The final sequence plays a crucial role in celebrating the healing power of cinema, here represented as a tool capable of “rebuilding” the family and the community. - by Davide Abbatescianni, Filmexplorer "Iryna Tsilyk offers an intimate and surprisingly playful family’s eye view of life in the Ukraine warzone " - by Amber Wilkinson, Screendaily "Iryna Tsilyk's striking, Sundance-awarded documentary views the War in Donbass through the prism of a Ukrainian family's own filmmaking process." - by Guy Lodge, Variety "THE EARTH IS BLUE AS AN ORANGE not only becomes about how an ordinary family uses film to reframe their life, it also makes us question our attitude towards the subjects of narratives about war: Despite the danger and horror surrounding them, these people are not victims, or passive subjects. They seize the means of representation and find something true and beautiful within it — which in turn, of course, better captures the horror and tragedy swirling around them". - Bilge Ebiri "Iryna Tsilyk’s beautifully inquisitive film isn’t so much about war as it is about the art born out of war. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before our gaze was directed to the bloodiest corner of East Europe. THE EARTH IS BLUE AS AN ORANGE the first feature documentary from Ukraine to screen at the Sundance Film Festival, is a worthy addition to an elite league headlined by Restrepo, The White Helmets, For Sama and Midnight Traveller". - Sundance "With miraculous insight, THE EARTH IS BLUE AS AN ORANGE observes a family – and a filmmaker – cope with war using their cameras, working in tandem to create meaning out of a meaningless conflict." - what (not) to doc , Sundance | The Earth Is Blue as an Orange
Single mother Anna and her four children live in the front-line war zone of Donbas, Ukraine. While the outside world is made up of bombings and chaos, the family is managing to keep their home as a safe haven, full of life and full of light. Every member of the family has a passion for cinema, motivating them to shoot a film inspired by their own life during a time of war. The creative process raises the question of what kind of power the magical world of cinema could have during times of disaster. How to picture war through fiction? For Anna and the children, transforming trauma into a work of art is the ultimate way to stay human. SUNDANCE 2020 - DIRECTING AWARD: WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY 
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