EXCLUSIVE: FIPRESCI — the International Federation of Film Critics – has announced the five finalists for its inaugural Documentary Grand Prix award, which will be presented at the Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival in Poland in May.
Remaining in contention for the prestigious honor are:
▪2000 Meters to Andriivka
▪Fiume o morte!
▪Mr. Nobody Against Putin
▪Orwell: 2+2=5
▪The Perfect Neighbor
Mr. Nobody Against Putin – winner of Best Documentary at Sunday’s BAFTA Film Awards — and The Perfect Neighbor, of course, are both Oscar nominated. 2000 Meters to Andriivka earned a place on the Oscar documentary shortlist.
As we reported last month, documentaries released during the 2025 calendar year were deemed eligible for the inaugural award (the same eligibility window for the Academy Awards). FIPRESI members “representing over 50 national sections and 30 more countries with individual members” will determine the winner. The result will be revealed at the opening gala of the 23rd Millennium Docs Against Gravity (MDAG) on May 7.
FIPRESCI separately awards an annual Grand Prix for film at the San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain, a prize for which fiction and nonfiction films are eligible. However, a narrative/fiction film has typically emerged as the winner, which is unsurprising given that more critics focus on that genre of filmmaking than on nonfiction.
Announcing the creation of the award, FIPRESCI President Ahmed Shawky said in a statement in January, “FIPRESCI’s commitment to promoting outstanding cinema and defending freedom of expression continues with this new initiative in partnership with MDAG. For more than 25 years, the Grand Prix has been the highest annual award FIPRESCI bestows on a film. Now, it is the right time to extend equivalent recognition to documentary cinema, together with a partner festival that shares our values. The FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix will become the critics’ flagship annual award, and we are happy that MDAG will be its home.”
In an interview with Deadline last month, MDAG Artistic Director Karol Piekarczyk commented, “The fact that FIPRESCI chose Millennium Docs Against Gravity to be the place where this award will be presented each year is such an amazing recognition for us… It’s massive.”
Piekarczyk added, “I really like the uniqueness of this prize, that it’s the film critics… That’s what we hope, that there’s going to be films that are going to be recognized mostly under merit and on how they are.”
The five finalists are set across a wide expanse, from Russia to Ukraine, the U.S., Italy, and Scotland (the Isle of Jura, to be specific, where George Orwell — focus of Orwell: 2+2=5 — completed his novel 1984).
FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix nominees:
2000 Meters to Andriivka by Mstyslav Chernov
An unflinching film from the frontline in Ukraine, where a small group of soldiers fight their way two kilometers through a harsh landscape to liberate a village in ruins.
Fiume o morte! by Igor Bezinović
A century after Gabriele D’Annunzio’s bizarre 1919 occupation of Fiume, Rijeka-born director Igor Bezinović and 300 citizens stage a subversive, punk-infused reenactment that dismantles nationalist mythmaking and exposes the enduring spectacle of political performance.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin by Pavel Talankin and David Borenstein
A documentary about propaganda and everyday life in Russia follows Pasha, a small-town teacher on the Urals who films his students as schools become militarized after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine—capturing loyalty pledges, fear, and the quiet resistance of teenagers.
Orwell: 2+2=5 by Raoul Peck
Interweaving archive footage from adaptations of “1984” with a tapestry of 21st century images, Raoul Peck dissects Orwell’s genius and his vital lessons for our times.
The Perfect Neighbor by Geeta Gandbhir
Police bodycam recordings capture the moment a protracted conflict between neighbors escalates into a deadly encounter in this documentary exploring fear, bias, and Stand Your Ground legislation.
The 23rd MDAG will take place from May 8 to 17 in cinemas in seven cities: Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Bydgoszcz, and Łódź, and online from May 19 to June 1 at mdag.pl.