FRONTLINE FEATURES and AP Documentary “2000 Meters to Andriivka” Honored with duPont-Columbia Award

WED., JAN. 28 — Columbia Journalism School honored the documentary 2000 Meters to Andriivka, from the PBS investigative documentary series FRONTLINE and The Associated Press, with a 2026 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award on Wednesday evening.

The prestigious awards, established in 1942, “uphold the highest standards in journalism” for audio and video reporting, according to the duPont-Columbia Awards website, with winners honored annually “for the strength of their reporting, storytelling and impact in the public interest.”

2000 Meters to Andriivka documents the toll of the Russia-Ukraine war from a personal and devastating vantage point and comes from the Oscar®-winning team behind 20 Days in Mariupol — including Ukrainian filmmaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mstyslav Chernov, producer and editor Michelle Mizner, producer Raney Aronson-Rath and executive producer Derl McCrudden. The documentary was filmed amid a failing counteroffensive in 2023, as Chernov and his AP colleague Alex Babenko followed a Ukrainian brigade battling through approximately one mile of a heavily fortified forest on their mission to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka. 2000 Meters to Andriivka tells the stories of the soldiers on the war’s front lines — who they are, where they came from, and the impossible decisions they face in the trenches as they fight for every inch of their land.

“Thank you to Columbia Journalism School for honoring 2000 Meters to Andriivka with a duPont-Columbia Award,” says FRONTLINE editor-in-chief and executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath. “This award reflects Mstyslav Chernov and Alex Babenko’s intrepid reporting on the war’s frontlines — embedding with soldiers in the trenches and sharing their stories with the world. I’m proud to have produced this film alongside Mstyslav, our brilliant editor Michelle Mizner, co-producer Alex, executive producer Derl McCrudden and our colleagues at The Associated Press. We share this special moment with them, along with PBS, GBH and CPB, who have supported this FRONTLINE FEATURES documentary and our ongoing reporting on the war in Ukraine from the very beginning.”

Described as “bruisingly intimate nonfiction” by The New York Times and “a landmark of combat journalism” by The Los Angeles Times, 2000 Meters to Andriivka weaves together original footage, intensive Ukrainian Army bodycam video and powerful moments of reflection from filmmaker Chernov.

The film made its world premiere in January 2025 at the Sundance Film Festival and was the recipient of the festival’s World Cinema Documentary Competition Directing Award. Since its debut, the film has received numerous accolades, including the F:ACT Award at CPH:DOX, Best Documentary at Stockholm International Film Festival and Best International Documentary Award at Docaviv. 2000 Meters to Andriivka also received five Critics Choice Documentary Award nominations, five Cinema Eye Honors nominations and a Gotham Award nomination for Best Documentary.

2000 Meters to Andriivka is a film from FRONTLINE FEATURES, a new effort from the PBS award-winning series dedicated to producing cinematic feature-length and short documentaries for global, multiplatform distribution. Following a decorated run on the film festival circuit, 2000 Meters to Andriivka had its U.S. broadcast premiere on PBS stations in November 2025 and is now available to stream online at pbs.org/frontline, in the PBS App, on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel and on the PBS Documentaries Amazon Prime Channel. The documentary is distributed domestically by PBS Distribution and internationally by Dogwoof.

FRONTLINE, which is produced at GBH in Boston, has earned 4 duPont Columbia Gold Batons and, including this year’s win, 36 Silver Batons. You can stream 2000 Meters to Andriivka below: