German nonprofit organization Cinema for Peace honored Pope Francis and documentary filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky in a private ceremony at the Vatican on Tuesday night for their work in support of Ukraine’s fight against the ongoing Russian invasion, with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also named as an honoree.
Founded in 2008, Cinema for Peace supports film-based projects that tackle global humanitarian and environmental issues, and is most famous for financing an emergency airlift for Russian anti-corruption activist and outspoken Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny in 2020 after he was poisoned with a nerve agent.
“There has not been a single day, since the full-scale war started last year, in which Pope Francis has not helped victims of the invasion of Ukraine. From going to Russian Embassy by himself on the first day of the full-scale invasion to ask the Ambassador of Russia to help reach Putin and stop this bloodshed, to asking the Russian government to open humanitarian corridors for civilians to be evacuated from the war zones, and sending pediatric ambulances to Ukraine,” Cinema for Peace founder Jaka Bizilj said in a statement.
“Acting as a true diplomat of God, His Holiness was, in silence, behind the wild curtain of the war, knocking on the doors of all diplomatic possibilities and helping to organize humanitarian corridors from many different places including the city of Mariupol and for the people who had been trapped under the bombs in the catacombs of the Azovsteal plant,” Bizilj continued.
After the private ceremony, Cinema for Peace hosted a screening of Afineevsky’s newest documentary “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” which recounts the early days of Putin’s invasion and the resistance by Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s military and civilians with on-the-ground footage taken shortly after the war began in February 2022. The film is a follow-up to Afineevsky’s 2016 documentary “Winter on Fire,” which recounts the 2013 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine and was nominated for an Oscar and Emmy.
“Demonstrating an astounding ability to unite as a people and defend the sovereignty of their country, Ukrainians continually show compassion and resilience even when surrounded by death, destruction, and unfathomable war crimes. Evgeny, as a filmmaker, has documented what unites all three honorees: the quest for freedom and peace for the people of Ukraine,” Bizilj said.
The screening was attended by Volodymyr Obidzinskyi, whose wife and three children were killed by a Russian missile strike in March 2022. Pictures of Obidzinskyi’s children were engraved on the awards honoring Pope Francis, Zelenskyy and Afineevsky.
