20 Days in Mariupol

Mstyslav Chernov is a Pulitzer Prize-winning video journalist at The Associated Press and president of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers.

Since joining AP in 2014, he has covered major conflicts, social issues and environmental crises across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Most recently, Chernov documented Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Together with longtime colleague Evgeniy Maloletka, Chernov recorded the siege of Mariupol, showing the world eyewitness accounts of the Russian attacks on the city.

Chernov’s courageous reporting in Mariupol earned the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He was named 2016 Camera Operator of the Year and 2015 Young Talent of the Year by the UK’s Royal Television Society.

He is from Eastern Ukraine and is based in Germany.

Vasilisa Stepanenko is a Pulitzer Prize-winning AP video journalist from the eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, whose work focuses on issue of human rights and social justice, especially related to the war in her country. She graduated from Kharkiv State Academy of Culture. She has worked for the Kharkiv Post and the television network Simon.

Stepanenko has worked with Mstyslav Chernov and Evgeniy Maloletka since before the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, when she realized that it would be crucial –and more difficult than ever –to provide accurate information from eastern Ukraine. Starting in Kharkiv –the hometown of both her and Chernov –the team realized that Mariupol would be the first key to the war.

They arrived hours before the first rockets landed and were the only journalists working for an international news organization to stayin the city for more than two weeks, leaving just ahead of the Russian takeover of the city center. Since then, Stepanenko has reported from Lviv and Kharkiv as well.

Evgeniy Maloletka is a Pulitzer Prize-winning Ukrainian photojournalist covering the Russia-Ukraine war for The Associated Press.

Alongside AP video journalist Mstyslav Chernov and field producer Vasilisa Stepanenko, Maloletka documented the fall of Mariupol and served as the only international media inside the besieged city. The team’s reporting in Mariupol earned the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

Maloletka started his career in 2009 as a staff photographer for local Ukrainian news agencies UNIAN and PHL. He went on to cover the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution, and the conflicts in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, for various international media outlets. His work has been published and aired in TIME, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and BBC, among others. Maloletka is from Eastern Ukraine and is based in Kyiv.

Michelle Mizner is an Emmy-winning documentary producer and film editor on staff at FRONTLINE PBS. Her work for the series has been recognized by the Peabodys, World Press Photo, duPont-Columbia Awards, and SXSW. Select titles as a producer and editor include Life in Baghdad (2015) and Inside Yemen (2017), with correspondent Martin Smith, and The Last Call (2020) with director Marcela Gaviria. In addition to films, Mizner has produced several acclaimed interactive documentaries, including Inheritance (2016), The Last Generation (2018), and Un(re)solved. (2021). She is the producer and editor of the documentary 20 Days in Mariupol (dir. Mstyslav Chernov) which will premiere at Sundance in 2023. 20 Days in Mariupol is her first feature-length film.

Raney Aronson-Rath is the editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE, PBS’ flagship investigative journalism series, and is a leading voice on the future of journalism. Aronson-Rath oversees FRONTLINE’sacclaimed investigative reporting on air and online and directs the series’ editorial vision —executive producing more than 20 in-depth documentaries each year on critical issues facing the country and the world. FRONTLINE has won every major award in broadcast journalism under Aronson-Rath’s leadership, including Emmy Awards, the first Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Gold Baton to be awarded in a decade, and the series’ first-ever Peabody Institutional Award. Aronson-Rath has also expanded FRONTLINE’s theatrical documentary footprint, with the series earning its first-ever Academy Award nomination for Abacus: Small Enough to Jail in 2018 and its second in 2020 for For Sama. Aronson-Rath joined FRONTLINE’s staff as a senior producer in 2007 after producing notable FRONTLINE documentaries including News War, The Last Abortion Clinic, The Jesus Factor, Law & Disorder, and Post Mortem. She was named deputy executive producer by the series’ founder, David Fanning, in 2012, became executive producer in 2015, and namededitor-in-chief and executive producer in 2022. Before FRONTLINE, Aronson-Rath worked at ABC News and The Wall Street Journal. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and her master’s from Columbia Journalism School.

Derl McCrudden is on the editorial management team of The Associated Press and oversees global production at the news agency. For the first few months of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine he worked as part of the team deploying journalists to cover the war and directing editorial coverage. He joined AP in 2010 where his prior roles include overseeing visual and digital journalism, and he was also head of newsgathering for international video. Previously in broadcast journalism, McCrudden worked at British news provider ITN inLondon in a range of roles from foreign affairs producer to news editor –later he was a program editor producing primetime flagship news bulletins. He covered the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the British military intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000 and thedevastating earthquake in Pakistan in 2005, as well as breaking news stories around the world. He joined the launch team of Al Jazeera English in 2006 where he oversaw news coverage and production for the network from its Asia broadcast center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Jordan Dykstrais a Brooklyn-based composer and performer specializing in both film and concert music. Besides scoring 20 Days in Mariupol, his past features include Blow the Man Down(2019), Globes(2021), Ovid, New York (2022), andEcho(2022). He contributed toFair Play(2023),Hail Satan?(2019),It Comes at Night(2017), andRestless(2011). He has scored and contributed to several FRONTLINE films, includingPlot to Overturn the Election(2022), the Emmy Award-winningdocumentary DocumentingHate(2018-20), Michael Flynn’s Holy War(2022), and many additional short films. His compositions for film have been heard at Cannes, Sundance, TriBeCa, TIFF, and the IFFR, among others. Dykstra’s chamber music has beenheard extensively throughout Europe, North America, and Asia and recordings of his music (solo and collaborative) have been issued by New World Records, Domino, Milan, Marriage, Mexican Summer, and many more.